By Kara Little, Forum Editor
As many of you probably know by now, a racist photo from Susquehanna’s 1971 yearbook, has resurfaced.
The photo depicts a reenactment of a Ku Klux Klan lynching, with a Confederate flag being held in the center.
There’s been a lot of discussions within the student body, and of course, another e-mail has been sent out to members of the SU community, in order to address any concerns people may have. Although it was probably well intended, no one cares about the e-mails.
No one takes the e-mails seriously.
The way that this school addresses bias incidences, past, present, and possibly future, is anything but attentive.
One of Susquehanna’s notorious patterns is a bias incidence occurring, the students find out about it, the word of the incident spreads throughout the SU community to the point that the school can no longer avoid addressing it, and then an e-mail is sent sugar-coating the incident and tops it off with how much “times have changed” and how much SU values “diversity and inclusion”.
If “diversity and inclusion” are so valued by this school, then why are there female students, students of color, and LGBT+ students fearful for their lives every day spent on this campus?
There are students that have experienced bias incidents within the last few years that do not even see the point in reporting them because they know how Susquehanna tends to treat these issues when they are not in the public eye.
We don’t care that the photo is 48 years old. This photo is not as outdated as everyone’s justifying it to be. There are people are on this campus that don’t see the problem with the photo, and think that photos like this are still okay.
I think that as long as this school continues to give security blankets to those that are uncomfortable with racism being addressed around them, meanwhile ignoring the concerns of the students that actually have to experience racism, Susquehanna will never truly ex exemplify “diversity and inclusion” on our campus. These issues will only be solved if Susquehanna stops beating around the bush. Bias incidences occur every day on this campus, and until Susquehanna demands that students that identify with groups of privilege go out of their own way to educate themselves on their own-
The editorials of The Quill reflect the views of individuals members of the editorial board of the Susquehanna Faculty. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire university. The content of the Forum page is the responsibility of the editor in chief and the Forum editor
