2008 Woodie Awards
The trouble with Black History Month
Students voice disappointment over Black History celebration
Rebecca Bauman
Issue date: 2/28/08 Section: Front Page
"We were pulling people out of Africa," Johnson said, "forcing them onto ships, enslaving them and profiting from their forced labor. Black people came to this country first because we dragged them here. Their presence in this country is rooted in others profiting from their abuse."
Johnson says that African American history needs to be separately acknowledged because the success of the United States was built, in part, on the backs of African Americans long before other foreign racial minorities began entering this country en masse.
Johnson, who ran on a platform that addressed a desire to increase student diversity on campus, adds that an event like Black History Month is especially important on a campus like PSU where student diversity is "so limited."
"I can understand why black people would feel unwelcome here," he said. "PSU feels very much like a white institution where black people are allowed. A lot of people seem to sense that lack of diversity, but, in the end, not a whole lot is done."
Education through integration
Johnson admits that, by definition, minority students aren't expected to show up to public universities in overwhelming numbers. As such, he says that diversity itself isn't as big an issue as the integration of student groups that already exist on campus.
"We have organizations like BSA and Chinese Culture Club, and university administrators will look around and call it 'good.'
They'll see diversity in that sense. But I don't think so. Diversity, to me, happens when students from different races and backgrounds start interacting, when white kids start becoming members of BSA."
Gholson says that's exactly what the BSA would like to see happen.
"There's not that many black people in college around the United States, period," she said. "So if people from other races aren't given the opportunity to learn about and interact with black people ... some will automatically assume that the negative stereotypes they see on TV are true."
Johnson says that African American history needs to be separately acknowledged because the success of the United States was built, in part, on the backs of African Americans long before other foreign racial minorities began entering this country en masse.
Johnson, who ran on a platform that addressed a desire to increase student diversity on campus, adds that an event like Black History Month is especially important on a campus like PSU where student diversity is "so limited."
"I can understand why black people would feel unwelcome here," he said. "PSU feels very much like a white institution where black people are allowed. A lot of people seem to sense that lack of diversity, but, in the end, not a whole lot is done."
Education through integration
Johnson admits that, by definition, minority students aren't expected to show up to public universities in overwhelming numbers. As such, he says that diversity itself isn't as big an issue as the integration of student groups that already exist on campus.
"We have organizations like BSA and Chinese Culture Club, and university administrators will look around and call it 'good.'
They'll see diversity in that sense. But I don't think so. Diversity, to me, happens when students from different races and backgrounds start interacting, when white kids start becoming members of BSA."
Gholson says that's exactly what the BSA would like to see happen.
"There's not that many black people in college around the United States, period," she said. "So if people from other races aren't given the opportunity to learn about and interact with black people ... some will automatically assume that the negative stereotypes they see on TV are true."
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