The events that have unfolded at the University of Missouri in the past few weeks are the most recent symptoms of a much deeper, lingering affliction. As unfortunate as it is, racism at the University of Missouri runs deep, and acts of discrimination can be traced years back in the university’s history. Since 2010, when two students dumped cotton balls on the lawn of Mizzou’s Black Culture Center, there have been numerous reports of racial slurs, racist graffiti, and racist flyers being used around campus to target and isolate black students. On August 9th, 2014 these issues were further underscored by the shooting of an unarmed black youth in Ferguson, Missouri. More than one year later, Missouri is once again in the spotlight for being the epicenter of racial tension.
Protests at the University of Missouri are ongoing, and a student-led coalition, Concerned Student 1950, has gained an outpouring of support from students at universities all over the country, proving that racism is an obstacle that far transcends institutional, geographical, and cultural limitations. This support has come in several forms; however, the social media posts have been garnering the most attention. These social media posts have united marginalized students all over the country, and have facilitated open dialogue about systemic marginalization on numerous college campuses. Even with all the evidence for the existence of systemic racism on college campuses, these social media movements have been widely attacked and criticized. Some students have even turned to the anonymous social media platform, Yik Yak, to create petty threats on the lives of black students and promote white supremacy. If I didn’t believe that racism was alive and well before reading those posts, I have no doubt about it now.
To refuse to recognize the legitimacy of systemic marginalization is to ignore the rights of these individuals to be heard, and to exist, safely, on a college campus. At the core of this controversy are students that are fighting to feel welcome in an environment that does not value their differences, and is not sympathetic to their fear. Safety is a right for all human beings regardless of race, and it falls on the shoulders of everyone to enforce that right. The fact that there are human beings, that fear for their lives on the grounds of an institution dedicated to molding the minds of the future, is a problem. It may seem farfetched to think that racism and hate can be eradicated everywhere, but the University of Missouri seems as good a place as any to start. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”.