opinion

Bankole: Shocking display emphasizes need for black history

When a Michigan State University student recently discovered black dolls depicting prominent black historical figures such as former President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, abolitionist Harriet Tubman, civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Prince hanging from a tree inside the Wharton Center for Performing Arts gift shop, not only was it shocking, but it revealed something sinister about some of our major college campuses like MSU whose student bodies are still overwhelmingly white.

The abhorrent display made during Black History Month forced black students to confront the horror of lynching, a part of blacks’ unresolved and unacknowledged generational pain. It was only recently that Congress finally voted for legislation that made lynching a federal crime after more than a century of failing to do just that.

What happened at the Wharton Center is not only profoundly unacceptable, but also underscores the need to have real discussions about how our public universities can become effective anchors of racial equality.

Several students at MSU shared with me their experiences of feeling excluded on campus last week, when I drove to East Lansing to deliver the keynote address for the “20th Dr. William G. Anderson Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey Lecture Series.” For some of these students, the incident at the Wharton Center was just one of a series of other incidents that have taken place in the past and that they deemed racially insensitive.

One particular student shared with me her daily struggles trying to make some of her white classmates aware of the challenges of exclusion and feeling ignored that black students face. At one point, the student said it is difficult to find white allies in her classroom who can affirm the humanity of black students.

After all, the lynching incident did not trigger a full-blown public reaction from across a spectrum of non-black student groups on campus. It was mostly black students who were left to shoulder the burden of the pain of that past, and they were virtually the only ones who condemned the lynching display.

“We sincerely apologize to our community members and have immediately removed the display. Additionally, after the Wharton Center reported the incident, it has agreed to provide employees and volunteers with racial bias training that focuses on the impact and understanding of intentional and unintentional racial bias,” wrote MSU spokeswoman Emily Guerrant in a news release.

But for change to really occur that prioritize the needs of black students and others who come from historically oppressed groups, university administrators need to move beyond issuing sporadic apologies when racial incidents occur. They must be willing to acknowledge the challenges that come out of the legacies of slavery and lynching and how they’ve had enormous impact on black life.

A former president of the Albany civil rights movement in Georgia, Dr. Anderson, after whom the lecture series is named, also wants to see a bigger emphasis on teaching black history.

Our history cannot be forgotten. And university administrators must take the lead.

bankole@bankolethompson.com

Twitter: @BankoleDetNews

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