I have learned a lot of things during my tenure as an opinion columnist at The Daily Reveille.
I’ve learned that writing about social justice issues is one of my truest passions in life. I’ve learned that the community of minorities at LSU can be more supportive than I could have ever dreamed.
Most importantly, I’ve learned that white people really hate me.
When I took this job, I planned to write about the issues that I thought would be important. I quickly realized that my fellow students and I have a fundamental disagreement on what is and is not important.
Many commenters have said that I am just as racist as an old Southern white man for making blanket statements about the white community as a whole. Some have taken deep offense to the fact that I don’t represent white people fairly when discussing issues of discrimination.
A few have even told me that if black people would just stop talking about race, racism would disappear and that it is only because we continue to bring up racism that it still exists. Racists are apparently governed by the same laws as Beetlejuice.
I am a mature person, and I love constructive criticism. Being critiqued helps me to not only be a better writer, but also a better person. So, I want to thank these commenters, Facebook friends and anonymous Yik Yak posters for showing me the error of my ways.
You’re all right. I do focus on race too much. I am a reverse racist, which prior to this semester I maintained was not a thing. I used to think that members of a minority group could not be racist against a majority group that is constantly and consistently oppressing them. However, you’ve shown me the truth, and I cannot thank you enough for helping me come to this realization.
I want to apologize to every white person I have offended with my columns. I am sorry for saying that all of you are inherently racist. Despite the cultural indoctrination that white people are superior to all other races that has been proven to take place (by multiple scientific studies), I understand how that statement may have hurt your feelings.
You guys aren’t all racist. A lot of you have a black friend! You most likely view that friend as an exception to your preconceived notions about black people and joke with them that they aren’t “really” black because they speak eloquently and know their fathers. Just being friends with them is absolute proof you aren’t racist!
You’re also completely right — if we stopped talking about racism so much, it wouldn’t be such a huge problem in our society. Black people are still struggling 50 years after the Civil Rights Movement to be treated as equal members of society, but that doesn’t give us a right to complain about our lives. Things could be much worse for us!
We could be getting killed in the streets for no other reason that the fact that the color of our skin makes us seem dangerous. We could be taunted for being ourselves, called monkeys and hoodrats despite the fact that we are just college students trying our best to earn an education.
People could be singing songs about lynching us for trying to join their private organizations, and a large contingency of the public could be jumping to their defense!
But we live in post-racial America. Most people don’t even see color — just a gray, human-shaped blob that has no stereotypes assigned to it. There is a black president in office and people show him the same level of respect that has been afforded to all of our previous presidents, never bringing his race into discussions on policy decisions.
Our campus is more diverse than ever: an entire 12 percent of the LSU student body is black. Though LSU is the flagship university of a state that is 33 percent black and is located in a city that’s 55 percent black according to the latest census, and as the flagship would ideally reflect the racial breakdown of the state much more closely — progress is still progress.
I am sorry for all of the pain I have caused the white community. I promise that moving forward, I will be just as sensitive to your feelings as each and every one of you has been to mine.
Logan Anderson is a 21-year-old mass communication senior from Houston, Texas. You can reach her on Twitter @LoganD_Anderson.