Since 2010, I have been closely following and covering news at Mississippi State University. The then undersecretary of agriculture for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services for the United States Department of Agriculture took office in 2009 to become MSU president, a year before I stepped foot on U.S. soil. As far as I can recall, Keenum has rarely commented on political issues or taken partisan stands as a public figure. He has always maintained and carried himself as an academic first and a university official second.
On Wednesday though, with a little help from our sensationalist media men who like divisive headlines, Keenum became the top story in Mississippi with national outlets picking it up for a statement that was blown out of proportion and taken completely out of context.
On a routine trip to high schools, Keenum spoke to young students about college and future academic opportunities at Mississippi State. He said, “The state flag of Mississippi is just that — it is the state flag of our state. When I arrived at Mississippi State (in 2009), we had several state flags flying on campus that are still there today.” Keenum made it clear that he supports the removal of the confederate emblem from the flag but would like state legislature to act on the flag issue, a portion of the story that was conveniently omitted from the headlines.
I do not wish to dive into the confederate shades and schemes of the state of Mississippi but my resentment is to the criticism my university president has drawn, including some racist slanderous attacks on him in the last 48 hours.
Since being under the presidency of Keenum, MSU has become a tier 1 research university with very strong social science departments and faculty including African American studies. Critical reasoning, healthy debates in and outside classrooms, cultural exchanges and inter-faith dialogue are a by-product of this institution. If you doubt, maybe you should visit the Drill Field when members of the Consuming Fire Ministries gather to shout slogans against sodomy and the like or attend a lecture by James Chamberlain from the political science department on race and political theory.
Please be clear, I am no supporter of the confederate emblem, I think it should be retracted for good. I am the same guy who wrote the half-page article on the racial contract last month, there are many like me on this campus ranging from Keenum himself to university administrators, officials, students and faculty who will speak out against racial injustices and we speak with full conviction.
The emblem in the state-flag is a different issue altogether, and the decision to remove the state flag by the University of Mississippi and the University of Southern Mississippi has triggered a dialogue on the issue, which is encouraging. It is called policy diffusion but that does not mean the policy change should be shoved down another public institution’s throat.
Earlier this year, Quentin Smith from WCBI interviewed me on the issue; I said the same thing that President Keenum did at Ocean Springs. “I do not support confederate signs or the confederate flag, I think it should go, but as long as our law makers in `Jackson don’t pass a bill or something to take it down like South Carolina did, I would support the state flag.”
Every state in the U.S. has a unique history that is close to the hearts of the people of that state. By the power the constitution vests in every voter, they can make amendments if they like. Removing a state-flag from an institution that is run on public money without the consent of the people of that state is plain undemocratic. It is not about race, it is about respecting the system.
I would like to remind journalists who drive BMWs to plush offices in Manhattan and sip warm cappuccinos before writing an ‘intellectual’ commentary piece on race in Mississippi, that in 2001 the MSU Faculty Senate voted overwhelmingly in support of changing the state flag of Mississippi prior to the failed statewide voter referendum on that question. Keenum was among the majority on this campus that believed the emblem in the state flag must go and go as soon as possible because it rekindles the idea of superiority and racist history that nobody is proud of.
If only my dear friends in New York City and newsroom honchos around the country and state would re-channel their intellectual rage from a university administrator to the lawmakers in Jackson, Mississippi, it would be really helpful for the cause. On weekends, maybe take a lecture on writing unbiased headlines from our journalism professor Philip Poe.
Dr. Keenum, maybe you and I would disagree on some operational procedures of MSU and the maroon alert texts, but on this I fully support and stand with you and so does the bulldog family.
