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Following the resignation of the University of Missouri’s
President Tim Wolfe, thousands took to the realm of twitter
to express a variety of opinions. Those who believed
Wolfe’s resignation was uncalled for accompanied the
opposing side who viewed his delayed reaction as “too little,
too late.” Just one of many examples of racial tensions
among predominantly white institutions, the request for
change is becoming more and more necessary.
While scrolling through twitter, I came across a story from a
former student at the University of North Carolina. Using a
series of linked tweets, he briefly discussed the structural
and rarely discussed racism within large universities across
the globe.
"I’ll never forget the night at UNC I was told “my best friend
isn’t here because you took his spot.” I was dumbfounded,
not because I wasn’t used to people thinking that I slipped
into UNC via diversity, but because never did I ever think
someone would have no qualms to look to me dead in my
face and tell me I didn’t belong at a place I worked my ass
off to be at. That is what POC (people of color) face at
these institutions of ‘higher learning’ and yet ignorance is
coddled and perpetuated and even supported some
times..year after year.” – @doncooleo
The famous University of North Carolina may be over 480
miles away, but these experiences ring true to students like
me at Penn State. Just like @doncooleo, I’ve been
subjected to absolutely ridiculous ideology regarding the
creation and implementation of diversity within our
university.
In January of 2014 I recall logging onto MyPennState to see
the updated status of my admissions application. Due to the
wellknown name and variety of majors, I eagerly applied
with high hopes of being accepted. As we know, Penn
Staters are admitted based on high merit and community
involvement; therefore, I felt confident in my application and
was looking forward to seeing a “congratulations” message.
To make a long story short, I was accepted and obviously
chose to attend what I believed to be one of the greatest
universities in the nation.
It’s been over a year since my initial acceptance into Penn
State, yet questions continuously rise. I wish I could share
every experience I’ve had in and outside of the Penn State
community, but most of them have a common theme of,
“wait, you got into Penn State? The main campus?” With a
slightly raised eyebrow and small smile, I nod to confirm,
“Yes, I really do attend Penn State.”.
RISE
CAMPUS CULTURE
I suppose the overly frequent confrontation isn’t horrible
when compared to tensions within other universities, but
that doesn’t mean there isn’t a large problem here at Penn
State. I don’t have the time to tell you about when I was
called a porch monkey for protesting on behalf of Mike
Brown. I don’t have the time to tell you about the Residence
Hall worker who assumed I was skipping class as I walked
with tape over my mouth reading #BlackLivesMatter. I can’t
tell you about the myriad of stares I receive when
questions over our nation’s racial climate come up and I’m
the only black kid sitting among an allwhite classroom.
What I can tell you is that there is an embodiment of
ignorance walking throughout this campus. To the people
who think I’m on a scholarship solely because of diversity,
those who claim to understand the deeproots of
affirmativeaction, and the many who assume they
understand my story because of a few Sociology classes:
Please look at the peaceful uprising of black student voices.
We’ve seen it at Mizzou and requests for action storm the
campuses of Yale, Princeton and others....
THESE ARE NOT
ISOLATED EVENTS
AND SHOULD NOT
BE TAKEN LIGHTLY.
THEY ARE SIMPLY
A SIGN OF A
BIGGER SHIFT OF
EMPOWERMENT.