Broadcast media today reported stories about three Wayland High School kids making racist black-faced tweets, all without proper context. No wonder we’re accused of “Fake News.”

What’s a lot more important than the “discovery” that teens sometimes do really dumb and hurtful things and carelessly allow too many people to see it is the way we respond to this unfortunate incident. Even more important is the response of school officials, parents and other adults in the community.

If you think Wayland’s problem with racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying is unique, you are mistaken. This kind of unacceptable behavior rears its ugly head almost everywhere, not just Wayland, Charlottesville, Va., or Washington D.C. We are a nation of too many racists, sexists, homophobes and bullies. Some who are horrified with the video probably voted for one of the all-time champions of bullying — Donald Trump.

This certainly doesn’t excuse the boorish, racist and alarming behavior of three teens shown in the video. But it begs for more exploration of a much more complex issue.

What those kids did was a lot less offensive than what I did very publicly at WHS  in March 1966 with a “Showboat” variety show in front of a lot of people over several nights. As a senior in high school, I was one of the stars of the show, wearing blackface and speaking in the dialect of the American Negro.

To be sure, I was naive and didn’t know any better, as didn’t so many others back in the day, but neither did these foolish teens in the video. And their crime was a lot less offensive than mine.

This points to a positive spin that we’ve come a ways since those “good ole’ days.” The reaction of horror and aversion expressed today was absent 52 years ago.

We fortunate U.S. citizens have looked the other way for too long to avoid confronting our national diseases of racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying. All are connected in that they involve the privileged majority somehow attacking or belittling those we views as inferior, because we believe we can get away with it.

Earlier this year, I saw a Facebook photo of a Confederate flag hanging out of an apartment near the four corners in downtown Wayland. Thankfully, it was taken down not long afterward. Racism in our town?

About 40 years ago I witnessed a city official refer to African-Americans as “jigaboos” in a public meeting and to this day I wish I had reported it.

I personally witnessed my boss in 1985 refuse to hire a black candidate I recommended for a reporting job because “no one will talk to him,” thereby perpetuating the racist system without accepting any responsibility.

“I don’t have anything against black people. Some of my best friends are black people.”

Wayland indeed seems to be mentioned disproportionately in these kinds of news developments. Remember the lesbian girl who was attacked in the halls of the high school in 2008? The cry of bullying went up, but it fell on deaf ears.

I recall a Wayland mother who went before the school board last spring and eventually pulled her children from the district because of bullying.

I haven’t been impressed with how Wayland officials have dealt with complaints of bullying, despite attempted assurances that “we take these matters seriously.” I am particularly disappointed with the athletic department because of two incidents I personally know that involved bullying, yet the schools circled the wagons like the Thin Blue Line around accused police officers. And many of school administrators are ex-jocks.

Despite my personal disappointments with the local school district, I find it unfair that Wayland is singled out for a disease that has been enjoying somewhat of a comeback nationwide, almost to the point of being an epidemic.

The first step in fighting this malady is taking a cue from Alcoholics Anonymous and declaring we actually have it and then pledging we’ll do all we can to ensure fairness stop the spread of the disease and begin healing. We can’t effectively deal with this by denying it.

We have come a ways since my “Showboat” blackface days, but we certainly still have a ways to go.