If you've been paying attention online, you may have heard about this protest group at the University of Missouri called Concerned Student 1950. This protest group has caused a lot of hooplah about white privilege and racism. A lot of people may have heard things about it, but don't really know what's going on, so here's the scoop:

Concerned Student 1950, what is it all about?:

Concerned Student 1950 was created by a group of students (mostly lead by graduate student Jonathan Butler) after a series of racist events on Mizzou's campus. The first major thing that happened was that, in September, the President of the Student Association was called the n-word while walking down the street. After a long Facebook post with many comments of support and features in publications, students rallied with the slogan, "Racism lives here." After two peaceful protests, nothing happened.

Next, the Legion of Black Collegians was having a rehearsal of Homecoming Royalty court when an inebriated white man came in yelling another racial slur. The student was apprehended, but besides that, not much happened to fix the problem.

The group has tried peace protests, resulting with someone getting hit by the (ex-)President's car at the homecoming parade. Tim Wolfe (the ex-President) refused to acknowledge them.

Not long after this movement began, a swastika was drawn in excrement on a bathroom wall (okay, gross). After this third racist incident going un-noticed by administration, the group, now known as Concerned Student 1950, began to have more peaceful protests, sit-ins, and even a hunger strike. The group came up with a list of demands:

After one student, Jonathan Butler, almost died from being on a hunger strike for seven days, President Tim Wolfe finally resigned. Many would think that that would be the end of the protests, but their fight is far from over.

In my opinion, after a lot of reading about what is going on, there's a lot I agree with and don't agree with when talking about all these protests.

Some of the protesting doesn't seem so peaceful

Yes, protesting is good for getting people to pay attention, and maybe it's just the crazy people I see in the videos, but I think something's wrong with this protesting. Yeah, you may not be killing people, but that doesn't mean that you can't be more non-violent. Everyone needs to realize that some people, like reporters, are not out to get you, and just need to do their jobs. If you really want your movement to gain footing, media is the friend, not the enemy.

People need to realize their white privilege (a.k.a. this girl)

I think a big thing that this protest is doing right is showing how racism does still exist, even if you think it doesn't. I skimmed this post, but really what I got from it was that a lot of people don't realize the privileges they have by being born white. They didn't have to protest to get what they have (except women, but still not maybe not as much), and they don't have to deal with the obvious visibility of skin color. Racism didn't end with the Civil Rights Movement, and it's still a struggle that's very much applicable today. By degrading people reporting racism to "It basically gave students the permission to call the cops every time someone is mean to them," just shows the misunderstanding of privilege by this girl. This is a lesson that all of us need to learn. Just because you didn't need to do it does not make it stupid. Racism is serious; it's more than just tattling.

Students at Mizzou are still battling for equal rights. Tim Wolfe may no longer be in office, but that doesn't mean that the fight is over. Racism is still real, and unless they stand up for themselves, things probably won't get done. As of Friday, Concerned Student 1950 is not afraid of the racists on campus, and the fight they will have to endure. The end is not near, but it will come.