By N’Dea Collins-Whitfield
Hi Webster Journal, I wanted to first state that this is my response as an undergraduate student, as of four years attending Webster University and being a native of St. Louis.
The supposed editorial of this highly opinionated, ignorant and daring piece is in the subject line of this email and this is honest and as kindly as I could state these facts based off my supposed urban experience.
I am utterly disgusted with this write up. I cannot even call this an opinions editorial an article. The person, a white, privileged, ignorant business major* wrote this irrelevant, grammatic error mess.
Let me first say as identifying as black/African American student who attends this seemingly hypocritical university, I would love and hope you see color.
Making visible to yourself my color and everyone’s color is a detrimental truth that this country has yet to understand and even want to speak on.
My blackness holds my identity, history, truth, and value. It is blatantly ignorant and racist to be colorblind and not see color. Let me state that racism is a system of supremacy acted upon a group of people who held as a minority to the majority.
This country and this world has not come so far as to confirm that we are all significant and “matter” in this day and age.
We are black people and this country and its institutions fail to recognize we have indeed built this country.
It was built on the backs of enslaved people (mainly being people of color). Failing to recognize these historical facts and publishing this article is utterly ignorant, disgusting and inhumane.
What this article failed to get across to the entirety of the student body and held back from this article, besides being ignorant of facts, is stating in parallel to the statement about the sheriff in Texas that was killed was that Michael Brown was an adolescent, a son, a brother; that he was even any of those things and that he did indeed matter.
He and several other black bodies have fallen into the pit of being utterly irrelevant to this country and it has been far too long we have been fighting this identity war.
A war with ourselves and with others whom are ignorant to it because it still remains a problem to this day for all.
Black folks and people of color need justice, and I cannot gain that from an institution I attend.
My ancestors fought to have due to colonization and enslavement of my people, and this country recognizing and speaking deeply in the pit of this issue, I flat out do not believe that is a world we should all live in.
Yes, people are people and all lives matter, but when we say #BlackLivesMatter we are not discriminating on other lives and not lessening other’s significance.
We are advocating for power for the people. I hope we can all come to the conclusion we love people. and that is what matters over anything.
*Editor’s note: Randi Hammor is a journalism major.
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