Black students at Southern are emotionally and physically tired. We came to Southern for various reasons—a specific department's excellence, the rise of opportunity in this geographical area, interest in the activities that Southern is known for, scholarships awarded—and we have the right to thrive here.
Quite sadly, Southern's history means there is still a population of people who claim to love Jesus but do not want us here. And if they do, they only tolerate us. Some even desire that our existence here as black people, immigrants or ancestors of slaves, comes along only if we water down our culture, tame our hair, tame our tongues and remain silent on the issues that continue to manifest themselves because "it's the 21st century and slavery doesn't exist anymore."
But black students at Southern know that God's kingdom must be manifested on earth—that an incapacity for love for all of God's people, the incapacity to see each shade of God's creation as equal and in fact bearers of the same DNA, is a salvation issue. So, instead of abandoning a campus that God envisioned for the Seventh-day Adventist church, we remain to contribute. In spite of all the interactions we have on a daily basis with people who demonstrate that they do not see us as their true equals, we continue to interact.
Further than that, we demand change. That is why the BCU leadership poured their hearts and souls into designing an edifying program with the message that our people have, are and continue to manifest the excellence that God wrote in their DNA (like He wrote in all of us). That's why Phillip, our SA president, puts his whole entity into ensuring that every single student feels more protected and supported on this campus, collaborating with our university president and senior church pastor.
However, a student who does not even attend Southern showed up at BCU Night, posted an ugly Snapchat and took away all the attention from the blood, sweat and tears of these leaders. Then, students from our sister schools took to social media, and, whether intentionally or not, mocked black students at Southern for feeling hopeful about the future. Most comments were quite contradictory: racism is something so deeply ingrained in society that it requires blood, sweat and tears, and years to uproot—but only a couple years after the most intentional efforts began, they said that the blood, sweat, and tears of black student leaders is not enough because racism still keeps showing itself.