Back in late September, five black students at the US Air Force Academy Prep School (this is a school that takes enlisted men and women from within the ranks of the Air Force and a small number of civilians, gives them an intensive brush-up in math, science and English, and prepares them to compete for appointments to the Air Force Academy) woke up to find ‘N-word go home” scawled on/near their dorm doors.

This resulted in the Air Force Academy superintendent, Lieutenant General Jay Silveria, gathering all 5,500 or so cadets, faculty and staff together and reading them the riot act:

“That kind of behavior has no place at the prep school, it has no place at USAFA, and it has no place in the United States Air Force,” Silveria said, in a speech that has found an enthusiastic reception after it was recorded and published online. “You should be outraged not only as an airman, but as a human being.”
…
“Just in case you’re unclear on where I stand on this topic, I’m going to leave you my most important thought today: If you can’t treat someone with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you can’t treat someone from another gender, whether that’s a man or a woman, with dignity and respect, then you need to get out. If you demean someone in any way, then you need to get out. And if you can’t treat someone from another race, or different color skin, with dignity and respect, then you need to get out.”

An investigation was launched and the culprit was discovered:

An Air Force Academy cadet candidate once thought the victim of racial slurs at the preparatory school on campus was actually the vandal who scrawled the threatening messages across the note boards outside his room and the dwellings of classmates.
…
“We can confirm that one of the cadet candidates who was allegedly targeted by racist remarks written outside of their dorm room was actually responsible for the act,” academy spokesman Lt. Col. Allen Herritage said in an email. “The individual admitted responsibility and this was validated by the investigation.”

Several sources say the cadet candidate, who hasn’t been identified, committed the act in a bizarre bid to get out of trouble he faced at the school for other misconduct.

At the time, I noted in the comments on a RedState story on the incident that I was surprised that this incident took place at any academy prep school. The prep schools just don’t attract people who aren’t motivated to a military career and that weeds out a lot of yahoos.

The Washington Post reports that there have been several similar incidents such as:

On Monday, police in Riley County, Kansas, revealed that a 21-year-old black man, Dauntarius Williams, admitted to defacing his car with racist graffiti as a “Halloween prank that got out of hand.” Scrawled in washable paint were racist messages telling blacks to “Go Home,” “Date your own kind,” and “Die.” The incident provoked controversy and concern at nearby Kansas State University, especially after Williams spoke with the Kansas City Star, claiming to be a black student who was leaving the school because of the incident. He was not, in fact, a student.

Officials decided not to file criminal charges against Williams for filing a false report, saying it “would not be in the best interests” of citizens of the Manhattan, Kan., community, police said in a news release. They said Williams was “genuinely remorseful” for his actions and published an apology on his behalf.

“The whole situation got out of hand when it shouldn’t have even started,” Williams said in the statement. “I wish I could go back to that night but I can’t. I just want to apologize from the bottom of my heart for the pain and news I have brought you all.”

Just a few quick points here. First, racism exists. It doesn’t, in my opinion, exist in the frequency or severity that many on the left claim but it does exist. Second, the fact that a black person or a Jewish person or a [fill in your favorite minority here] would make an attack that seemed aimed at their own race is pretty unremarkable. Being a minority–and you woke, intersectionalists out there, hang onto your hats–doesn’t make you different from any other human being. We are all prone to deflect blame and engage in dumbassery.

But what makes this kind of douchebaggery worse than an actual incident of racist graffiti is that this kind of thing masks and discounts actual racism.