I'm willing to take some risk with this one.

I have no doubt that some will rush to label me a racist or accuse me of some sort of blanket condemnation of entire ethnic groups or people before they even read this, yet I'm willing to take that risk.

Let me start by saying that there is an undeniable history of treating groups of people negatively based on their physical appearance, ethnic background, religion, or gender.  I think that it is safe to say that these behaviors are not limited to any one particular group and frequently are directed at those in a subset of the larger group that one identifies with.   I also think it's safe to say that the situation is significantly better than it was as recently as 50 years ago. 

With that said, what in the world is going on?   We have instance after instance where some group gets all worked up and protests based on an event or event that either didn't happen or didn't happen the way it is portrayed.

We can start with the case in Florida where the "white" Hispanic guy killed the young black guy in what amounted to self defense.
Then we have the "Hands up, don't shoot." incident which we now know didn't actually happen.

Then we have the university professor in Texas who goes public about her stop by the police for "walking while black", except that when the video of the encounter is produced we find that her version of events is virtually entirely false.

Now we see the "protests" at Mizzou and we are learning that some (most) of what set this off (Including the "resignation" of university officials who have a demonstrated track record or dealing harshly with previous racially charged issues), is at best exaggerated or at worst false.   We find that the guy protesting "white privilege" actually comes from significant wealth.   The guy who claims he's "never" felt "safe" at Mizzou is a grad student who has continued to re enroll at this hotbed of hatred for 16 semesters. 

We see the lionization of a black young man who was shot by police while he was innocently driving along in a car.   Oh, well he was trying to run over said policeman in said car, but that's just a minor irrelevant detail.

I could go on, but why?    The bigger questions is, when confronted with the reality of the actual situation why do so many choose to ignore the reality and continue to perpetuate the false narrative?

Where this behavior seems problematic is that it trivializes the instances of real actual racially motivated actions that actually do take place.   It's like the old fable about the boy who cried wolf, at some point people are going to get so tired and inured to all of this fake outrage, that they will cease to be moved to action when real outrage happens.

It seems like this is a symptom of a larger problem, we have a political philosophy that is based on emotional response to outrage, whether it's real or made up.    Take a look at the interview that Neil Cavuto did with the spokesperson for the "Million" student march.   Listen to her answers when she is asked reasonable questions about the ramifications of what she wants to accomplish.   When confronted with the fact (easily and objectively provable by the way) that it is impossible to tax the "1%" at a level to accomplish what she is advocating for she blithely responds with something like "I just don't believe that.".   If you live in a world where you can just wish away objective facts with so little concern, how do you think these folks will respond when confronted with real life outside of academia.    (BTW, this is a young woman enrolled at an expensive private university, in a degree program that she admits will not provide her with a job that will allow her to pay her student loan debt, but thinks she's going to teach in a secondary school somewhere).     Who thinks this is a good life plan?

Ultimately this isn't about racial stuff as much is it is about a culture/political philosophy that thrives of perceived "offense" and is perfectly willing to jump on and perpetuate a false narrative as long as they perceive that it will benefit their short term political/social goals.

When I look around the urban areas where I build houses for low income families, when I walk/drive through Port au Prince, St Louis du Nord and Port de Paix, when I see my youngest son's pictures from Moyo and George Zambia, when I see the medical center in Goma built by my church to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the congregation, not to mention when I watch the news, I see enough real suffering and problems to get upset about that it makes me wonder what it is that makes folks settle for manufactured outrage over incidents that didn't happen when they could actually channel that into tangible help for real people facing real problems.  

Personally, I think it's driven by the same impulse that makes people think that re tweeting a hashtag is actually making a difference.   I think it's because it's hard to see actual individual people actually suffering and to deal with them as individuals.   It's easier to jump on a manufactured bandwagon with the rest of the crowed than it is to take the time to think things through and get involved in a real tangible way. 

To twist a saying to make my point.  "It's easier to give a man a fish, than to teach him to fish. It's even easier to appear to give a man a fish.  It's even easier to tweet about some guy who doesn't have a fish..".   Unfortunately it seems we are moving toward a culture that is more interested in APPEARING to be doing something about a fake problem than to actually be doing something about a real problem.


UPDATE

 1.  It seems that the gentleman who took over as president had a hand in organizing the protests that caused the "resignation" of the previous president.   Smells like a conflict of interest to me.

2.  It seems as though some of the oppressed Mizzou students are feeling a bit left out since the terrorist attacks in Paris are getting more coverage than they are.

http://www.barstoolsports.com/barstoolu/mizzou-protestors-are-upset-that-the-terrorist-attacks-in-paris-are-getting-more-attention-than-them/