Nearly a year ago, some members of the St. Louis University baseball team received and read blatantly racist text exchanges between two teammates. It took 11 months for someone to come forward and speak out. Others apparently thought it best to stay silent.

The two players who initiated the exchange unquestionably deserved to be outed and held accountable. Shamefully, until recent days, that didn't happen.

One referred to the president of the United States as a "watermelon eatin baboon." Another joked about "a colored running the country."

The silent acceptance of such vulgar banter is ripping American society apart, and it's happening on blogs and Facebook conversations across the country.

Shame on the SLU players who allowed these two to go unchallenged. Consider the reply from one chat room member immediately after the "watermelon eatin baboon" remark: "Anyone got a new MacBook charger?"

It's as if he was entirely blind to the outrageous conversation in progress, or perhaps he didn't care.

SLU President Fred Pestello labeled the exchange "despicable" and said a student team manager who has known of the texts for months had wanted to come forward but "remained silent because he feared retribution."

In a video posted online Tuesday, Pestello warned: "Something is fundamentally wrong here ... when a handful of our students think they can express racial prejudice with impunity."

The response of four team captains fell far short of addressing the gravity of the situation. They expressed "frustration" and said they "would like to extend an apology to anyone offended by the biased messages."

Absent from their response is any expression of shock, outrage or genuine commitment to hold their colleagues accountable. Our concern is that racist players felt free to express their views openly because their teammates' shoulder-shrugging response had fostered a culture of encouragement.

Pestello and his special assistant, Jonathan C. Smith, told us they're organizing meetings with team members and black student leaders, and that this matter is far from resolved. Disciplinary options could include suspension from the team and banning postseason competition.

The harder part, for a baseball team or any other part of society, is instilling a culture of courage to speak out. Pestello, a sociologist by training, is right when he says the dynamic at play isn't limited to a university setting.

It's normal to want to be a part of the group and not play the role of the heavy when another popular member of the group, trying to be funny, says or does something blatantly offensive.

Let's be clear: There's absolutely nothing funny about this text exchange or others like it. The rest of us can't change those players' racist mentality, but we should never allow silence to be confused with acceptance.

REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH

Photo credit: Keith Allison