{"id":9250,"date":"2019-01-24T22:25:42","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T06:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wou.edu\/westernhowl\/?p=9250"},"modified":"2019-01-24T22:25:42","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T06:25:42","slug":"bsu-member-discusses-the-importance-of-mlk-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/bsu-member-discusses-the-importance-of-mlk-day\/","title":{"rendered":"BSU member discusses the importance of MLK Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bailey Thompson<\/strong> | News Editor<\/span><\/p>\n

Even though Martin Luther King Jr. died over fifty years ago, his life and legacy of civil rights and racial justice advocacy is still honored by many today. Every year on Jan. 21, MLK Day serves both as a reminder of hope and that there is still work that needs to be done in our society.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reflecting on the significance of this holiday, Tatiana-Marie Whitlow, a first-year psychology major and Black Student Union member, shares why she feels that MLK Day is still relevant in modern culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like society only sees MLK Day as a day off from school,\u201d said Whitlow. \u201cI don\u2019t see that we celebrate it enough considering how important it is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whitlow also expressed her frustration with the number of judgments that people have made on account of her skin color.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMLK Day has always been important to me because a lot of places I\u2019ve been to I\u2019ve always been singled out \u2014 always been the black sheep amongst the white sheep \u2014 and I\u2019ve always had to have been okay with that,\u201d said Whitlow. \u201cI\u2019m from Hawaii and, at my high school, I was the only black kid that danced hula. I would always have to prove someone wrong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Remembering other occasions where she was discriminated against, Whitlow shared how \u2014 even when she was in the back seat \u2014 a police officer recently asked for both she and her friend\u2019s IDs. She also refrains from bringing a purse with her into stores to avoid unwarranted suspicion.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI fear that if I bring my purse with me to a store I\u2019ll get followed or asked to leave,\u201d said Whitlow. \u201cSo, I don\u2019t bring anything except my wallet and my keys in my pockets. And it kind of sucks because one of my friends who is white-dominant can bring this big purse with her and be totally fine.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Another issue surrounding MLK Day is how people can be allies to the black community. In Whitlow\u2019s opinion, it is important to stand up when people make racist jokes or comments, to not buy into stereotypes about black people and to not go around touching people\u2019s hair without permission.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c(Touching people\u2019s hair) is such a big thing because not only will the oils rub off on their hair and probably damage it, it\u2019s also really annoying,\u201d said Whitlow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whitlow also encouraged students to join Black Student Union.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou do not have to be predominantly black to join BSU: come as you are. But please, be for the black community and not against it,\u201d said Whitlow.<\/span><\/p>\n

If students would like to learn more about MLK Day, Western is having a dinner on Jan. 23 from 6-8 p.m. which will feature keynote speaker Christopher Coleman and honor the memory and life of Martin Luther King Jr.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Contact the author at howlnews@wou.edu<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bailey Thompson | News Editor Even though Martin Luther King Jr. died over fifty years ago, his life and legacy of civil rights and racial justice advocacy is still honored by many today. Every year on Jan. 21, MLK Day serves both as a reminder of hope and that there is still work that needs […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1094,"featured_media":8951,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"modified_by":"The Western Howl","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9250\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wou.edu\/westernhowl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}