There isn’t any racism involved in investigating “the lobby crowd.”

And the people who claim there are racial motives are only promoting the use of race as a crutch to justify whatever issue happens to be in the spotlight.

This time the issue is “the lobby crowd”—the group of NIU students and their friends who hang out in the residence hall lobbies. Recent weekend incidents in these lobbies are raising questions about the informal group’s actions.

But now, as seemingly the case at NIU, people are getting all bent out of shape and crying racism.

This only perpetuates two things. One is that it diminishes the importance of the incident because instead of correcting the problem, NIU argues about how people are reacting to it.

The second is when an incident truly embedded in racist motives occurs, nobody realizes its severity because racism is invoked as an excuse for just about everything.

Until people realize media accounts and police reports about blacks committing crimes is not inherently racist, the problem will continue. And as it continues, it will further choke the campus and the nation.

All races commit crimes. All races are unjustly and justly accused of wrongdoings. And all races are participants or spectators in events reported and investigated.

The lobby crowd’s actions and motives are questioned because they were there, not because of the color of their skin. Thinking otherwise is foolish.

A case—and a very strong one at that—can be made that at one time printing misleading information about minorities was commonplace.

But that’s not the norm any longer. Today’s society flounders in just the opposite direction. Nowadays, the first question is how many minorities work for the company instead of what the company’s philosophy is all about.

Businesses are terrified about someone reading into statistical facts on employees and then pulling out that the company has racist hiring policies because few minorities are on staff. Few people go into the area’s demographics or the breakdown of the type of people the business attracts.

And that’s what is happening with this lobby mess. Many are crying racism because mostly blacks hang out there.

Big deal. So a lot of blacks hang out in the lobbies. That doesn’t change the fact there are concerns about safety. Nor does it justify the safety concerns. It has nothing to do with the concerns. Nada. Zippo. Zilch. The safety questions have nothing to do with being black, white, yellow or plaid.

And, whether those concerns are real or perceived, there’s been enough voices reaching the right ears to make the top people believe something needs to be looked into.

Meanwhile, all students should be more worried about fixing the problem than whining about unjust persecution. If there isn’t a problem, then convince the people that believe otherwise.

But please, stop crying racism. Not only is it unnecessary and wrong, it’s disgusting.

And it’s an affront and a horrific insult to anybody who was forced to suffer a truly racist act.