If you’re an avid user of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or Vine you’ve probably seen a plethora of jokes and snide remarks made by other users.  Teens especially are known for making their jokes revolve around the topic of racism, and what is more surprising about this is that everyone seems to laugh at the punch lines. 

Since the NBA decided to permanently remove Donald Sterling from his position as owner of the Clippers, there has been much speculation on the topic of racism in social media.  In a situation like this, people will typically call the person who made the remarks a racist, but teens who make racist jokes do not get the same response.   

Although the racist remarks made were said without lighthearted intentions, it still leaves teens thinking racist comments are okay when in reality they aren’t.  Since today’s high schoolers are focused on equality for all and equal rights, making racist jokes is a step in the wrong direction.

Two teens from Haverhill recently suffered consequences for their tweets about Montreal Canadian P.K. Subban during the team’s playoff battle with the Boston Bruins.  According to WCVB-TV the teens were suspended from school after making the jokes on Twitter. This shows that just because jokes are made on the internet, it doesn’t mean that they can’t apply to life outside social media.  

So the next time you’re scrolling through your Twitter feed or watching a seemingly harmless Vine think before you decide to share it.  As much as it sounds like a broken record, everyone can access what you put on the internet, even schools.  The only way to unite our generation is to treat everyone with the same respect, even if the people in the joke are laughing along.