Phoenix, Arizona, has captured the attention of the nation thanks to six girls from Desert Vista High School. The group rearranged themselves to spell out “ni**er” after posing for their senior panoramic.

The photo was meant to be kept among friends on Snapchat for 24 hours, but they did not realize that not everyone would find their racial slurs acceptable. The photo quickly blew-up on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook getting the attention of people from all across the nation.

Not only did the school administration respond with a slap on the hand – a five day suspension – but students at Desert Vista feel that the attention is unnecessary. This is white privilege at its finest.

Most of the student body feels comfortable with the picture’s message. Most people will pass the incident as a joke, but the school has had prior complaints of racism. A former teacher had filed complaints and lawsuits against the district for the racism directed at her from the students. Administrators ignored her complaints of students being openly racist and forced her to leave. With the release of the photo, former teacher Cicely Cobb felt vindicated of her portrayal as “the crazy black lady who claimed the school had racial issues.”

One of the girls involved in the photo, Rachel Steigerwald, apologized for her participation in the photo during a protest. However, her “sincere” apology is like putting a Band-Aid over a do-it-yourself amputation. Pointless. Steigerwald’s apology is not genuine. She seems to be remorseful of the fact that she’s being targeted as a racist rather than worried about the effect she had on the culture within her school. It was not her idea to apologize to the public; she had to be reached out to by an African American minister who was leading the protest. The fact that she did not willingly apologize before she was asked to do so proves that she’s not sorry.

The effect of the photo is far beyond the feelings of the students, it extends to the healing and progress our nation has made. Now that the nation’s attention has been grasped, we can begin to fix our nation’s perspective on what is and isn’t okay. The release of the photo will allow the district to realize the racial issues within their community.