On the night of June 17, nine people were shot and killed at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., according to NBC News.
The suspected shooter, Dylann Roof, admitted to doing the killings because he wanted to start a race war, according to CNN. Though Charleston is more than 800 miles away, the racially-motivated killings have left its mark on MSU.
MSU’s Black Student Alliance painted the rock on June 18 with the solemn message, “We Stand With Charleston, S.C.”
The BSA painted the rock to bring awareness of the shooting to people on campus, food industry management junior and the RHA chair of the BSA Sherria Hamilton said.
Hamilton said the shooting really hit home for her because it took place in a church.
“If I’m not safe in church, in the house of the lord, where am I safe at?” she said.
“As Spartans, we acknowledge that this is not okay,” BSA vice president Kelsi Horn said. “Which is kind of what we wanted to show by painting the rock.”
Horn said the Charleston massacre indicates race is still a huge factor in American society and that racism is an issue we have yet to tackle.
“I hope this event wakes up America; people still say racism doesn’t exist,” Horn said.
The killings weren’t a shock to her, Horn added, because of the similarity to many other headlines of late, but what is shocking is that people try to play it off as something other than a race issue.
Horn believes this generation should acknowledge racism, because addressing issues of race can make positive strives and reduce racism.
Hamilton said the aftermath of the event is what bothers her most because Roof has been labeled as mentally ill by media, whereas he should be viewed as a terrorist.
“He went to the church, he knew what he was doing,” Hamilton said.
She argued that if the shooter had been a person of color, he would have been treated much differently. She cited how POC who are victims of police brutality are often portrayed as bad people, whereas a white criminal is treated better than the POC victim and labeled mentally ill.
“It just goes to show that America in general is a messed up country,” Hamilton said. “The aftermath of these events prove that white privilege is real.”
These events portray the American justice system as unfair to people of color, Hamilton said.
“We fight back, we protest, we put it out there that this is what’s happening, but you see it continuing.”
Both students feel it will take a miracle to change society, but believe the MSU community can help.
“The message is more powerful when we can have people outside the black community advocating for the black community,” Horn said.
