Darius Dupins / Staff Writer
Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi and Patrisse Cullors created the Black Lives Matter movement as a call to action after 17-year-old Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman, was found not guilty. Trayvon Martin’s brother, 22-year-old Jahvaris Martin, is a recent graduate of FIU with a Bachelors of Science in Information Technology.
Since the creation of this very important social justice movement, hundreds of black lives have been lost at the hand of overly aggressive police officers. These include Mike Brown of Ferguson, Miss., Sandra Bland of Waller County, Texas, Eric Garner of Staten Island, N.Y., Tamir Rice of Cleveland, and the subsequent death of Freddie Gray that sparked the deadly riots in Baltimore.
On the evening of June 17, a young white man named Dylann Roof, opened fire on individuals inside of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church during a bible study. This left nine people dead, including the church’s pastor and South Carolina State Senator Clementa C. Pinckney.
The University has a population of nearly 50,000 students. With thirteen percent of these students being black, FIU has been silent on the topics mentioned. How much longer will our University’s administration keep quiet on issues that affect at least 6,500 students?
As a black male, my experience at FIU hasn’t been the best. For the last two and a half years, I have felt as if my needs aren’t a priority. Sometimes it seems that students who are of Latin descent get precedence over students who aren’t. The University keeping silent about Black Lives Matter and other social issues that affect the black community continue to perpetuate this belief.
President of the Black Student Union at FIU, Ernest “Tayon” Anderson, spoke on his council’s behalf and said the community of FIU look to BSU to address the fundamental issues that affect the Black community. He insisted that the university be more proactive to address these issues first.
Recently, students took notice when a false image of the University’s homepage made it’s way across social media on a mobile application called “Yeti”, which allows students to post their “campus stories”. “FIU’s police department trains dogs to hunt minorities, blacks and other untouchables,” read the manipulated headline.
The university wasn’t as vigilant as they should have been regarding this matter. “[BSU] had to bring this to the attention of Internal Affairs” said Anderson.
A disingenuous apology from FIU Media Relations was what students received in response to complaints from BSU regarding this incident.
“They said they didn’t want to acknowledge the person who did [posted the manipulated photo],” said Anderson.
Not only do black students represent thirteen percent of the FIU population, but over 60 percent of on-campus residents are black. How are we as black students supposed to feel comfortable in a learning and/or living environment that hasn’t acknowledged our lives, the newsworthy tragedies that have affected the community, and how this will continue to have an effect on our community in the future?
Yes, it can be weakly argued that FIU has supported Blacks Lives Matter. However, having one forum entitled “Black Lives Matter” in an umbrella series of “All Lives Matter” forums that was held at the Biscayne Bay Campus doesn’t count.
This particular event was held by Jeffery McNamee, Associate Director of the Multicultural Program and Services at BBC and didn’t have representation from any Black student organizations like BSU, African Student Organization.
Not only is Black Lives Matter a movement, but it is also a conversation piece. It suggests there is a specific problem in the black community that’s not happening in other communities. This is not something to trivialized at a poorly facilitated forum or in any other way.
All Lives Matter is a term white people invented to counteract the movement of Black Lives Matter. If the University showed the community that Black Lives Matter, the University would stand in solidarity with its Black students. However, that sounds too good to be true.I’m not the face for the black community on campus, but I want to help uplift my community. I’m here for the improvement of my college campus and I’m here to say that black lives will always matter whether my University thinks so or not.
[image from Flickr]