Just days after some students posted a string of racially charged tweets directed toward the black community, other organizations are showing their solidarity, namely the Latino community.
More than 30 students gathered at the Latino Student Union’s meeting Wednesday night to discuss the recent, controversial tweets.
The discussion was in response to an incident this past Thursday night, during which some students tweeted racially charged messages about black students gathering at Ziggy Zoomba’s. Tweets posted by students referred to a group of people as a “chocolate ocean,” and made statements such as “it got dark real fast,” along with other, more vulgar statements.
Among the topics discussed were how the University administration responded to the tweets and how to prevent similar instances in the future.
LSU chose to host this discussion as a way to support the African-American community and decide how to take action, said Adriana Darris, president of LSU.
“We thought it was important to address this because it is a new topic,” Darris said. “We not only wanted to inform about it but hear what students had to say.”
Members of LSU, the Black Student Union, and other students and faculty, were among the audience.
The gathered students acknowledged the need to continue with action by pushing the administration, educating the community and standing up for others from the LGBT community to the black community.
“We need to challenge the administration to de better by us,” said Anne Mitchell, an instructor in the Ethnic Studies Department. “We cannot allow them to cloak this in secrecy.”
Audience members also lauded the way groups such as BSU and LSU have handled the situation so far. The response has not been reactionary, but professional and respectful, members of the group said.
As soon as the tweets came to light, Darris worked with Tiffany Smith, BSU president, to begin addressing the issue.
University President Mary Ellen Mazey sent out an email Friday afternoon condemning the tweets, stating that the University will conduct an investigation for violations to the Student Code of Conduct.
After contacting administrators and Mazey on Friday, Darris and Smith were able to meet with two of the tweeters in question on Sunday.
Both expressed remorse for their actions, with one of them in particular saying it was not part of his or her character, Darris said.
“In the end we tried to get through to both of them we’re not hating them as people, we just want them to be educated,” she said.
The BSU has also worked with the Office of Equity and Diversity to establish a Twitter hashtag called “not in our town,” which students can use to speak out against any type of discrimination.
This is the first of a few events that will address issues of race and diversity inclusion on the campus. There will be two upcoming forums in the weeks left in the semester to address race and diversity issues.
The first is April 17 in Olscamp Hall 111 at 7 p.m. and will focus on the “not in our town” hashtag.
The second forum will be April 23 in Olscamp Hall 115. Mazey will speak along with a panel, which will include Dalton Jones, assistant professor in Ethnic Studies and adviser to BSU.
The email from Mazey notified students to contact the Office of the Dean of Students at 419-372-2843 or the Office of Equity and Diversity at 419-372-8476 if they feel they have been subject to discrimination.
