LucietheLakie: "And in the spirit of “keeping it real” here, I want to share the following article. I’m sure the responses will be all over the place, but this is “life on the ground” for many UA students:
Three students of color at the University of Alabama aren’t waiting for a professor or administrator to facilitate a conversation on race. They’re bringing the issue straight to their fellow students. Seniors Amanda Bennett, SGA President Elliot Spillers and A.J. James produced a brief video, directed by fellow student Patrick Maddox, highlighting the racism that they’ve experienced on campus.
I’ve seen a lot of very supportive posts on FB and some truly nasty ones as well. But this isn’t just UA, this is the U.S. of A. today, like it or not.
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/11/black_ua_students_produce_vide.html#incart_river_home"
I read this article and am shocked that no one has asked Ms. Bennet to provide evidence to back her claim that Whites at UA were attacking Blacks and knocking down doors when Obama won. It is an outrageous lie. If this had happened, I guarantee you that the cops and the media would have been all over it. By the way, this mirrors the two lies we saw from the Mizzou activist students, the one in which the Black and Gay SGA president spread a false rumor that it was confirmed that the Klan was on campus. The hunger striker who got the football team’s attention at Mizzou, claimed to have been hit by the UM president’s car during a demonstration. Video show he walked right into the car. He lied and demanded an apology after this supposed incident.
And I don’t think UA needs to follow the misguided national trend of creating an Office of “Diversity.” UA has one of the nation’s largest enrollments of Black students, both undergrad and grad. It has a relatively high number of AA faculty. NO qualified Black student or qualified Black faculty applicant is being denied admission/hire.
It upsets me that any UA student would call a fellow student the N word and treat anyone with disrespect, but it is not like the White students on campus are having Klan meetings and I don’t recall my Black friends at UA complaining to me about being harassed at UA. The SGA president is Black. Would he have been able to win if so many Whites were racists at UA? There are hateful idiots on every campus, well maybe the hate is directed against different groups depending on the campus, but you get the point.
Is there room for improvement? Sure, I think that the Machine is an archaic and elitist group that does not represent the campus very well. But that is a class, rather than a racial issue. Many White independents have, like the Black SGA president, run into a brick wall trying to fight the Machine. I should know. I was there during a very controversial SGA election in the late 80s in which the Machine used intimidation and a boycott on the Independent candidate’s father’s business to keep the son from being elected. I am all for more seminars on racel condemnations of hateful words, and honest and open discussions, but please, not another wasteful and unnecessary administrative department.