What would be your reaction if a person wearing a green shirt ran into your classroom today and opened fire on you and your classmates? What would you think if someone with a red shirt did the same?

Most likely, your attention would focus on the shooting and not the attacker. Hopefully, anyone who committed such an act will be punished equally, regardless of their personal characteristics.

A shooting and rioting spree last weekend in Virginia Beach, Va., involved about 100,000 college students, most of whom were from black schools. Police reported arresting 160 people and issuing 395 citations during the event, which resulted in 23 injuries.

The two-night melee is disturbing not only because of the brutality of the event. The more disconcerting aspect of this event is the “overreactionary” label placed on the police reaction to the looting and stealing.

A spokesman for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People said police response to the incident would have been different if the students had been white. “Their response was to confront the students from a position of power,” he said

A police officer should confront any offender from a position of power, regardless of the offender’s personal appearance. The racist label placed on the police’s use of force in the situation must be removed.

Isn’t racism defined as treating people differently based on their color? If so, then the NAACP must advocate racism because they are asking for the rioters to be handled with kid gloves simply most of them had black skin instead of white or red or green.

You can’t have it both ways.