Wednesday night was an ironic one for campus.
Los Angeles Times bestseller Lawrence Ross held a lecture entitled, “Dialogue on Diversity” in the PMAC, hosted by LSU Greek Life.
It was an informative and detailed speech about racism on college campuses, especially within the Greek community. He started with the root of the problem, dating back to slavery, and finished with modern-day incidents of racial insensitivity on campus.
Ross took no prisoners as he highlighted acts of racism on universities across the nation. He called out Kappa Alpha fraternity for its infamously derogatory “Old South Ball” and Delta Kappa Epsilon for its insensitive Colin Kaepernick banner.
Although Ross was preaching to the choir for many of the African-Americans in attendance, it was refreshing to see an arena full of white people listening to a black man preach to them about how supremacy brings upon racism. Even though I feel like we should’ve packed Tiger Stadium for this lecture, I can settle for a portion of the PMAC.
As an African-American student, I’ve struggled with the idea of my voice not being heard. It often feels as though I’m fighting a senseless battle for equality because my opponents don’t even care enough to listen for the battle cry.
But Wednesday night, they listened. Hundreds of white students listened to the issues that African-Americans face on campus, and for once, I felt maybe something would actually change.
Then the image of a perfect campus where minorities are given empathy and respect became static when I remembered that conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos wasn’t far away.
He is the same person who was offensive enough to get banned from Twitter, stirring controversy nationwide.
According to Breitbart News, Yiannopoulos visited the University of Houston earlier this week and had a mouthful to say about black people.
“We are entering the black power phase of Black Lives Matter existence, and it is crossing over into a terrorist organization. It’s time to criminalize it,” Yiannopoulos said.
At the same time as the “Dialogue on Diversity”, LSU Students for Trump hosted Yiannopoulos in the Student Union Theater. He spoke about how “Fat Shaming Works” as part of his “The Dangerous Faggot Tour.”
Unlike Ross’ lecture, people paid to attend Yiannopoulos’ hate speech rant. Instead of listening to a lecture on diversity and inclusiveness for free, people literally paid to hear a man discriminate against fat people and others.
In a way, it feels as though Yiannopoulos’ performance cancelled out all the good done by the diversity lecture. That’s a pessimistic way to look at it, but that’s what happened.
Clarke Perkins is a 20-year-old political science junior from New Orleans, Louisiana.