There were flyers posted Monday (2/13) morning containing racial slurs against the African American community at Penn State and across the nation. One derogatory statement in particular that I would like to expand upon addressed the myth that all African American men want a white woman.

A famous African American publisher and educator by the name of Ida B. Wells did a survey in the early 1900's that totally dispelled this myth. She traveled the south and documented lynchings.

Lynchings were predominantly done to African American men who were supposedly chasing white women. Through her observations, she found in many cases the white women pursued the African American male.

When liaisons were formed, and the two were found together she would cry rape and a lynching would occur thereafter. Wells found that women and children were also lynched for such arbitrary reasons as talking back to white people, since African American males weren't the only people lynched this dispelled the myth.

The three major reasons Wells gave for the lynchings were to nullify reconstruction, support Jim Crow laws and to portray African American peoples as sexually deprived people.

Remember, IGNORANCE IS BLISS, and when it comes to knowing the history and culture of African American peoples, white people sure are happy.