This will be the last column I, Aisha Upton, will write for The Post. It was a good run, and I remain hopeful I contributed to the discussion of race relations at Ohio University.
I began writing for The Post at the beginning of Winter Quarter. As a returning columnist this quarter, I saw the responses to my often-provocative columns on a regular basis for nearly 20 weeks now.
I first became interested in writing a column for The Post after the controversial Fridays Live blackface skit during Fall Quarter. After writing a scathing letter to the editor about this episode's content, I realized I had a lot to say.
There was a lack of non-majority opinion at The Post, and I was more than eager to be a winter columnist. Obviously, I got the job.
It would be ideal to say I planned a master vision of tackling race relations at Ohio University, but I didn't. I was angry. Malcolm X taught the idea of intelligently directing anger, and I follow that principle quite seriously. I needed somewhere to positively direct the anger I felt about race relations at OU and around the country. That is how The Angry Black Woman came into existence.
Writing for a newspaper at a predominately white university has been challenging, intriguing and stressful. Every week, I sought to have not only an opinion, but also an informed one. It is tiring and difficult to stay educated even on a weekly basis about injustices done unto people who look like you.
During the two quarters I wrote for The Post, I dredged into topics such as abortion, the Supreme Court, the census and its treatment of prisoners and how the university's change of homecoming could affect OU's black community. Mostly, I focused on problems affecting black Americans - and rightfully so, as this is the race I self-identify with. This allowed me to address topics such as Black Alumni Weekend, black hair and in-fighting within the black community, as well as a need for community service and appreciating the sacrifices of decades past.
Have things changed since I began this column? Not astoundingly. I'm sure no racists have stopped their bigotry, and all the structural issues I brought to the surface are still alive and well. This column, however, has resulted in some positive outcomes.
Mainly, it started a difficult dialogue about many things no one wanted to talk about. Reading comments on The Post online, it became clear that many were uncomfortable with the subjects of my column. This was not surprising because denying institutional and structural inequity is a keystone to holding tight to a possessive investment in whiteness. It is at the foundation of white privilege - denying injustice is the best and only way to maintain it.
But maybe this column helped someone else break the silence on injustice, racism, inequality or the like.
I would love to see another young non-majority writer pick up the torch and run with it. If we keep saying that which no one wants to hear and pushing for dialogues about the things no one wants to talk about, we can light a fire. Unlike most fires at Ohio University, this one would be meaningful.
Of course, even if this happens, we still have much further to go. There is so much more to write about.
We have to keep standing up to injustice. As Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
Aisha Upton is a senior studying African American studies and Tuesday columnist for The Post. Bid her farewell at au173107@ohiou.edu.
4 Opinion
Aisha Upton
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