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Sept. 18 I’ll be returning to Kent to participate sit quietly in the back and speak when spoken to at an online journalism panel for the Poynter Media Ethics Workshop. From CMS Wire:

This year, the theme is “Whose Rules?” which addresses online ethics for bloggers and blogging. The aim is to bring together top media professionals, bloggers, industry experts for “a no-holds-barred discussion of online ethics” and rules for bloggers.

“Race problems on this campus will not go away if we continue to segregate ourselves and pick and choose our allies based on race and ethnicity.

— Perception is key

Progress

This wasn’t terribly shocking:

 After my open letter to Kent State President Lester Lefton ran today, I received this e-mail:

Dear Beth,
Please give me a call to schedule a meeting with President Lefton for next week.
Thank you.
Linda Hermann
Assistant to the President 

Have a question you’ve always wanted to ask Dr. Lefton? E-mail me at rankinelATkent.edu.

In the news

Here is a roundup of coverage of controversy surrounding my March 13 column, “I am not a white bitch.”

Print

- The Daily Kent Stater’s preview of the meeting

- The Daily Kent Stater’s coverage of the meeting

- The Stater editorial board’s response to the meeting

- The Stater editorial board’s response to comments posted on the column’s Web page

- Akron Beacon Journal: KSU column prompts ‘hate’ e-mails

Audio

- Audio of the meeting (in its entirety), captured by Black Squirrel Radio

- BSR’s coverage of the meeting

Video

- TV2’s coverage (My interview is 1/3 into the broadcast, just after the first commercial break)

- Channel 19 Action News’ coverage

Blogs

- Political Science 216: An offer for Beth Rankin from Political Science 216

- Political Science 216: Beth Rankin to Political Science 216: “Maybe!”

- Daily Kos: One Reason It is Hard to Discuss Race Honestly

- blueollie: Early April Rants

- Tough Sledding: One journalist’s rage turns to campuswide dialog

- Southern Poverty Law Center: White Supremacists Threaten Kent State Columnist

- Orcinus: That dialogue on race: The hard part

- AkronNewsNow: Student Column Brings Hate E-Mails

- Laura Torchia: My American Life: Racism alive and well in Northeast Ohio

“I masculate myself with tattoos and men’s clothing. I am a woman who feels more powerful the more I look and act like a man.

— Shattering my own and society’s glass ceiling

∞ Listen to audio from the forum on racism hosted by Black United Students

Opening a dialogue

BUS holds public race relations discussion in response to column

By Christina Stavale 

Sentiments of openness and a resolution to take the issue of race relations into the hands of determined students and faculty resonated throughout Black United Students’ regular meeting last night.

The meeting centered around the issue brought up by Daily Kent Stater columnist Beth Rankin in her March 13 column “I am not a white bitch,” which raised issues of non-black students feeling unwelcome at BUS events and BUS not embracing its white and some black members.

Rankin explained her reasons for the column, while BUS members addressed their own issues with it. Conversation then turned to tackling the larger issue.

“I think (this meeting) could be one of the most important meetings of my 13 years being here on this campus,” said Pan-African Studies professor George Garrison, who moderated last night’s discussion.

Rankin’s column, he said, provided the university with both an opportunity and responsibility that mirrors the same issues surrounding the nation with presidential candidate Barack Obama.

“The climate that exists on this campus includes more than just this incident,” he said.

Anastasiya Spytsya, sophomore Russian translation major from Ukraine, said she came to the United States wanting to learn. For example, she took the class Black Experience I to learn about the African-American experience. But she said she’s felt judged as a “white girl.”

While she has many black friends, she said it’s been hard to get to know them.

“I know what you’ve been through,” she said, “and I’ve tried to get to know you, and it’s hard.”

Quiera Lige, BUS academic affairs chair, pointed out that learning the history of others can help draw connections with one another, while looking at someone only by race separates people.

For example, she said when she first looked at Spytsya, she saw a girl who was white. She couldn’t tell anything about her history. After learning she was from Ukraine, however, she was able to begin to draw similarities between Spytsya’s history and her own history.

“Our history is what unifies us,” Lige said. “Race is what tears us apart.”

Themes of personal responsibility surfaced, urging people to take matters into their own hands.

Carla Smith, a former BUS executive board member, said students need to challenge themselves and step outside their comfort zone. They should not be afraid to be different.

“Take it beyond a conversation,” she said. “You’re responsible for yourself.”

As blacks, Smith said, it’s natural instinct to stick together. She asked people not to hold blacks accountable for not recognizing other races who attend their events if the person him or herself does not take the initiative to talk.

“The real world begins here,” she said. “Take responsibility for your own growth and education. If you’re not getting enough in class, continue to come here (to BUS meetings).”

Members also discussed creating dialogue between races on an everyday basis. BUS programmer and President-elect Ashley Tolliver mentioned a conversation she recently had with her white roommate that she said “proved we can have a nice conversation about race.”

She said they talked about small things like clothing and hairstyle, as well as more serious things.

“Your excuse for not talking can’t be because you’re scared,” she said.

Lige pointed out that bridging race relations can’t end with these one-on-one conversations. She said one of the first steps people take should be to speak up if a friend or family member says something ignorant — to “realize where we are in society and make steps to change it.”

Garrison called last night’s conversation a historic event on Kent State’s campus.

“It creates the condition necessary for progress,” he said.

Contact minority affairs reporter Christina Stavale at cstavaleATkent.edu. Managing editor Tim Magaw also contributed to this story.

“There exists within us a collective unconscious that has been shaped by the society that we and our families live in. And while our society is moving in the right direction, toward a place where a baby will be born with no subconscious memory of blind hatred, our quiet prejudice threatens that end goal.

— Admitting it is the first step

“I am not a white bitch. I am not whitey. I am not a cracker. I am not the man. And I never want to feel ostracized because of my race ever again. Don’t you feel the same?

— I am not a white bitch