MSU's multicultural student organizations should be commended for creating a watchdog plan to push university officials to pay more attention to the concerns of the community's marginalized citizens.
The Council of Racial Ethnic Students and the Council of Progressive Students unveiled MSU Affirmative REACTION on Wednesday and discussed the new group's mission to provoke more response from university leaders on issues pertinent to the multicultural community.
REACTION stands for Reminding Every American Citizen That It's Our Need.
While the acronym is a stretch to fit its letters to the group's mission, its new creation, announced in the Multicultural Center on Wednesday, is right on target in its duty.
Louis Brown, ASMSU's Student Assembly vice chairperson for external affairs, is right in his assessment that university leaders are not addressing multicultural issues in a proactive manner.
Despite a sound bite from MSU spokesman Terry Denbow saying, "MSU can't and won't tolerate any kind of (racist) activity," it seems the actions of the school's governors speak otherwise.
How else should members of MSU's multicultural community interpret university action that shove their concerns around from committee to committee causing them to seemingly disappear with each generation of students?
How else should the MSU community interpret the Board of Trustees' unwillingness to speak out about the U.S. Supreme Court case involving the University of Michigan's affirmative action policy?
How else should multicultural groups feel when their requests for a free-standing multicultural center - or adequate office space - continue to be virtually ignored?
MSU Affirmative REACTION is a move in the right direction toward informing many university officials of their need to stop what can be seen as the mere blowing off of important multicultural issues. By continuing its mission to maintain a well-organized lobbying effort, this group gets MSU's top elected officials to understand where their priorities should lie.
The problems that stem from racism will not simply go away by only focusing on them when faced with immediate problems.
MSU leaders need to begin taking a more proactive stance on addressing diversity issues and understanding.
Unless we start to combat racist ideas before they attack us, nooses hung in trees by the river, offensive fliers and misunderstandings around burnt mannequin heads will not cease to be frequent events on this campus.
It is the charge of MSU leaders to seriously address and nurture the needs of their community.
There are people among MSU's top ranks who understand that duty to its fullest, but they are unfortunately in the minority.
Now is the time for students like those involved with MSU Affirmative REACTION to address the deaf ears that can make a difference.
