The annual State of the Black Student Union was held Feb. 22 in Russell Hall. Two speakers were presented, Trudier Harris, an English professor at the University, and Bishop L. Spenser Smith. Both spoke on very similar topics, the upbringing of the black community.

Harris’s speech focused on horror, and to the confused looks in the audience she said, “What I am going to talk about will seem strange to you at first.” 

Harris spoke of different works of African-American literature that included supernatural features. She said these things, along with the history of the torture of blacks, were considered horrors. But that wasn’t the focus of her call to action.

“Why am I telling you all this?” Harris said. “Because I encounter too many [black] students who willingly accept the horror and give in to the fear.”

Harris said she’s always observing the behavior of African-American students, particularly her own students and that they are not always living up to their full potential.

“When I see African-American students arrive at Morgan Hall six and 10 minutes after classes have started and in no particular rush to make up for lost time they are part of a horror,” Harris said. “These students might not be vampires or werewolves or body snatchers, but the futures they project are just as frightening as those mythical creatures. So the call to action is: Stop being a part of and buying into the horror.”

Harris finished her lecture by reciting Maya Angelou’s Still I Rise, to which the audience responded with a standing ovation.

Smith’s lecture was relatively similar, but with a broader focus than black students on campus.

“My message tonight was to rally this current generation around the notion that…we have to become the collective conscious of ourselves again,” Smith said.

He spoke on creating unity amongst the black community in order to be stronger when protesting rights in America. Smith mentioned how lately, the black community has been spoken of in the media as a large voting group candidates are after.

“There needs to be a call to allow America to understand that you cannot just call black people when it’s time for votes,” Smith said. “You can’t call when you want something from us and you answer us with nothing but jail time and failed policies.”

Smith said he wants for [black] millennials to hold each other accountable and get back to important ideals like education and faith.

“Those things are intrinsic to who we are,” Smith said. “Those things caused us to advance in this country in spite of slavery and Jim Crowism.”

Senior Alvin Lockett, president of the BSU said he chose Harris to speak because he felt she had the energy and knowledge to speak to the audience in a way that they would appreciate. Lockett also said he found it interesting that both speakers had similar messages, though he had little part in what they would talk about.

“For the most part I didn’t have too much say about what they were going to talk about,” Lockett said. “The segway between the two was almost brilliant.”