Google News 09/28: 12 year-old bullied at a Virginia private school

Renewing conversations about bigotry and race relations

Earlier this week, a middle school student in Springfield, Virginia was allegedly targeted by three other students in what was widely perceived as a racially-motivated attack.

The student, a 12 year-old black girl, says that the offenders covered her mouth, kept her hands behind her back, and started cutting her hair, calling it nappy and ugly. They also stole her lunch and ate it in front of her, telling her that she deserved to starve.

When her family learned about the incident two days later, they contacted the school, which enlisted the help of local police to investigate. The girl’s mother insists that the attackers, who have presumably already been identified, should be dismissed from the school.

Whether a story like this, upsetting as it is, deserves to make national and even international headlines is questionable. That it received this coverage is attributable to two important factors.

The first is that the hate and cruelty motivating this assault is symbolic of the attitudes many Americans feel have been renewed and amplified by our current president. The image of a young black girl being targeted for how she looks, regardless…