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Race-based meme leads to college response

By Brian Hagen

06/17/2020

(KAIR)--Controversy at Atchison’s Benedictine College following a social media post made by a student.

According to a statement released Wednesday afternoon by College President Steven Minnis, the post, or meme, was “an historically inaccurate and offensive graphic” asserting that the first slave owner in America was black.

Minnis identifies the one who made the post as a member of the student chapter of Turning Point USA, a conservative non-profit organization whose connections with far-right and white nationalist organizations are documented by the American Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Saying that the college was “deeply disturbed” by the meme, Minnis, in the release, said the message implied in the meme, “that enslavement was not an institution imposed on black people by white people,” “is wrong in every sense of the word.”

Adding that even if that “was not the I intent of the student,” “it was nevertheless an act that could only cause needless pain, especially to [the college’s] black Raven family members.”

The release says “the Dean of Students is currently evaluating the appropriate response” to Turning Point USA “in light of the rules governing student organizations,” and is working with the college’s Graduate Assistant for Diversity Initiatives “to develop programs for the fall that will emphasize how [the college] can better address” what Minnis calls “the sad legacy of slavery and racism in today’s society and on campus.”

Although the founder of the Illinois-based Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, has denounced white supremacy as “not what Turning Point believes,” members, and spokespersons, have been embroiled in a number of race-based controversies.

According to screenshots posted to the Benedictine College Facebook page, in a discussion regarding the statement from Minnis, the meme, since deleted, had been posted to the Instagram account tpusa.bc. A second screenshot shows another post from the account, apparently from the same user, saying they would not apologize, but had deleted the meme because “the intention was misunderstood.”

The college, in the Facebook discussion, said the account did not have college approval.

Stephen D. Minnis, President of Benedictine College, issued the following statement on Wednesday, June 17, 2020.

Benedictine College was deeply disturbed to see that a member of the student Chapter of TPUSA posted an historically inaccurate and offensive graphic on their Instagram account.

This meme asserted that the first slave-owner in America was black. That is factually wrong. But more perniciously, it seems to imply that enslavement was not an institution imposed on black people by white people. This is wrong in every sense of the word.

Cats have four legs. Very occasionally you will see a cat who has had some sort of accident running around with only three legs. This doesn’t mean that cats aren’t four-legged creatures. White people enslaved black people. Very occasionally you would see a black person owning slaves. This doesn’t mean that slavery was not a race-based system imposed on black people by white people. To deny it seems like an attempt to deny the historical reality that racism has caused suffering that continues to this very day.

Even if this was not the intent of the student who posted this meme, it was nevertheless an act that could only cause needless pain, especially to our black Raven family members. The Dean of Students is currently evaluating the appropriate response to this club in light of the rules governing student organizations, and is working with our GA for Diversity Initiatives to develop programs for the fall that will emphasize how we can better address the sad legacy of slavery and racism in today’s society (and on campus). However, the real response to this is not about rights and programs. The real response is based in our principles and values, and our call to each, individually, commit ourselves to embracing them and living them out.

The great promise of America—a promise obscured, but not obliterated, by the terrible stain of slavery—is contained in the words of the Declaration of Independence—that we are all equal, each of us, of every race and circumstance, equally created in the image and likeness of God. It is to achieve that promise that we must keep striving, not to divide by race but to embrace this great challenge—to lift the burdens from all our neighbors and fellow citizens, to aim toward healing and peace rather than provocation and aggravation.

St. Benedict reminds us that we should treat everyone we encounter as if they were Jesus Christ himself. Posting images or messages that are hurtful to our fellow students and fellow citizens is antithetical to our community. Now is a particularly sensitive time in our nation’s history, and words and images that carry unsettling implications are even more hurtful than usual. Let us not cause needless pain with careless remarks or social media posts. Our only hope for healing and progress is love—love for those God has put in our path, by making them fellow Ravens. Abraham Lincoln shows us the way: “With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds…”

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Comments

Harold (06/17/2020 6:53 PM)

Benedictine had to act fast or BLM rioters would have burned the college down while the police wathced.