Students responded to questions regarding attendance at protests, forgiveness and the Confederate flag -- all in an attempt to answer the question of why such a drastic event had to happen in order to rally people together for change. “I was at home when I heard the news,” Earl Grant said. “I had the parents of kids calling and asking, ‘Is my baby safe?’” “People could hide behind non-confrontational dialogue until these events,” BSU Faculty Advisor Marla Robertson said. “Now, we can uncover and pull back the layers for long term solidarity and change in our institutions.” “With the Walter Scott case, we were upset, but not mad enough,” one student said. “It took 9 people -- a bloodbath -- for us to get mad enough.” “In South Carolina, riots didn’t happen,” claimed another student. “If anywhere, this is where it should have happened. There is forgiveness, but at the same time ... “ “Where is justice?” someone filled in. Seeking Resolution Charleston’s forbearance from taking action, from acting rash, has been coined by Governor Nikki Haley as a lesson from the “New South.” According to an article in The Washington Post, Haley affirmed that Charleston’s reaction to the shooting has not been violent, by saying, “We didn’t have riots, we had vigils. We didn’t have violence, we had hugs.” Haley claimed that this is representative of a new South, a South in which sympathy and peace is the response to racism instead of violence and revenge. However, debate is milling around the College of Charleston campus about whether this is the right response. And rightfully so. Associate Professor of Educational History and Faculty Contact for the Race and Social Justice Initiative Jon Hale addressed Haley’s comments with a more critical perspective. Hale claimed that what happened in Baltimore and other cities that have faced recent raciallydriven tragedies is a sign of political dissent and protest. “And to say that it’s just mindless is missing the point: that the South, as well as the North and West and Midwest, are upset with this issue,” Hale said. “We are not going to solve this issue through hugs and unity, we are going to solve this issue through deep discussion -- that will be painful at times -- and substantive reform.” Substantive reform that, in the words of CofC’s President of the National Pan-Hellenic Council Odies Turner, cannot simply come from taking the Confederate Flag down from the state’s capitol or naming a scholarship after a victim. Turner argued that while it was a good thing to take down the flag, it’s just not enough. “The whole thing overshadowed the big picture of what needs to be going on and how we need to progress as a community and how black lives need to be looked at,” Turner said. “It was like giving a baby a pacifier; you just shut them up for a moment.” White agreed. “It was 50 years too late,” he said. On Tuesday, Sept. 29, roughly 175 people entered the Wells Fargo Auditorium, candles in hand. This schoolwide vigil, called No Violence -- No Victims, was held to commemorate the victims and the survivors of the shooting and all those who have been affected by this senseless October 15
BSU President Kalene Parker helped to organize the Say Their Names forum as well as the No Violence - No Victims vigil. (Photo by Michael Wiser) crime. Students and faculty filed in. Fraternity boys asked where they could sign in to get credit from their organization that clearly forced them to go. One of the College’s a cappella groups sang an arguably tasteless selection of “Somebody That I Used to Know.” And President McConnell sounded more like he was advertising for the College than sympathizing with its community. Is this enough? Are we doing enough? Tragedy strikes and we hurt. We say we are “Charleston Strong” and we hold hands on a bridge and sing at vigils. We seek the death penalty because clearly the shooter was a “crazy person,” and his death will bring us the retribution that we feel we deserve. Clearly his ideas are so distant from ours that we cannot possibly take responsibility for enabling them. We say we are empathetic when we really just don’t understand. But there was a gospel choir at the vigil that sang of strength. There was a student who spoke of “Knowing your role, Doing your job.” A pastor who spoke of solidarity and positivity. We can change the course of our future. There is hope. During a moment of silence, candles in each hand made the room glow, playing a sorrowful denouement on the events that occurred this summer, but bringing incipient hope that brightness will begin to challenge the shadow that has been cast upon the South for far too long. Now is the time. 17