Stomping out race issues
By Crystal Huggins
I was deeply shocked to learn of the recent incident at Clemson University where some students mocked African-Americans at an off-campus party during the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend.
The students were reportedly drinking malt liquor and at least one student was seen wearing black face paint.
Clemson University, which is located in Clemson, S.C., has about 17,000 students including 1,100 are African-American students.
I admit that I have seen people who were trying to act black but never to this extent.
I started thinking about my personal experiences after reading about this incident. I grew up in a predominately black area. The elementary and middle schools that I went to were a mixture of African-American, Caucasian and even a few Cambodian kids. The high school that I went to was all black. I never had to deal with any race issues until my freshman year in another college in Cleveland.
I was living on campus at that university. Even though it was 2003, and this country has made a great deal of advances from times of slavery and the Civil Rights era, there are people who do not see everyone as equal.
Being one of the few African-Americans in my dorm was not an issue for me. I knew that university’s student body was predominately white and I saw that as an opportunity to meet different people. I noticed that some of the girls in my dorm didn’t have a problem with speaking to me.
One day when I was on my way to class, I came across a Caucasian girl who lived in my dorm hall. Out of courtesy, I said hello. The girl looked me in the eye and when I spoke, she cut her eyes in the other direction and ignored me. She did that on more than one occasion, so I knew that I was being ignored on purpose. I felt she didn’t want to talk to people of other races.
I never see race as an issue when I meet people. Many of the friends that I made at that school were white.
Reading the news article about the Clemson incident made me wonder how people can have such disrespect for other races. Come on now, it is 2007. If our generation is considered to be more open-minded than past generations, how is it that history is repeating itself?
Samantha Samuel, an advertising major at CSU, feels that the incident at Clemson was completely racist and disrespectful.
“I grew up in an all white area. I didn’t experience being in a diverse area until I got to college. Being at a diverse college forces to you learn and experience new things. When meeting new people their skin color was not an issue for me,” said Samuel, who is a Caucasian.
Shakaira Wrenn, an accounting major at CSU, agreed.
Wrenn, an African-American, said, “It’s sad and horrible to see that racism is still an issue. With all the progression that has been made, it shows how some in this country are narrowed minded.”
Even though we are in the 21st century and many steps were taken for everyone to have racial equality, there still needs to be change.