They’re coming. The truth is, they never left.
Although the demonstrations and calls for increases in living wages for University employees aren’t as high profile as last semester’s protests, University officials and students can learn from both this semester and last fall how to approach an issue that is now only a matter of time: the next round of Confederate flag protests.
I think there are several things that are “real” at LSU: self-segregation is real. Racial tension is also. But the truth is that these protesters, including their leader, Collins Phillips, probably know the flag will never be banned. They just want people – white people – to understand.
Some of the white students care, but many of them are student leaders or the involved few. Based on the reaction to The Daily Reveille’s coverage of the protests last semester, it’s obvious the white majority of LSU probably doesn’t care.
Why would we? It’s easy to be in the majority – there’s no way I can understand what it’s like to be black. The purple-and-gold Confederate flag means something completely different to me than it does to Phillips and his group. Regardless, ignoring his view is not the solution.
Race relations on campus haven’t changed since last fall, when Phillips’ Student Equality Commision-led protest of the purple and gold Confederate flag stirred up controversy in the overbearing shadow of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
And the race problem is still here. It’s always been here. It was here before 1953, when a court order admitted A.P. Tureaud, Jr., LSU’s first black undergraduate student, and it will probably be here long after Phillips graduates.
Phillips says he and his legions of protesters aren’t going away either.
Phillips, general studies senior, isn’t graduating. He’s going to be here in September for that first football game against UL-Lafayette, and I have no doubt the purple-and-gold Confederate flag wavers will also have their symbol of speech flying across campus.
But don’t expect to see students marching through campus chanting, “Ban that flag” – that’s a little too much of last year’s strategy. Phillips’ plan next year is different, he told me Wednesday in an interview.
Phillips said the SEC has several plans of action. One will focus on the purple and gold Confederate flag, another on LSU’s Student Code of Conduct and still others on just demonstrating to the campus community how blacks feel about going to school at LSU.
“The fall, that was great and everything, but we knew that everyone was watching and waiting and wondering what we’re going to do next,” Phillips said. “I know that we cannot go and do the same thing.”
The Student Equality Commission’s “demonstrations,” Phillips said, aren’t going to be as large or as mobile but will have a larger impact.
“I can tell you right now, it won’t be people marching on campus chanting ‘Ban that flag,'” Phillips said. “Whatever we do, it has to be bigger and more influential than last semester.”
Phillips said the demonstrations will focus on getting the student body to understand how black students feel when they see the flag on campus.
“We want everybody to realize that if there were no minorities here, we feel like nobody would care,” Phillips said. “That wouldn’t even be noticed - everything would go on as usual.”
In Phillips’ mind, LSU is a white campus that isn’t sensitive to black students. The administration didn’t respond to talking, so they protested. Consequently, the administration’s actions afterward made them look like they were backpedaling and unorganized. It appeared as though the racial issues on campus had just sprung up and blindsided them.
But those protests were successful in more than just making the administration look unprepared. Activism returned to our politically conservative campus. Our under-represented black community, which has only reached more than 10 percent of the campus’ population once, last semester, had a face, an issue and a voice. I also think for a number of people on this campus, the protests made the black community viable and real.
The University administration needs to be ready for demonstrations this time. From the chancellor to Student Government, they all need to be ready. Forums and talking look good on paper - but action is the only thing that a true activist settles for. Until we start to see real results from the administration and real change in the attitudes of students, we will never bridge the divide between black and white on this campus.
Student activism is something that should be encouraged. But the way for LSU to come out looking like a shining star is to both encourage student free expression and promise to work together to help ease the racial tensions.
Now that’s real.
 
Scott is a print journalism senior. Contact him at [email protected]