final project: Contemporary Connections

In 2015, the topic of race is still an issue. The topic is such a fragile one that one little comment that is meant inoffensively could be taken into account as racist comment. We can see the issues of race through a WBUR news article by Fred Thys titled, “ Incoming BU Professor Criticized for tweets on race; students rally to support”. A sociology teacher at Boston University, Saida Grundy had made several tweets about race in the last couple months. The comment that sparked this attention was when a fraternity from a university in Oklahoma tweeted about how they would never accept an African American member. Grundy made a tweet in response to them saying, “ Why is white America so reluctant to identify white college males as a problem population?” Although many were offended by this comment, others supported her. Jaimee McGruder, a student at Boston University made this statement concerning the comment, “ And we really, really hope that professor Grundy can come to BU and hopefully, maybe educate the largely white population, if they decide to take her class and learn more about these issues and why her tweets were not racist”. McGruder, a black woman, has experienced racism fist hand. She grew up in a white area in Louisiana. “Back home, I used to get beat up for being black. I was told in elementary school, ‘Nobody cares about black people’ by other children, by white children. This is something that students of color have to deal with. We’re told from the beginning of our lives that we don’t matter.” Grundy did not make a comment and declined to be interviewed for this article but she did make a statement, “ In the past year alone, the inconvenient matter of race has made itself an unavoidable topic of discussion in our country…I regret that my personal passion about issues surrounding these events led me to speak about them indelicately… I am committed to ensuring that my classroom is a space where all students are welcomed”.

I think this article really brings to light an issue of race, in different ways. The first is through social media. I think a lot of people don’t realize that they are making racist comments or being biased in terms of race on social media, where it can be seen by everybody. I think it’s interesting how not a lot of people saw these white fraternity males comments as a problem. I think a lot of people, not everyone, don’t think about these racist comments affects the other race. Grundy’s response to the fraternity was her response in dealing with the racial problem we have yet in America. We can see that she is role model for many who are trying to shed light there is still a race problem within society. The white fraternity members, don’t understand what it’s like for a different race because America, for some reason, sees white a the “dominant” race. Racist comments against whites isn’t nearly as big of a deal compared to racist comments made against African Americans. I think it would be beneficial for everyone, including those fraternity members, to think about those racial comments from the other sides perspective or viewpoint before putting them out there in the world. They’re experiences as white men are probably a lot different compared to McGruder’s experiences. It is very saddening to see that still in this era that African American children have to grow up getting bullied because of their race. This is something that McGruder says, “ This is something that students of color have to deal with”.

            In Beloved, Morrison shows us a different side to the slavery experience, from an African Americans point of view. She shows us how the experience was different than those of white people. African Americans were beaten, used for sex to produce more children, their children were taken away from them, and they were degraded as human beings and treated like animals. These are all things that whites never had to deal with. Racist comments they made towards African Americans such one like school teacher made about Sethe, making the men of SweetHome divide Sethe’s into human and animal characteristics. They had disregard for human feelings and degraded them by comments that had to do with race. Today, African Americans are still not treated equally by some people, although many people think they are. These racist comments that are still being made are degrading. I think that the horrible way African Americans were treated that are brought to light in Beloved can really help understand why the African American professor spoke up against racism. African Americans had to endure a different history than whites, and still have to put up with such racist comments in our world today.

Works Cited

Thys, Fred. "WBUR news station." 13 05 2015. Bostons NPR News Station. 13 05 2015 <www.wbur.org/2015/05/13/saod-grundy-bu-professor-tweets>.