This Monday, Bradley students of all races joined outside Bradley Hall in a solidarity protest against the recent events at the University of Missouri.
Standing outside in rainy 40-degree weather, students held signs and chanted in unison as others either walked briskly past to their next class, paying no attention to the proceedings, or stopped and asked what was going on.
However, as soon as the chanting ended, the protest transformed from a rallying cry against racism to a pained plea to end it.
Students emerged from the crowd to tell heartbreaking stories. Some broke into tears when they shared their experiences.
This is what the solidarity protest taught us; racism lives on campus, and the best way to confront it is with awareness.
While we commend the bravery of the students who came forward to share their experiences with racism, we need to realize that too many students were victimized in an era where racism was supposed to be an afterthought of times gone by.
One such form of awareness was brought to campus Oct. 23, when ACBU’s infamous event N*W*C* took place on campus.
The show, which used a combination of racial slurs and humorous skits to convey the egregiousness of racism, was able to attract more than 1,200 students.
Although N*W*C* was able to address the issues it set out to confront, Bradley was not the campus to do so on.
Bradley is almost the definition of a stereotypical private school; the majority of campus is white. It would be an easy assumption to say N*W*C* would have a stronger effect on a campus of a public university, which might have a more diverse student body to understand the purpose of the show.
However, those in the majority cannot understand the struggle of the minority. That’s a given, and I recognize that.
N*W*C* channeled a message relatable to those who understand the struggle of racism. Unfortunately, much of the crowd knew nothing of the sort.
Now, this didn’t make N*W*C* a bad message or bad show at all. It just proved the best way to confront racism is to recognize the damage it leaves behind firsthand.
The protest taught us that racism not only exists at Bradley, but it’s a carrier of unbearable pain that needs to be alleviated.
