Shocked by swastikas, white hoods and cross burning in Iowa? You're probably white. [View all]

I read with sadness and disappointment that the national wave of stupidity and hatred passed through Drake University, my alma mater, with racist graffiti appearing on campus over the weekend.

A swastika was carved into the wall of an elevator at the Drake student center, and someone wrote racial epithets on the dry-erase board of a first-year student's door, reported the Register's Jeff Charis-Carlson and Charly Haley.

Drake President Earl "Marty" Martin rightly called the acts "cowardly."

And the students who were interviewed expressed surprise. One student said: "I didn't necessarily think that Drake was that kind of place."

The fact that we're shocked is part of the problem.

Read more: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/columnists/daniel-finney/2017/09/19/drake-university-swastika-should-be-surprise/681307001/