During a year when hopes have spiraled downward – at this University, with budget cuts, and across the world, as the events of 9/11 forced us to reevaluate our place and nature – there has been an alarming shortage of positive ideas and movements to grasp onto. While the country and the administration have taken to running us in circles, the students are finally stirring – backing their words with actions and their ideas with movement.
Tuesday night at the Campus Center auditorium put a face to student interest here at the University of Massachusetts. Highlighting the events of Black Pride Week, poet Saul Williams inspired a more than capacity room with his unique verse and responses to the community that turned out. His handle on language is extraordinary; his messages reactionary and celebratory, bred out of both anger and hope. His banter between recitations flowed like poetry and the remaining audience hung on every word.
It was exactly what this campus needed.
It needed a motivation, a spark, an idea to act on that’s not spoon-fed by the administrators. It needed to hear the truth of what’s going on, not the polished, boiled-down version readily available at every turn. It needed to hear it in straight black and white. And it did, loud and clear.
Student group Project 2050 performed a remarkable spoken word/dance piece that highlighted the existing inequality in the United States through raw fact and personalized accounts. Rap group Dead Prez emphasized information over performance, detailing the gross injustices upon minorities in this country, as well as the specifics of what must be done to place power into equal hands.
Some students walked out during the lengthy evening, particularly as Dead Prez expanded on the realities of black culture and society.
What a shame.
Students here shouldn’t be scared to hear the other side, the ins and outs that are bypassed in the classroom. Those that stayed heard a wealth of student opinions, leaving with a better picture of who constitutes the environment in which they live. That’s not something that’ll happen in most standard educational environments here. That’s not something that the administration could ever possibly convey from the detached position they so often spout from.
This was students, both by and for.
We at The Collegian encourage more events such as this, where actual information is passed and passion is invoked. The University and classroom atmospheres have their places, but when this brand of knowledge is turned over to the hands of those with energy, ideas suddenly become concrete.
On Tuesday night, there were no empty protests or rallies. Rather, with knowledge and a masterful command of language, minds were spurred to think and act.
We hope it continues.
Unsigned editorials represent the majority opinion of the Collegian editorial board.