2008 Woodie Awards
Racism still an issue at SRU
Issue date: 10/21/05 Section: Rocket Letters
To the Editor:
I attended the Clarks and Lil' Scrappy concert this homecoming weekend and was deeply troubled by the events that took place. Now, admittedly, Lil' Scrappy isn't my favorite act out there, but hey, I'm game. While I was at the show listening to Lil' Scrappy, I looked around me and saw people all around me being disrespectful in various ways. There was even a group of students at the front of the show booing Lil' Scrappy while he was performing. Everybody in the MPR realized that it wasn't exactly about the music. All week I had heard buzz around campus about the unlikely pairing of Lil' Scrappy and the Clarks, and it wasn't good. Most of it was negative in that the majority of students felt that the people in charge of planning this concert had gone too far in trying to be "fair to everyone." Overall, it was a pretty negative vibe. With those attitudes spreading before the event, there was a whole lot of racial tension in the air during the concert. Even the audience was mostly segregated by race with most of the black kids in the front and most of the white kids in the back, or in the front booing. Even Lil' Scrappy felt the tension when he said "I know that ain't the black folk booin." The tension was also there in the Union lobby and outside of the Union when the concert let out and all of a sudden the white kids were the minority. A lot of Clarks fans looked pretty uncomfortable at that point. The same people who were upset by Lil' Scrappy barging in on their Clarks concert for reasons other than the music were singing along when the Clarks got to the lyric in "Born Too Late" when Scott Blasey (the lead singer) sings "Martin Luther King show me the way..." Well, I found the irony in that situation to be a little too much to handle on my own, so I am sharing it with you. It has been my feeling for some time that as a campus we need to start really looking at race relations on this campus and seriously discuss this issue. This is not an issue that should be left to SUMA and the Black Action Society. It is time for us white kids to step it up. I think that everybody should be involved; FYRST Seminars, Greek organizations, service organizations, clubs within the academic departments, everybody. We all need to take action and really start talking about the reasons behind the often strained race relations here at SRU, and then do something about it. Now, I'm not saying that everyone is at fault or everyone has a negative attitude or that nobody is proactive. I simply think that something needs to be implemented on a grander scale than what we have seen so far, and that every student should be involved. Human Diversity obviously isn't cutting it. I somehow don't think that Martin Luther King dreamt that there would still be so much racism and racial tension and segregation in the year 2005, especially at a place of higher learning.
Lindsay Fraser
Senior
Secondary Education and Spanish Major
I attended the Clarks and Lil' Scrappy concert this homecoming weekend and was deeply troubled by the events that took place. Now, admittedly, Lil' Scrappy isn't my favorite act out there, but hey, I'm game. While I was at the show listening to Lil' Scrappy, I looked around me and saw people all around me being disrespectful in various ways. There was even a group of students at the front of the show booing Lil' Scrappy while he was performing. Everybody in the MPR realized that it wasn't exactly about the music. All week I had heard buzz around campus about the unlikely pairing of Lil' Scrappy and the Clarks, and it wasn't good. Most of it was negative in that the majority of students felt that the people in charge of planning this concert had gone too far in trying to be "fair to everyone." Overall, it was a pretty negative vibe. With those attitudes spreading before the event, there was a whole lot of racial tension in the air during the concert. Even the audience was mostly segregated by race with most of the black kids in the front and most of the white kids in the back, or in the front booing. Even Lil' Scrappy felt the tension when he said "I know that ain't the black folk booin." The tension was also there in the Union lobby and outside of the Union when the concert let out and all of a sudden the white kids were the minority. A lot of Clarks fans looked pretty uncomfortable at that point. The same people who were upset by Lil' Scrappy barging in on their Clarks concert for reasons other than the music were singing along when the Clarks got to the lyric in "Born Too Late" when Scott Blasey (the lead singer) sings "Martin Luther King show me the way..." Well, I found the irony in that situation to be a little too much to handle on my own, so I am sharing it with you. It has been my feeling for some time that as a campus we need to start really looking at race relations on this campus and seriously discuss this issue. This is not an issue that should be left to SUMA and the Black Action Society. It is time for us white kids to step it up. I think that everybody should be involved; FYRST Seminars, Greek organizations, service organizations, clubs within the academic departments, everybody. We all need to take action and really start talking about the reasons behind the often strained race relations here at SRU, and then do something about it. Now, I'm not saying that everyone is at fault or everyone has a negative attitude or that nobody is proactive. I simply think that something needs to be implemented on a grander scale than what we have seen so far, and that every student should be involved. Human Diversity obviously isn't cutting it. I somehow don't think that Martin Luther King dreamt that there would still be so much racism and racial tension and segregation in the year 2005, especially at a place of higher learning.
Lindsay Fraser
Senior
Secondary Education and Spanish Major
