Race issue requires counseling

We are a strange people: we respond to ostensibly racially-motivated crimes as if the devil himself (or herself) had just kicked a sad puppy, but we avoid any fruitful discussion of race.

Mr. Jordan Wolfe, one of two suspects in the recent Meridian High School vandalism, is biracial. A quick Google search will reveal that biracial children struggle in a unique way with identity formation that single race children do not. Biracial children may often feel as if they have to embrace one racial lineage at the cost of rejecting — if not hating — the other. I believe that this pattern of behavior best explains Mr. Wolfe’s actions.

Being biracial myself, I believe that I can speak freely and knowingly on this matter. Mr. Wolfe needs counseling, not (further) ostracism. He is probably a young man who has felt all his life that he does not fully belong to any one race. Even the worst gang member still has his/her tribe. Imagine living with the feeling that you are a tribe of one. Furthermore, Mr. Wolfe does not need to be charged with a hate crime. Yes, his self-hatred needs to be addressed, but not with punitive measures. However, I fear that this young man will be thrown under the bus of our virtue-signaling self-righteousness so that we can pat ourselves on the back for boldly addressing racism in Meridian, one mural at a time.

Joshua M. Maeda

Meridian