BLOG #4

MIZOU

The situation at Missouri University is very fluid and, like the blind men circling the elephant, there are many sides to the story.

In general, liberals pay attention to the part of the story which allows them to say nice things about Black students and to criticize white administrators (and students). On the other hand, those on the right pay attention to events which allow them to mock Black students' demands for a "safe space" and bash administrators for giving in so quickly to minority students (Blacks are 7% of the University population).

 In arriving at any fair evaluation of events at Mizzou, I think we should pay attention to the following:

1.Black anger and demands did not start last week. Formal petitions and demands for racial inclusion were presented to administration in 1950 and 1969.

 2.It was not one student being called Nigger and threatened, or one student going on a hunger strike that caused the rebellion at Mizzou. Some (many??) white students at MU were raised in the pre-Civil War tradition of seeing Blacks as inferior--slaves, savages, unequal, permanently lesser beings. From those attitudes came permission to treat Black students as though they had no right to be at Mizzou.

3.Another piece of the elephant we need to pay attention to is the lingering existence of segregation on campus. There are Black fraternities and sororities. [Whether because minority Blacks felt more comfortable "with their own kind" or because they were excluded from white social organizations, or both, is not made clear in the reporting.] There are also The Legion of Black Collegians, a Black alternative to white student government, and a Black publication, The Blackout, founded  in 1969.

One place Blacks were certainly welcome was on the Missouri football team. However, because they were not included in many other aspects or campus life, they leveraged their power--$1 million penalty if MU didn't play in the upcoming game--to bring down the president of the system and the chancellor of the college.

[NOTE to Grand Forks City Council: a Diversity Commission might act as a canary in the mine before people reached a boiling point.]

4.A day or two after the campus upheaval, Fox News commentators were dismissive of the Black students because Fox analysts had no idea what the demonstrators wanted. A simple Google would have disclosed a list of demands which, to my mind, ranged from first stage emotional outpouring to reasonable requests that could be acted on partly or wholly.

Some of the demands I found reasonable:

*By 2017-2018 academic year, Mizzoyu to have 10% Black faculty and staff;

*By May 1, 2016, the University will write a 10-year strategic plan to: (a) increase retention rates for students; (b) sustain diversity curriculum and training; (c) promote a more safe and inclusive campus;

*Increase  funding to hire additional (mostly Black) mental health professionals in order to decrease wait times;

*Increase funding for social justice centers for the purpose of increasing programming, visibility an awareness.

These all seem to me either partly or completely doable. I hope this list will be useful to Fox News.