Worldwide Wednesday: Racism Thrives in Florida Panhandle, Black College Visitors Horrified

-Another day in post-racial America. This time in Florida’s panhandle, where a group of Michigan high schools students and administrators were touring Florida colleges. Their bus broke down and the group of 90 students and adults were forced to rent hotel rooms for the night at the Econo Lodge in Live Oak, Florida:

Coordinator Blake Odum says right after dinner, is when the trip took a much different and disturbing tone.”It was owned by white people. And they started taking pictures of all the kids as we were walking in and out of the hotel,” said student Melissa Blacque.

“I heard one of the ladies, she said, ‘If i see one more of them, I’m calling the law,'” Odum said.

Blacque says the students were peaceful, but felt uncomfortable at the hotel.

“They were calling us the N word and called Blake the N word. We were just like ‘whoa,'” Blacque said.

Fearing for their own safety, they called police:

“The officer pulled me to the side and said, ‘You know, I just want to let you know this area right off the interstate, people aren’t too accommodating to you all.’ And he said, ‘If you know what I mean.’ I said, ‘Black people?’ And he said, ‘Yeah,'” Odum said.

It got even worse:

As they left, that’s when Odum says tensions reached a boiling point, when he says he heard the manager say, “‘We’re going to get these N****rs off our property.’ And I was blown back by that,” Odum said.

Just disgusting. It’s a safe bet many of these students won’t be on a Florida college campus again anytime soon. See ABC-12’s video report below: