The Gaines-Oldham Black Culture Center, 100 Praying Women and MU’s Black Men’s Initiative all partnered today to provide a prayer service in response to Sunday’s episode of racism seen at Traditions Plaza.
Sunday, the Legion of Black Collegians (LBC) was rehearsing for their play “The Mis-educated” when a drunk white student called the group a racial slur.
This comes just weeks after a separate incident where MSA President Peyton Head was called the same racial slur while walking through Greek Town on MU’s campus.
MU’s Legion of Black Collegians, the black student governmental body, has called for change on campus following these incidents. Daisy Rushing, 100 praying women’s devotional leader, said she isn’t too confident in the Chancellor’s response.
“He might start with action, but I don’t think he is going to actually complete it. I feel like he is going to do enough to get people quiet and then when something else happens it is going to be the same things going on,” Rushing said.
Chancellor Loftin expressed his displeasure with the situation with a tweet as well as email sent to all students following the incident. He proposed diversity training and adding a Vice President of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity to help make MU safe for all students.
Another route to fixing this problem is providing students with important context so that they can empathize with other students that they may not interact with on a regular basis, Kathleen Chval, the acting dean for the school of education said. She brought her honors college class to the event.
“We thought today would provide an opportunity for them to think about what it’s like to be a person of color on this campus. Reading about it in the paper or seeing it on television isn’t the same as being here,” Chval said.
The LBC will be hosting their play tonight at 8pm at Traditions Plaza as a part of their week long string of events for MU’s homecoming week.