I will say the following in the most articulate and tactful terms possible: the presence of the Black Student Union offends a lot of people. If it doesn’t, there is a strong chance that those people don’t notice the BSU long enough to be offended by it in the first place. The reason is simple: most students fail to take notice of the BSU because they don’t have to. It is automatically regulated to “other” status, outside of the norm and therefore only worthy of notice if and when the organization joins the mainstream community. The failure to recognize and understand the value and need for the BSU speaks volumes about race relations on this campus.
In his letter to the editor, a response to ‘State of the Black Union addresses racial dynamics,’ Casey Butler suggests organizations that primarily and ultimately serve the black community isolate the black community from the general university community, and organizations that ultimately serve the black community are unfair because they exclude white people.
The attitude in these statements and similar ones is that organizations are only “right” if a white person can comfortably assume residency within them. It considers anything that does not intentionally benefit the mainstream – which is also, not coincidentally, white-dominated – to be “other.” This attitude points to a person who believes, on purpose or otherwise, that white is the “default setting.” It considers the BSU a mere branch, if a substantial one, off the greater (read: “actual” or “real”) UA community.
There is no such thing as the exclusion of white people. The very idea that BSU obstructs improvement of racial relations is foolish. The fact of the matter is the University does isolate its black community. If this fact makes a white student uncomfortable, or in some way threatens his or her sense of student body unity, perhaps he or she should evaluate why the obvious solution, in his or her eyes, is to get rid of the BSU. Would it not be more constructive to ask why the University’s black community finds a black student organization necessary at all?
Instead of seeking out a solution that effectively silences the best avenue for progress and visibility that black students have on this campus, I would much rather Butler thoroughly consider the reasons for the BSU’s existence and what motivates its members to involve themselves in it. There are several and all are valid.
The arrogance and hypocrisy of criticizing the presence of the BSU, while simultaneously rendering in other ways the black community invisible, only noticed when it becomes “problematic” – or, ahem, politically useful – is shameful. Placing the blame upon the black community for its sense of a fundamental disconnect between itself and the general UA community is problematic, because it releases white students from assuming any responsibility in that disconnect, treats black students as a problem to be solved instead of as full members of the community with sincere concerns, and strengthens the idea that the disconnect will only be removed when black students “join” the general UA community. None of that is fair.
This argument would hold water if we lived in a colorblind, post-racial society. The fact BSU exists is a clear, unfortunate reminder that it we don’t. Acknowledging the differences between racial groups and unique struggles minorities have experienced is a far better step in achieving harmony than pretending that those differences and struggles aren’t there at all. No one would stop any white student from becoming involved in a black organization.
The University’s black community needs the BSU, if only so that black students have a place where the color of their skin will cease to have any bearing on how others perceive and treat them.
Samaria Johnson is a freshman majoring in history and French.
