February 21, 2013

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Thursday, February 21, 2013

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Minnesota State University, Mankato

Black History month celebrated with soul food, discussions, film viewings and a conference

LUCAS RYAN

staff writer

Since 1976, every United States president has recognized February as Black History Month. Since then the month of February has been designated to remember African American’s past struggles in the United States and confront the problems that still exist, but also celebrate how far it has come. President Abraham Lincoln brought forth the Emancipation Proclamation 150 years ago, declaring that slavery was to be abolished in The United States. One hundred years later On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I have a Dream Speech” in Washington DC, calling for racial justice and equality. Since then, many major strides have taken place that make King’s dream become more of a reality but still racism exists today. In celebration and commemoration of this year’s Black History Month, The Black Student Union along with the office of African American Affairs will be putting on several events including soul food dinners, panel discussions, a movie, and the 37th Dr. Michael T. Fagin Pan African Student Leadership Conference at Minnesota State University, Mankato. “Dr. Michael Fagin, has been at this institute now for 47 years, he mentioned to us that when he was here with the Black Student Union when it was one of the most feared organizations on campus, but feared in a positive light, that whenever you see a black student union they were always doing something positive they were always helping out in the community they were always willing to give an extra hand

to those that are disabled or those that are less fortunate,” said President of the Black Student Union at MSU, Cortez J. Hollis. “So we kind of wanted to kind of bring back that legacy but let people know that just because we are the black student union doesn’t mean we are all black.” Tuesday February 12 and Tuesday Feb. 19, the Black Student Union Hosted a mock panel discussions similar to what will be discussed at the PAN African convention. The topics were “being black in a predominately white campus” and “obsession complexion” both topics discussed realities that students face at MSU, according to Hollis. “During the panel’s first discussion we talked about how any forms of oppression and racism that maybe some African Americans or Africans have faced on campus and we kind of went into detail from there” said Hollis. “It was extremely successful.” Wednesday, February 20, a movie discussing the “n-word” free to all students was shown in the CSU North Ballroom. There have been soul food dinners each Thursday during February. The event has been held at various places around campus where they serve food that has been traditionally popular throughout African American culture. Thursday Feb 21, the dinner will be held at 5 PM, in the Centennial Student Union in room 269. The dinner is free and is open to all students. “You can see some corn bread you can see some barbeque chicken, we had gumbo, snacks, brownies cakes, lemon bars, lemonade,” Hollis said.

Black History / page 6

www.themsureporter.com

THURSDAY

H 86 26 L 66 19

H 86 27 L 66 16

FRIDAY

H 86 26 L 66 12

SATURDAY

Professing your love, or lust, one Facebook post at a time

Some consider the “Kato Love Confession” social media page online bullying.

MEGAN KADLEC

editor in chief Late Monday, some say around midnight, a Facebook page was created to allow students to proclaim their love, or lust, for whomever they like. The catch? It’s all done anonymously through Google Docs. The page has blown up over the past few days – before this issue went to print late Wednesday night, the page had more than 5,800 likes and hundreds of posts. “If anything, it’s super entertaining,” said Michelle Burke. “Kinda like watching The Bachelor, but with people I know.” There have been several other universities who have created similar pages, though most are

reported and taken down within days of their initiation. Kato Dirt, a page that was started shortly after Kato Love Confessions and focused on negative comments towards individuals, can no longer be found. One of the only other schools that still has a page like this is Stephen F. Austin State University, located in Texas. This page, which was started on Feb. 1, seems to be a mild version of Kato Love Confessions. “I think it’s an interesting, fresh concept. It gives a voice to those who may not have enough courage to use theirs in public,” said Karl Sathers, a Corrections student. While the page is meant to be anonymous, Mass Media major Travis Cahill wanted to

MSU BASEBALL SEASON OFF RIGHT ON SEEPAGES PAGE 125-7 WINTER CAR STARTS CARE ISSUE ADVERTISERS

see if this was true. He logged out of his Facebook and tried to post through the Google Docs form. He couldn’t, making him believe that the administrators of the page could still see who posted each submission. While it is a tool for those to shy to say something in person to confess that they like someone, there are many individuals who have been using the page to make rude and offensive comments about others. “There are some downfalls to that though. I’ve seen some extremely inappropriate posts so far,” said Sathers. “Some may be jokes, but there may actually be some really creepy people out there.”

Confessions / page 6

A&E

15 9

INDEX: SPORTS

21 12

CLASSIFIEDS

26 15


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