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Students, faculty share mixed feelings about discrimination

By Lexxie Shiring
Rocket Contributor

Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: News
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Protesters gather in Jena, La., for the six-hour rally where the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, radio personality Michael Baisden and dozens of black leaders and celebrities spoke on the actions of the
Media Credit: MCT Campus
Protesters gather in Jena, La., for the six-hour rally where the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King III, radio personality Michael Baisden and dozens of black leaders and celebrities spoke on the actions of the "Jena 6" and racism problems around the country.
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Students and faculty share mixed feelings about racial discrimination on campus and in the Slippery Rock Community after the light of the recent events of the "Jena 6."

Thousands of protestors gathered in the streets of Jena, La., on Sept. 20 to support "Jena 6." Five of the teens' convictions have been reduced to battery and the sixth boy was charged as a juvenile. Demonstrators have come from all over the country, protesting that the "Jena 6" were held with excessive criminal charges and bond amounts for teens.

"The whole 'Jena 6' ordeal is kind of stereotypical because the boys are African-American and people automatically think that because of their race that they are more vicious," said Joy Strain, andinstructor in the Department of Biology. "They may very well be harmful, but their race should not be taken into account."

The issue of discrimination on campus has been expressed by both blacks and whites. Some students believe that campus is prejudice-free, while others say that there is most definitely a problem.

Natasha Banks, a black junior health and safety environmental management major, said that she has not personally witnessed or heard about any type of discrimination on campus, but that the Slippery Rock community is a different story.

"Slippery Rock does not seem culturally aware of the backgrounds of students and their ethnicity," Banks said, "For example, two of my friends were walking down Main Street and someone yelled 'n-----' at them."

Other students claim that it is not just blacks who are discriminated against on and off campus. Stephanie Anderson, a white senior elementary education major, said that she has been discriminated against many times.
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