JAYFORCE

It’s a shame that there are some societal ills, like racism, that we cannot seem to move beyond… even in this, the 21st century. Admittedly, The University of Alabama has much to be proud of – certainly its back-to-back NCAA football championships tops among them. But just as we had observed how far UA has come since its campus’ integration (see the R.I.P. James Hood post here), racism at The Capstone is exposed once again.

“In 1963, in the midst of the heated debate over the desegregation of American schools, The University of Alabama announced that it would for the first time allow African Americans to enroll. Fifty years later, in September 2013, two University of Alabama sororities rejected an African American student because of her race. As a result, an anti-racist student group called the Mallet Assembly and other members of the community took action to prevent segregation within the university’s Greek system.”

– VICE

So sad. An embarrassment on so many levels: A majority of UA students have likely moved on from notions in step with its segregated past; but a significant number of students (and more important, institutions and organizations they join) have not. UA sororities, students and alumni, all should find it harder to yell “Roll Tide” with pride. And if the shame was limited to the embarrassing actions of two sororities who wanted to stay ‘lily white’… that would be enough. BUT… as you see in the documentary short above, racial insensitivity is still very much a reality woven into the fabric of campus life at UA.

Damn… they’re still trying to keep black folk out of the swimming pool. Shameful. You MUST watch. Kudos to The Mallet Assembly and to VICE for bringing this to the forefront.

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