Speaking in front of a filled Alumni Hall on Monday night, Ilyasah Shabazz, daughter of the famed political activist Malcolm X, served as what many believed to be the focal point of an evening of black history presented by the Indiana Memorial Union Board.
Shabazz’s words struck a powerful chord with the audience, whose eager buzz provided an atmosphere of acceptance and fervor. Yet it was a message delivered before Shabazz ever graced the podium that generated the atmosphere in which desire for reform became palpable.
The words of Marselis Byers, a fifth-year senior majoring in history, were able to elegantly divulge the often ignored sentiments of black students. Byers performed a spoken word poem, which he titled “By Any Means.” The poem, achieved with a fluid increase in intensity and volume, spoke to the many facets of modern life for black Americans.
As the rhythmic structure of the poem developed, the audience was granted the privilege of a deeper insight into the frustration filling Byers.
The poem conjures an image of a single, black mother. It illustrates her struggles to position her son in a place where he could succeed, before, in a fervent climax, the son is shot dead by police. This ardent reminder of the seemingly oh-so-popular black narrative forced introspection upon those present within Alumni Hall.
Byers never explicitly mentioned IU-Bloomington’s campus as a contributing source of society’s treatment of blacks as second-class citizens, leaving it open to interpretation. Perhaps some figures will help. At a University that was called home by 36,364 undergraduates in fall 2015, a miniscule 4.2 percent, or 1,381 students, were African-American.
Monday night’s program acknowledged the sad truth; black students are tired of being mistreated, sick of their humanity going unrecognized. They remain below whites in an unofficial hierarchy, and it must not endure. Following recent demonstrations on campus that were part of a #BlackLivesMatter campaign, the stage is set for a much needed evaluation of black equality in Bloomington.
Black students want their lives to matter. This requires an alteration of systemic practices. Yet, while the system is not easily refined, the college town atmosphere of Bloomington serves as the possible ideal reformation ground.
Bloomington maintains a supposed sense of magic, though it is perhaps invisible at times. College campuses live as the birthplace of movements that foster the furtherment of civil rights. Through an appeal for black equality, let’s recapture that elusive ability of sweeping reform that occasionally allows us sparring glances at its majestic powers.
Nowhere else are the conditions for society-altering change constructed so perfectly as a largescale college campus. A ready army of nearly 40,000 wait to find their battle call, coded within the mistreatment of black citizens. Visions of the future are not strange to the college student, it is most everyday they are reminded of the up-and-coming.
But this time, abandon the constant visions of one’s self in the future and adopt visions of the community. Picture a people desperate with a craving for equality finally acquiring just that.
Be the change that transforms Bloomington to a truly incredible place, one that is home to equality as a result of students who forever transform the landscape of society. It only takes one.
Matt Frischer
IU Class of 2019
St. Louis, Missouri
