What would you do if someone disregarded and disrespected your overall existence based on your skin pigmentation? Some of you may not know how to respond due to it never having been an issue, while some of you unfortunately may know exactly how due to the fact that it is a common occurrence.
The recent events at the University of Missouri have brought forth concerns toward domestic terrorism. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, domestic terrorism is essentially the, “dangerous, unlawful act towards a human life that violates a federal or state law by intimidating a civilian population, influencing the policy of a government by coercion, or affecting the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping within the territorial jurisdiction of the U.S.”. Therefore, a terrorist is someone who does as such. The racist threats toward the protestors and other black students on the campus last week were acts of domestic terrorism.
On the evening of Nov. 10, threats were made on Yik Yak, an anonymous, interactive social media messaging app, including statements such as, “I’m going to stand my ground tomorrow and shoot every black person I see” and, “Some of you are alright. Don’t come to campus tomorrow.” They were in response to the forced resignation of the institution’s previous president, Tim Wolfe, who not only refused to address acts of racism on the campus thoroughly, but also silently enforced it by blatantly disregarding it about a month earlier during a parade. On Oct. 10, protestors interrupted their homecoming parade to address the numerous racist incidents that had occurred since the founding year of the college through present day 2015. While Wolfe, who was riding a convertible in the parade that actually snipped a protestor sat in silence as they continued.
Students on Tuesday evening flocked to social media to raise awareness of the current threats taking place at the university. “There are white students at Mizzou right now riding around in pickup trucks terrorizing black people”, “I’m shaking and crying,” “they are circling around us,” “I don’t feel safe at Mizzou anymore,” and, “This place is literal hell right now,” were some of the actual responses of students who were directly threatened. MU Alert, the college’s twitter account utilized to alert students, continually reported there was no immediate threat to campus and for rumors to not be spread.
A student from the University of Missouri, Jasmine Birt, sent an email to her professor, Dale Brigham, about her concerns toward taking her exam in his class the very next day in response to the online threats toward minorities that were made that evening. His response? “If we cancel class, then we let the bullies win.” I understand that administrators must react appropriately, the way they had been trained by the school initially, and accordingly to each situation as the institution instructs them to do so. However, in my opinion, bullies are people who threaten to take lunch money or slut shame a female for expressing her sexuality. The victims, can vocally protect themselves. When you threaten another person’s life, especially in an academic setting where they should feel safe enough to further their education, to dissuade them from doing daily activities within the grounds of the country in which you both reside, that is an act of domestic terrorism. You have crossed the not so fine line between a bully and a terrorist, in which you are a terrorist by definition. The victim can no longer vocally protect themselves, because it holds no immediate value when the threat is life or death. Therefore, Brigham’s response does not particularly make him a terrorist, but enforces the idea that the threats made were less significant than they truly were. Despite the fact that the flock of responses on social media that evening were questionably credible, the actual threats themselves are factual and the fearful reactions are justifiable.
Although this event may have been unreliable it does not negate the fact that threats were made. The credibility of the sources following the threats does not negate the fact that people, specifically minorities, were scared for their lives. Hunter Park, the person who posted the social media threat, being arrested does not negate the fact that racial threats still occur in supposed ‘post racial’ America in modern day 2015 and that it should be addressed appropriately. I guess instead of asking what would you do if someone invalidated your existence based on your skin pigmentation, I should ask what King Ricky III tweeted in response to one of the other few racially threatening events that occurred throughout the week following this one, “What will you do when hate comes to a campus near you?”
