Outrage as Chicago teens caught wearing blackface on Instagram
The posts show the teens using profanity and harassing an African-American cashier while in blackface
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Your support makes all the difference.A group of suburban Chicago teens sparked outrage over the weekend after photos and a video of them wearing blackface and shouting profanities while driving surfaced on social media.
In addition, the video shows the teens harassing an African-American cashier at a McDonalds drive through and mocking African American Vernacular English.
Though the events don't seem to have taken place on school property, the teens' school, Homewood-Flossmoor High School, sent a letter to parents calling the posts "highly offensive and culturally insensitive".
The letter continued to state that "this type of behaviour is contrary to our expectations, is being addressed quickly and appropriately and will not be tolerated."
Nonetheless, a walkout was planned by students at the school for just after 11am on Tuesday.
A group of parents of black students also intend to bring a list of demands to the school's principal which will include cultural sensitivity training, according to La'Shawn Littrice, who is part of the group of parents.
One of the boys' mothers told the Patch that since the posts were revealed the boys have begun receiving death threats.
However, she claimed that the children were not racist and that they didn't know what blackface was until after the incident.
The mayors of the villages of Homewood and Flossmoor, from which the school draws its students, issued a joint statement which condemned the behaviour and called diversity a fundamental value at the at the forefront of their communities.
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