Getting flak over an opinion column
As I expected, my most recent opinion column has been getting a bit of a reaction. The President of the Black Student Union (BSU) took it rather personally and accused me of attacking the BSU, saying that other factors were involved, and that most of the disastrous events this semester weren’t hosted by the BSU. That last part is true, but she missed the crux of my column (hence why I say she took it personally). I was calling out all of the student groups that have hosted poorly-executed events, not just the BSU. Just because the BSU hasn’t been responsible for all of the problems doesn’t exonerate it from the problems it did cause. She also accused me of not doing research, not knowing what I was talking about, etc., which are classic ad hominem attacks. Someone responding to her brought up the good point that she didn’t actually offer up any of her own evidence or facts, merely saying that mine were wrong, without anything to support the accusation.
Also, I received the following charming email which I would like to refute on a point-by-point basis.
Your news paper article sucked, being that you know nothing about the Black Student Union, NOTHING about Phi Beta Sigma, oh, and YOUR NOT BLACK. Stereotypes, I tell ya!
- It’s an opinion column, not an article. There’s a huge difference between the two. Articles are supposed to be a neutral telling of the facts, whereas columns are supposed to have a point of view and back it up with facts.
- It’s not true that I know nothing about the Black Student Union. I actually voted in their last election. (Voting is open to all UMD students, so you don’t have to be a member of the group to vote.)
- Whether I know anything about these groups is irrelevant anyway. What I do know about is how their event last Friday went terribly wrong. That’s a fact that cannot simply be refuted by saying I don’t know anything about other aspects of these groups.
- What does me not being black have to do anything with it? Am I somehow not allowed to comment on an event that happened to be put on by the Black Student Union because I’m not black myself? That’s ludicrous. You can’t use race as a shield against legitimate criticism. And I fail to see what race has anything to do with properly hosting a student event, anyway.
- Stereotypes? What stereotypes am I using? Please, someone point one out, because I’m just not seeing it.
