62. "I didn't graduate, but I went to Mizzou" In response to In response to 0
There's a row of White Fraternity houses that I must have went through a couple times with my white dormmates. I think I saw the Confederate flag a couple of times. This was in the mid-90's. Based on the recent unrest, it doesn't seem that symbols of racism have been completely eliminated from campus.
I was never the victim of outright racism in Columbia. It was my first taste of unchecked white privilege which leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Lots of microaggressions - friends telling me that students on Affirmative Action scholarships don't deserve them, teachers being less than inviting to me, being the only african-american in class, things like that.
But that being said, I made a number of white friends who I still keep in touch with on facebook.
But on a macro level, the university has had major issues embracing and making the campus climate amenable to people of color.
There is a Black Students Center on campus which may have been vandalized while I was there. There was the seemingly yearly moments where a kid would write 'Nigger' or some racially intimidating language on someone's dry erase board.
I think the reason the Mizzou situation is so troubling to whites is that they view the president being fired solely because of the incidents which happened this year when in reality, those situations were borne of conditions which were existing on the campus long before he got there.