Racism is more than stadium seats
It’s funny how people don’t recognize that there is a problem until it affects them directly.
It pains me to know that I attend a university where racism is still alive and brewing, but when I chose to attend this school I was aware of the many problems.
After spending three years here I can say that I have seen, been a victim of, and also been told about various instances of discrimination on this very campus. So many of the students choose to pretend like America is so free, but let’s get real. Racism is still a problem in this country.
Many students try to say that we as blacks just always have something to gripe or complain about, but these issues are real.
We did not just make them up. Now someone else can see how it fells to be hurt by racial abuse.
I do not in anyway agree with the way Ms. Sagona was treated at the game because we as students have the right to sit wherever we want in the student section, but regardless of what the section is called, LSU students know that you are expected to sit down if you choose to watch the game there.
If you don’t know, security has no problem enforcing the policy for you. So if you want to stand up for the whole game, don’t do it in front of fifty people that choose to sit down.
I would also like to address your comment and calling people lazy. Just because someone chooses to SIT in the stadium SEATS provided for them does not mean that they are lazy.
Now that you have seen what it feels like to be on the other side of racism maybe you will feel a little more empathetic to the problems we as black people face every day in the land of the so called “free.”
Shayla M. Ferguson
junior
sociology/AAAS
Reach out to those you don’t know
This letter is in response to Ms. Sagona’s letter about the “sit-down” section. Maybe I’m mistaken, but, overall, this is still a fairly
segregated school as well as a very segregated part of the country, so why would a football game prove to be any different? There are exceptions made on an INDIVIDUAL basis to step out of racial “comfort zones,” however,
group mentality still prevails.
I’m sorry that some of those appalling situations took place around you. Shame on those INDIVIDUALS.
However, most students in the “sit-down” (if you’re sure that’s what you REALLY wanted to call it) probably have more of a vested interest in it than you do because, quite frankly, a large majority of the football team is African- American, so those in the “sit-down” section are rooting for boyfriends, friends, roommates, family members, etc. So I think they have just as much of a right to pay their six dollars to get in the game and if they don’t feel like having their legs fall off, they can sit down if they please in their $6 seat! And instead of trying to take their seats, Ms. Sagona, why don’t you invite some of those “sit down” people to sit where you are sitting? Teach them some of the little dances you do during the game. That would be more of a pro-active move than telling them to not buy tickets.
Misty Johnson
graduate student
mass communication
Stadium behavior was inexcusable
On Friday, Sept. 19, Nick Saban wrote a letter to the entire student body thanking them for their support and asking that they continue their trend of good sportsmanship.
Well, apparently not all students understand exactly what “good sportsmanship” is.
I was appalled at the way my friends and I were treated on Saturday afternoon by several members of the student body.
We apparently were unaware that the section we were sitting in has been “reserved” for the “blacks that have been sitting there for fifteen years.”
One person in particular tried his best to ruin the game for us by continually making threats to us, yelling at us to sit down and consistently making rude comments about us throughout the entire game.
At one point, he even turned around and made a comment that he was going to get his way because he was black.
I wasn’t aware that was how things worked at LSU. Unfortunately for him, he failed. We had a blast at the game regardless of the way we were treated.
In addition to being harrassed over our seats, we were also yelled at for standing up and showing our support for the Tigers.
Apparently, those around us weren’t aware of the other 92,000 people that were standing up.
Whenever we refused to sit down, they decided that they were going to show us by not standing for the National Anthem.
This is the most rude and immature act that I have ever seen.
People in our country died so you could have that right. Don’t disrespect them because we won’t sit down.
On a more positive note, I would like to say thank you to the one sensible person in the entire section who made it clear that if we wanted to stand up, we had every right to do so.
It’s because of people like you that my faith in humanity has been restored.
Kayla M. Hardee
junior
agricultural business