I’m never the one to say, “it’s just a game, it doesn’t matter,” because frankly, that’s not true. Sports are more than just games to so many people. It’s a lifestyle, a way to connect with people in your life. For some it is equal to a religious belief in their lives and a worldwide phenomenon. But these sometimes tragic, always mortal moments on the worldwide stage often shows that while athletes are superstars who make millions of dollars to entertain or break the hearts of fans by being the best in the world at what they do, they are still human. They aren’t perfect and don’t have perfect lives. They may have more fun and/or more luxurious lives than you or I, but that doesn’t mean their lives can’t come crashing down around them just like ours. Moments like these put into perspective the hateful insults and vicious crowds who want nothing more than something bad to happen to that player who they hate, just as much as idolizing these athletes and viewing them as supernatural.

Professional athletes demand respect on their respective fields with their play, but off the field, they don’t really have a defendant for their respect. While they get praise from fans, they also get plenty of unwanted negative attention in the spotlight. Dismissing athletes as dumb jocks who know nothing apart from their sport, calling young men “thugs” for keeping their childhood friendships, listening to hip-hop and buying luxurious vehicles or jewelry, are examples of how sometimes people or fans can be insensitive to these fellow human beings because there is this disconnect.

I understand many think that professional sports and professional athletes get too much attention and too much money already. I’ll easily admit many professional athletes aren’t great people. All I’m trying to say is that they are imperfect human beings, just like the rest of us. One should be cautious to throw harsh criticism and judgement at these men and women, and shouldn’t view these people as perfect individuals incapable of wrong-doing. We all share this planet with each other and should respect each other as such, even if LeBron James just single-handedly knocked your favorite team out of the playoffs.

Photo courtesy of Imgur.

While I personally tend to disagree with Trump’s political opinions, they are not what this article is about. As a presidential candidate, he could possibly become the spokesperson for the United States of America. While various decisions that the leaders of this country are making may not put smiles on the faces of every citizen, the U.S. is still grand and deserves someone who will represent it well. In my opinion, this includes exhibiting respect for the rest of the world.

Millenials have a bad reputation for being disrespectful (@ Bill O’Reilly), but I disagree.  I believe we are a generation that has incredible respect for humanity. Discussing issues of human justice has become a norm for this generation, and that is something we should celebrate, even if we do have conflicting viewpoints on how to achieve fairness for everyone. In contrast to what I perceive to be the ideals of our generation, Donald Trump’s words often exhibit a fundamental lack of respect for other human beings.

Trump’s ability to entertain is obvious, and his business savvy mind is inarguably brilliant, but the rest of the world won’t view his election like a bit on Comedy Central as I am guilty of doing. The rest of the world will be subject to his thoughtlessness and ego. With my feelings about what he says aside, I don’t believe he would be able to accomplish much in the world of foreign relations due to his snide remarks.

I am worried that many Americans will disregard his behavior and elect him based on the mentality that he was “just the best option.” While his political values make sense to a vast percentage of the population, the consequences of his behavior might be more serious than we think.

If you haven’t been paying attention to the news, Twitter or your liberal friends, do a quick Google search of Trump quotes and prepare for what you find.

Also, if he’s elected, I’m worried his hairstyle will become wildly acceptable, and I’m not okay with that.

William Jewell College prides itself in being an institution that represents courage, liberty, respect, community, honor, justice, excellence and faith. We recognize that there is not a perfect institution that exist, but we also realize that William Jewell is not foreign to the culture that promotes the types of events that occurred at Mizzou. There are several explicit instances that have occurred on Jewell’s campus that combat with the current harassment policies in place and are the types of things that should be reported immediately to administration.

However, there are also less blatantly obvious incidents that better reveal the need for a culture change, which include, but are not limited to, asking a black student to translate after someone from an African country speaks in their native tongue, asking a black student an opinion on African-Americans in the welfare program, assuming that all black students on campus know one another, assuming that all black students are members of BSA or that when they’re all together they are holding a BSA meeting.

We believe that it should be the goal of the administration at Jewell to help the Jewell community develop a multicultural framework because it is needed to create an inclusive campus and help us thrive in a global, multicultural and interdependent world. This goal set forth will be achieved by not only providing an enriching and cultivating experience to the multicultural students of Jewell but also by submerging those who don’t identify as multicultural into this experience.

All of students, staff, faculty and administration need to be interactive and receptive in the act of reshaping diversity and inclusion at William Jewell College. We have seen and do appreciate the recent strides that have been made toward a more inclusive and diverse campus, but it is only the beginning of what we hope for William Jewell to achieve. In order to foster the kind of campus that lives out the values that it admires, there first has to be recognition of the need for a cultural change, followed by initiatives that promote awareness about diversity and social justice.

Student organizations allow for students to have a safe place to gather, learn, collaborate, lead and achieve something outside of the classroom setting. BSA holds the same purpose. What makes BSA unique is the fact that it is an organization that caters to the need of the campus that is not met in the classroom or anywhere else. The mission of BSA is to enlighten the campus and community through educational and engaging events that bring awareness of black history, culture and current issues, while uniting and supporting the black students of William Jewell College. BSA brings about the recognition of another culture and a celebration of the black culture, the organization provides an understanding of what exactly that means.

BSA is important not just because it provides a safe place for students of color, not just because it fulfills the expectation of having a speckle of diversity on our campus, but it is important because it is only within this organization that all students are given the opportunity to become educated on black culture and history in such an engaging way they may not otherwise have been. BSA is important because it’s an organization that serves a purpose to challenge the majority and the shared perspectives of our campus. Because of this, it is the only organization that could assist in propelling our institution to be better and better as time progresses.

Among William Jewell’s core values of courage, liberty, respect, community, honor, justice, excellence and faith exist the common horrid qualities of ignorance, misunderstanding and miscommunication. We as a community fail to become knowledgeable about our history and so as a result we continue to repeat our mistakes. Students aren’t aware of how or when issues with racism occur between students and student organizations. Then students will not understand why the yik-yak posts were so offensive, for example.

Misunderstanding happens because we as a community fail to take the time or make the effort to listen to the concerns of others. Too many times students of color on this campus have been ignored, and because of this, there is a no opportunity for communication. We don’t listen to each other and that leaves room for assumptions about administration, faculty, staff and students, white and black, to be made. Unless we educate ourselves on our history with dealing with race relations, unless we take the time to listen to each other, unless we work hard to communicate more effectively, we will fail as a community and become subject to similar situations like Mizzou.

-The Cabinet and Members of the Black Student Association

BSA meetings are Wednesdays at 8pm in YGU 210