In this week’s episode of “Everything Is Stupid,” we have a story about a North Carolina school that came under fire after white students held a mock slave auction. Yes, that’s right. White students pretended to sell black student slaves while singing the n-word.

The Daily Mail reported:

An outraged mom condemned her black son’s school after white students held a mock slave auction and pretended to sell him for $350 while singing the n-word.

The mock auction earlier this month happened in the presence of staff and faculty at the J.S. Waters School near Raleigh and was even recorded on video, according to the Chatham Organizing For Racial Equity.

The incident came to light when Ashley Palmer, the mother of a student who attended the school, took to Facebook to express her outrage about what occurred. Her son, Jeremiah, was one of the black students being sold in the fake auction. What made Palmer particularly incensed is the fact that the white students involved were suspended for just one day only after the school was faced with a backlash from parents.

“HUG YOUR BABIES! You never know what they may be going through,” Palmer wrote on Facebook. “To say we have had a rough week is an understatement. Our son experienced a slave auction by his classmates and when he opened up we were made aware that this type of stuff seems to be the norm so much that he didn’t think it was worth sharing.”

The mother continued:

His friend ‘went for $350’ and another student was the Slavemaster because he ‘knew how to handle them.’ We even have a video of students harmonizing the N word. Since when were children so blatantly racist? Why is this culture acceptable?

After learning that the white students were only receiving a slap on the wrist, Palmer posted on Facebook:

Students received 1 day suspension for the “slave auction.” No action taken yet pertaining to the video. Today at recess the “slavemaster” “accidentally” hit my son with a baseball 4 times upon his return to school.

She added: “Now he has decided to retaliate by making up things that Jeremiah didn’t say to attempt to get him into trouble. No further action from the school at this point.”

On its Facebook page, Chatham County Schools said they “are taking this very seriously and have taken steps to ensure this won’t happen again.”

The Daily Mail reported that “[a] coalition of local groups called on the board to address the situation at the J.S. Waters School in Goldston and require the instigators to apologize.” The group explained: “These students were emboldened to not only commit brazen and overt acts of racism but to retaliate further and continue their aggression after serving a perfunctory one-day suspension.”

The coalition is also urging the district to increase the penalties for employees who engage in racist behaviors — up to making it a fireable offense.

On Monday, the superintendent met with parents and students and apologized for the incident:

“I want to offer an apology…to every single student who has ever felt unsafe while in our care, to every student who has ever felt demeaned, disrespected or marginalized because of their race, ethnicity, sex, gender, religion or disability.”

He added: “Actions such as these, they just do not reflect who we are as a school system. And I say, unapologetically, will not be tolerated in the school system.”

The superintendent also vowed that anyone who engages in behaviors that “demean any person are acting outside the values of our school system and will be held accountable using every means at our disposal.”

He said the district will “take stronger disciplinary actions” against students who engage in bigoted behavior and will employ “sensitivity training” for staff.

Before the meeting, Palmer and other parents made their feelings known on the matter. “The acts committed towards our son and other classmates were extremely disturbing, however, not surprising since this isn’t the first time our family has had to deal with racist acts towards one of our children,” she said.

She continued:

“This is not diversity and inclusion. This is not equity. This is racism and deserves to be treated as such. …Racist acts shouldn’t be disciplined on the same level as someone pulling another student’s hair with a one-day suspension. It should have its own designation reportable at the county level and handled with the significant consequences it deserves.”

Christy Wagner, another parent, explained that she found out about the mock auction from another parent, and was concerned about how such behavior could affect her biracial son.

“Over the past week, I have experienced every possible emotion there is over the events of nearly two weeks ago,” she said. “Some days I feel guilty and questioned if I’m doing a good job raising my son. I never thought in a million years I’d be standing up here talking about my son experiencing racism in middle school.”

The school board unanimously approved Superintendent Jackson’s proposed changes to deal with racist behavior, according to The Daily Mail.

This type of incident brings up a slew of questions. Why did these particular white students feel comfortable with the idea of holding a fake slave auction in the first place? Why did the black student go along with it? Did he think it was a joke or was he bullied? Moreover, why did members of the staff do nothing to stop it while it was happening?

I’ve heard other stories in which white students held fake slave auctions – and some of these were even facilitated by educators. It is amazing to me that anyone would assume that this conduct would be acceptable, but even further, I have no idea why they would think word wouldn’t get out about it. It is 2022, not 1980. People have cameras. We have the internet. We have social media. It is difficult to fathom the level of ignorance that would make anyone – students or faculty – believe this type of exercise is appropriate.

But in these times, I remind myself of what a very wise man once said: “Stupid is as stupid does.” Even though we are in 2022, we cannot discount the prevalence of stupid in our society. When stupid is combined with racism, we get stories like this that make us say “what the hell?”

Let’s just hope Don Lemon and Joy Reid don’t find out about this. If they do, we can expect a series of reports suggesting this happens in most of America’s schools and that black students are being subject to racism on a daily basis. We already have enough race-baiting as it is, don’t we?