Name: Ja-Niece Best
Year: Senior
Hometown: Prince George’s County
Major/Minor: Graphic Design.
Her Campus Towson: What exactly happened in regards to the email that you sent your professor?
Ja-Niece Best: I kept seeing people say how Beyoncé’s birthday should be a holiday, so I decided to write an email excusing myself from class because of this “holiday.” After typing it, I accidentally hit send instead of saving it to my drafts. I thought it was pretty amusing, so I decided to post it on Twitter, unaware of the attention it would get. The next morning, I was shocked at the retweets, articles, and news stories about my email.
HCTU: How do you feel about this sudden media attention?
JB: It’s amusing but shocking at the same time. I never thought a tweet or email could get so much attention from the media.
HCTU: We’ve noticed that some people have been quite harsh with their tweets. Do you feel like you are being bullied?
JB: Although there have been many negative comments, I tend to overlook the negativity and focus on the positive because in my eyes, positivity always outweighs negativity. I also use the negativity as motivation, and because of that I don’t feel like I’m being bullied, even if that was the goal for some people.
HCTU: What do you have to say to them?
JB: I would like to thank the negative people for inspiring me to push harder. No shade. No hate. :)
HCTU: What was your professor’s response to the email?
My professor has yet to respond.
HCTU: What organizations are you involved with on campus?
JB: Infinite Praise Gospel Choir.
HCTU: Do you have anything else you want everyone to know?
JB: I’ve been receiving a lot of backlash because of my “Lord’s Day” comment. I just wanted to say I was not referring to Beyoncé as the Lord, nor do I “worship” her. When I made the comment I was referring to the fact that He created one of His greatest humans on that day, so I called it His day. Even still, it was just meant to be a joke. Overall, though I love and respect Beyoncé, I still take my education and Christianity seriously.