At 1 p.m. on Wednesday, a flurry of students took to Twitter, using the hashtag “#BeingBlackatLSU” in response to a controversial Facebook post made the night before. The hashtag created a forum for minority students to reveal the daily struggles they face at a predominately white university.
Biochemistry freshman Alex Reinhardt posted to the LSU Class of 2019 Facebook page Tuesday night inquiring about the possibility of a “White Student Union,” a caucasian version of the University’s Black Student Union, complete with “programs talking about our ancestors and even a speed dating night.” She also suggested designating a month to celebrating white culture and race.
Shortly after, Reinhardt edited the post to clarify that her inquiry was part of a personal research project on racism, which she said she hopes to get published. She said she wanted to elicit genuine replies from her classmates to shed light on the issue of racism on campus.
Reinhardt said she never intended to offend anyone.
“My intention was to get a natural response,” Reinhardt said. “And that’s definitely what I got.”
BSU president Destinee Merida said her organization launched the afternoon Twitter trend after reading Reinhardt’s comments on Facebook, which she described as “the breaking point” to ignite a social media conversation.
“We want people to understand where we’re coming from,” she said.
Students’ tweets discussed their experiences with racism both on and off campus, ranging from classroom tensions to Tigerland denials.
LSU President F. King Alexander even joined in on the open dialogue, tweeting, “While #BeingBlackatLSU demonstrates that we have some areas that need work, I’m proud of our students for sharing their experiences.”
Reinhardt said reading the #BeingBlackatLSU tweets put everything into a new perspective for her, and she plans to include them in her research.
Contrary to popular interpretation, Reinhardt said she disagrees with the creation of a “White Student Union” as the University is an overwhelmingly white institution.
Though Reinhardt later clarified the post again, with a second post saying she did not actually want a “White Student Union,” students still expressed disappointment in her research method.
Merida said the original Facebook post was “very upsetting,” and did not take the organization’s original purpose — to offer black students a safe place on campus where their voices could be heard — into consideration.
She said she thinks there were better ways to go about starting a conversation about University race relations.
“When you put something out there like that, especially on social media, you can’t take it back,” Merida said.
LSU NAACP President Monturios Howard said he found the post “disheartening.” He said her words showcase the vast disconnect between white and black students.
As a member of the black community, Howard said he is part of what makes up only 14 percent of the University population. This shows how small the minority voice is, he said.
“I do think that there needs to be a conversation between the two campuses,” Howard said. “Because right now, that’s how it feels — there’s white LSU and then there’s black LSU.”
While administrators aim to solve racial divisions, Merida said it is ultimately up to the students to implement change.
“Until we have a discussion with a diverse group of students and everybody kind of understands where everybody is coming from, the issue will never really be dealt with,” Merida said.
LSU students gather at the Memorial Tower Thursday, Nov. 12, 2015, in solidarity with University of Missouri students protesting racial issues.
