The Black Student Alliance, or the BSA, met with some of MSU’s top administrators, including MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon on Oct. 28 at Brody Hall, determined to see action in response to a series of racial incidents that have occurred on campus this semester.
There was a time and a place for the Black Student Alliance, or BSA, to be indignant; that time was in the days immediately following the writing of racial slurs on students’ doors.
The organization should have stifled that demeanor when speaking to MSU’s administration. Last Friday the BSA met some of MSU’s top administrators -— most notably MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon — with a list of demands to promote diversity and racial tolerance on campus.
Voicing demands without a willingness to compromise makes the BSA appear unreasonable. Because BSA members failed to reign in their passion and have an even-keeled discussion with the university’s administration, their message of racial equity -— among other things — is getting lost. The Editorial Board agrees with the basic ideas the BSA offers as solutions, but not the manner in which it chose to deliver those ideas.
The members and leadership of BSA obviously are passionate about creating an atmosphere of racial acceptance at MSU, but that passion is no excuse to be disrespectful.
The disrespect the BSA showed to university administrators also was hypocritical. How can they claim knowledge of how to foster an environment of respect for all races when they apparently choose not to show respect to MSU’s administration?
BSA goals certainly are lofty. It just is difficult for the administration and the whole student body to see past these methods to the message. Some of the good ideas the BSA has are being hidden behind its perceived anger at the university.
It’s difficult for any student organization to obtain a meeting with the higher-ups of MSU’s administration. As such, the BSA squandered a prime opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with the administration about race at MSU.
Simon even lamented the lost opportunity, telling The State News after the meeting, “We’re a university, and there are always going to be differences of opinion, and there are solutions that can work. … But to simply respond to a list of demands, I don’t think gets you to where you want to go as an institution.”
Some of the BSA’s demands also ignore other minority groups at MSU. What would an “increase in Black students, faculty, and staff” — BSA Demand No. 6 according to a list submitted/written by BSA President Mario Lemons — do for other minority student groups on campus?
How would university funding to “re-establish a black-orientated newspaper” — BSA Demand No. 17 — assist other minority groups in their struggle for racial equality? Other minority groups need support from the university, too, yet the BSA’s demands appeared not to always take that into account.
There undoubtedly needs to be conversation with the administration about the role race plays at this university.
But having a conversation implies that both sides talk and contribute ideas, not one side petulantly demanding things from the other.
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