Now that Soul Food Dinner is finally over, I can breathe and reflect on everything that has been said and everything that has occurred. First thing I want to say is that it was a success this year! About 200 people were in attendance, ready and willing to hear Dick Gregory give his take on the happenings of what is going on in the world. Overall I have gotten very positive reviews on the dinner and the speaker, many of the people in attendance enjoyed Dick Gregory's keynote because either his views were the opposite of theirs or they finally connected with someone who shared similar views. On the other hand a few students did not really enjoy the presentation, saying that he was too vulgar and his use of the n-word was "too much" for IWU. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion though!
One thing that really stuck out to me that Dick Gregory said was targeted towards the black students at IWU, he stated something to the effect of "How dare you stay at this racist institution and not speak to another black person walking past you on campus?" That struck me, I am completely guilty of this, I chose not to speak to certain individuals because of spats that has happened in the past. In my mind I realized that although I may not like them, it is nothing to speak and say hi to someone, it's called common courtesy.
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You know, I was intrigued by what he said about being and black at this school and not talking to black people. I don't feel bad at all. I've never felt the need to speak to someone simply because they look like me; that's kind of silly. How does that saying go? "All that is kindred is not kind." Just because we're different shades of the same brown doesn't mean we should be chatting with each other. Brittany, if someone black on this campus affected you negatively, and you have made the decision to no longer speak to that person, then you are just fine. I disagree with Dick. Also, I don't think this campus is racist. Just putting that out there.=o)
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