Last month, myself and some other Blackburn students went to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) banquet in Springfield on a diversity and inclusion trip. I had never been to a diversity event before so I was interested to see what one was like. I believe it is important to talk about these things, so I figured going to this event would be a good way to learn more. Beyond that, I really did not know what to expect when attending this event. It was a mess from beginning to end.
Before we left Blackburn, we were told that there were two tables reserved for students, and when we arrived it was already crowded. There were a total of 11 students from Blackburn and the tables sat 10 people. We looked around but couldn’t find our table on our own, so we asked somebody in charge for help. We ended up standing around for 15-20 minutes until they found us a table. When we finally got a table, I figured things would get better once the event actually started. “Overall, the event was unorganized and unprofessional. I like the concept of honoring African American accomplishments but the event could have been better,” said diversity and inclusion student worker Deja Luckett.
At the beginning of the event they had a reverend give a prayer, which was interesting to say the least because I didn’t expect that. Then the emcee for the night acknowledged that there were a lot of cops in the room, but then went on to say, “We just want you to know that all lives matter.” I understand the point he was getting at but I figured at an NAACP event I wouldn’t have to deal with the “All lives matter” vs. “Black lives matter” debate. The emcee’s statement could have alluded to the generational gap between us; I can only speculate that he might not have seen a problem with his statement as I had, because older generations do not always see the point in this debate. It is possible that those were just his political views, but his statement sparked an interesting debate between myself and the other students that were there. “When the guy said that all lives matter I was shocked because I personally can’t see how others can say that when it seems to the rest of the world that black lives actually don’t matter. It was concerning to hear but it made me realize that people even close by have totally different perceptions about the world we all live in,” said Melika Sawyer, another Blackburn student attendee.
NAACP President Teresa Hailey gave a speech and she asked for the students from Blackburn Community College to stand up because we had “worked very hard to be there” that day. I think most of the students who attended the event with me stood up, but I continued sitting. At this point I was ready to go but we were going to be at the event until 5 p.m. I continued to talk among my peers until they started giving out awards. The president started talking about who was getting awards and why. I found it funny and slightly annoying that every time she explained one person she would say, “Does your [insert profession here] look like you? This person was the first black [profession] in Springfield.” I felt as though that statement was very divisive because it seemed to connote that if your doctor, lawyer or police officer didn’t look like you there was something wrong with that. I understand the point she was trying to make, but diversity is about accepting that there are many different kinds of people in the world and not all of them are going to look like you.
I think if you want to be diverse you should be inclusive of everyone, not just the people that look like you. It is important to know about diversity and be accepting of others. That is how you fight racism, that is how you fight xenophobia, that is how you fight societal constructs on what society should look like versus the reality of what society is. Even at Blackburn we are a diverse community with different people from different backgrounds, so why not be inclusive of others?
I believe that it is important to have events like the NAACP banquet to celebrate black people and their accomplishments because a lot of the time black people get little to no recognition for the things they accomplish. But I also believe that organizations like this should change with the times to be more inclusive of other minorities and even non-minorities. The first step to closing the racial divide is to make plans to build a bridge; if everyone were to work together and make little changes, society might get a little better.