This week the president and chancellor of the University of Missouri resigned. Why? Students were upset that he did not do enough to combat racism on campuses. They were also upset that didn’t respond to the violence in Ferguson, which is 110 miles away from the main campus.
What led to his resignation? The football team saying they wouldn’t play. Really? Are sports that important to your school? That’s a topic for another time though.
Now students at Ithaca College in New York are calling for their school’s president to resign.
Much for the same reasons. Name calling on campus.
Apparently, two students of color were upset that the Public Safety officers said there was no racial profiling at Ithaca. Also one of them said “If I saw someone with this (a BB gun) I would shoot them.” But let’s think about that: Is that really racist?
If you’re job is to protect students on campus, and it’s dark and you see someone with what looks like a real gun, and they don’t follow your instructions, what would you do?
I wasn’t there during that meeting but from the quotes I read, it doesn’t sound like there was any mention of race behind that quote.
So why are students so upset about these issues? They read too much into what is being said I think.
Show me when students have been beaten based on their race and the college did not do anything and I’ll support their calls. Show me when Public Safety officers failed to protect a student based on race and I’ll support their calls. It is one thing to worry about your safety because of specific incident, it is quite another to create a culture of fear without anything happening to spark that fear.
At Mississippi’s state university, officials took down the state flag because it had the Confederate battle flag in its design. We are systematically getting rid of pieces of our history because it upsets us.
We have moved into an era people jump on another person’s words, and take them out of context to cause controversy. Rather than hearing the whole of a conversation, people stop when they hear the best sound bite and use that to cause controversy and tweet about it.
No one is perfect. Everyone slips up and says something by mistake, or poorly phrased that makes it seem like they were saying something else.
So before we start marching in the streets how about we take a step back and look at the situation. How about we ask questions, not with anger or as ‘gotcha’ questions, not disrespectfully but with an honest intent.
I haven’t read in either the case of Missouri or Ithaca that a group of students tried to sit down with either president. Letters and Facebook posts are nice but what someone says online may not express their true feelings.
How can you hold a president of a college responsible without at least having a conversation with him? If you did and he ignored your concerns, then there is a big problem. But don’t just jump to protests and walk-outs.
Stop walking out. Sit down and talk.
What led to his resignation? The football team saying they wouldn’t play. Really? Are sports that important to your school? That’s a topic for another time though.
Now students at Ithaca College in New York are calling for their school’s president to resign.
Much for the same reasons. Name calling on campus.
Apparently, two students of color were upset that the Public Safety officers said there was no racial profiling at Ithaca. Also one of them said “If I saw someone with this (a BB gun) I would shoot them.” But let’s think about that: Is that really racist?
If you’re job is to protect students on campus, and it’s dark and you see someone with what looks like a real gun, and they don’t follow your instructions, what would you do?
I wasn’t there during that meeting but from the quotes I read, it doesn’t sound like there was any mention of race behind that quote.
So why are students so upset about these issues? They read too much into what is being said I think.
Show me when students have been beaten based on their race and the college did not do anything and I’ll support their calls. Show me when Public Safety officers failed to protect a student based on race and I’ll support their calls. It is one thing to worry about your safety because of specific incident, it is quite another to create a culture of fear without anything happening to spark that fear.
At Mississippi’s state university, officials took down the state flag because it had the Confederate battle flag in its design. We are systematically getting rid of pieces of our history because it upsets us.
We have moved into an era people jump on another person’s words, and take them out of context to cause controversy. Rather than hearing the whole of a conversation, people stop when they hear the best sound bite and use that to cause controversy and tweet about it.
No one is perfect. Everyone slips up and says something by mistake, or poorly phrased that makes it seem like they were saying something else.
So before we start marching in the streets how about we take a step back and look at the situation. How about we ask questions, not with anger or as ‘gotcha’ questions, not disrespectfully but with an honest intent.
I haven’t read in either the case of Missouri or Ithaca that a group of students tried to sit down with either president. Letters and Facebook posts are nice but what someone says online may not express their true feelings.
How can you hold a president of a college responsible without at least having a conversation with him? If you did and he ignored your concerns, then there is a big problem. But don’t just jump to protests and walk-outs.
Stop walking out. Sit down and talk.