An open letter to the white #Mizzou student who wrote the open letter to black student activists

Dear non-racist white college student from Missouri,

I’m an anti-racist white campus minister who is very troubled by the things that are happening at your university. Since you disabled the comments on your blog, I’m not sure there’s a way to share this with you directly. But I’m writing it anyway to practice speaking about this topic with patience and compassion. Since I’m very passionate about fighting racism, I’m not always patient and compassionate with my fellow white people. I believe that you’re genuinely confused by what you’re experiencing, so I’m going to try my hardest to respond to your comments without being snarky or patronizing.

There are two major facts that I think you’re mistaken about. Referring to Jonathan Butler’s hunger strike, you say that “[your] classes, among with hundreds of other students’, were cancelled because a black man almost starved himself to death.” You also contend that Jonathan Butler’s hunger strike is the reason that your university president Tim Wolfe resigned from his job (he wasn’t fired).

Actually the reason your classes were canceled were because of racist threats of violence against your fellow students. If somebody calls in a violent threat against a college campus for any reason, it would be irresponsible not to evacuate the campus and investigate. Just because these threats were directed specifically against black students doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be taken seriously. It’s unfair and inaccurate for you to blame Jonathan Butler or the Concerned Student 1950 group for the racist threats of violence that were the actual cause of classes being canceled.

Regarding your second claim, the real reason Tim Wolfe lost his job is not because a black man starved himself, but because the University of Missouri, like every other NCAA Division I school in the country, has built its fundraising and alumni relations around its sports program, specifically football and basketball. Because of all the money invested in your school’s football program, your football players have an extraordinary amount of power that nobody knew they had (least of all themselves). They made an extreme demand which caught everyone in your school administration off-guard and brought the entire school system to its knees because of the disproportionate investment that your college has in its football program. Without that power lever, Jonathan Butler could have starved himself for a month and nothing would have happened. Tim Wolfe lost his job because of the college football industrial complex.

I get why you feel a sense of unfairness that Wolfe lost his job. I’m not going to belittle that. I don’t think it’s Wolfe’s fault that the job of university president in our age involves very little direct interaction with actual college students. It’s mostly about fundraising and building relationships with big donors. But maybe that needs to change. Without an event like this, it never would change. Maybe now other university presidents will take note and scramble to find ways to address the problems with racism on their campuses. Maybe now they’ll actually talk to their black students and show that they care about them.

I get why you feel it’s wrong to blame President Wolfe personally for the climate of racism on campus. I’m not sure what I would have done if I were in his position. I’m not sure that any sort of mandatory training is really going to change peoples’ attitudes. Of course racism is about a lot more than peoples’ attitudes. One of the mistakes we make as white people is to assume that racism only happens if an individual person is intentionally being racist. But racism refers to every time that people of color are harmed or disadvantaged on account of their race whether the cause is personal and deliberate or systemic and inadvertent. Administrators like Tim Wolfe with a macroscopic view of a campus environment have a responsibility to examine and address the systemic racism on campus in addition to responding to individual deliberate acts of racism.

Of course, the level of personal, deliberate racism at the University of Missouri is pretty shocking to me and most other people around the country. The fact that white people are openly using the N-word in direct conversation with black people, including the student body president, is absolutely incredible in 2015. So it’s understandable to me that Jonathan Butler and the Concerned Student 1950 group found the racial environment at Mizzou to be completely unacceptable, and I can see how the refusal of President Wolfe to engage them directly after their confrontation in the homecoming parade was the last straw.

I need to challenge you about one sentence you wrote towards the end of your blog. You said, “We are a University with so much to be proud of, and that is where change should spark from.” It seemed like the kind of sentence I write when I run out of steam and can’t think of a good way to finish a post. Sorry, but change never takes its “spark” from pride. Change happens when we lower our pride and humbly face the reality that things are not okay. You can choose to be annoyed with the black students on your campus and judge their actions from a distance. You can exonerate yourself by saying that you’re not racist because you don’t actively use the N-word or deliberately discriminate against black people in your decision-making.

Or you can choose to take it upon yourself to be a part of real change by becoming an anti-racist rather than just a non-racist. You can educate yourself about the concerns of black student activists. Instead of surrounding yourself with an echo chamber of voices that are ridiculing the activists, read the talking points of people who support their movement too. If there are events where black Mizzou students are sharing testimony about what their lives are like, then go to these events and listen with an open heart.

If it isn’t Tim Wolfe’s fault that shockingly open racism is taking place on your campus, then maybe it’s your fault and the fault of all the white students who haven’t called out your peers because you think this isn’t your problem. Make it your problem.

Sincerely,

An anti-racist white campus minister from New Orleans

Please like my blog’s facebook page!