Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, And Racist Youth | The Odyssey Online
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Politics and Activism

Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, And Racist Youth

On millennial racism

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Black Lives Matter, All Lives Matter, And Racist Youth

At the end of the day, we're all people. People living on this earth trying to make our lives a story worth telling. However, we've come across negativity that inhibits some people from making their dreams come true. Kansas State University, University of North Dakota and Quinnipiac University all have something in common and it's not a stellar sports team or outstanding academic excellence. Students have been taking to social media and posting racially incentive content.

Shaun King, author and civil rights activist reposted the photo of the Quinnipiac student onto his Facebook Timeline.

It was a hot and humid afteroon on September 20, 2016 at Quinnipiac University. Everything was normal, nothing was out of the ordinary.

I was going about my day, as usual, heading into hour two of my six hours of class. I knew something was wrong when I saw a student crying in the hallway. I was confused walking into class. As soon as I logged onto Facebook, my confusion cleared up as I saw this Snapchat photo on my timeline:

This photo began circulating campus and drawing a lot of buzz.

But the photo managed to gather traction all across the country on Facebook. The photo has over 40,00 shares and 300 likes from people as far west as Utah and far south as Georgia.

People in outrage took to social media.

“I don't really care what the girl’s intentions were, whether it was supposed to be a joke or not," said Hartlei Stansbury, a Rutgers University student. "But captioning that picture "black lives matter" is extremely insensitive and is making light of a situation that's actually very serious and important to a lot of people including me.”

Stansbury attended Quinnipiac until 2016 and has since transferred to Rutgers University.

"If she had done something like this at any other school (Kansas State) everyone involved would have been kicked out," said Stansbury.

This unkind act affected more than just the students on campus.

"Parents are choosing not to send their children to QU because of how they're handling this situation so not only does this impact the way their African American students feel about walking down Bobcat Way," said Stansbury. "But this is affecting the way potential new students and parents view the institution as a whole."

Students weren't the only ones who were disappointed in the careless actions that occurred. One faculty member was also disturbed by this photo.

Margarita Diaz, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac said in an email, "We’re all responsible for ensuring that every member of the Quinnipiac community feels respected and safe. The university has had its say, and now I hope to see students condemn this act forcefully."

Quinnipiac University prides itself on being diverse and welcoming to all people and cultures. This act of racism on campus does not exemplify what Quinnipiac preaches.

The school has also released a statement on their Facebook page.

As a student at Quinnipiac, I can say this Snapchat photo does not represent Quinnipiac's student body. I am, however, severely disappointed that a student thought that this kind of photo was OK.

It's not and never will be funny to degrade other human beings. Being in college, we are expected to act like adults and the behavior this student chose to act on was far from an adult.

This racially insensitive photo was sent by one student and one student alone.

Mark Thompson, Quinnipiac's Executive Vice President and Provost, was quoted by Quinnipiac’s Q30 News saying, "It’s one student who’s responsible, the other two did not know what was taking place, I’m confident of that based on the investigation that was undertaken.”

It is my hope that students, not only at Quinnipiac but everywhere, will learn from this incident and recognize the foolish behavior as unacceptable.

In second grade we were learning about Ruby Bridges. I remember my teacher saying, “If it wasn’t for Ruby Bridges, children of color wouldn’t be able to go to school."

I also remember looking to my right at my best friend who was African American, and thinking “Thank you Ruby for letting my friend come to my school."

Everyone deserves the right to learn without being judged or made fun of for the color of their skin. Life is hard enough without people making racially insensitive comments and posting photos.

This incident adds to the nationwide fight that people of color have been fighting for far too long.

I never understood why the color of someone’s skin truly mattered. If they’re just as smart, kind, and able, why does it matter? Groups of people in our nation seem to think that African American’s don’t deserve the same rights as everyone else.

People of color are just as capable as the rest of the country.

Mark Thompson sent out an email regarding the incident. It read:

This message was sent out on, September 21, 2016 about 25 hours after I learned about the situation.

I'm happy with the University's quick response time on the matter. I hope though that this doesn't stop the conversation about racially offensive sayings and we begin to discuss ways to ensure that this will never happen again.

This is a conversation that shouldn't just stop now that it's "resolved."

Quinnipiac’s Student Government Association posted this on Facebook and I think everyone needs a little reminder about what we, as Quinnipiac students, are all about.


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