Wright State University has a plethora of organizations that represent specific communities on campus. Having a group of individuals unifying together is a goal of many WSU organizations.
This goal is especially important for the Black Student Union (BSU). Their purpose as an organization is to represent needs, feelings and concerns of the black population on campus. In addition, they want to retain, recruit and unify students here on campus.
Particularly this semester, BSU has implemented a conversation series that discusses the intersectional identities and other social political topics. So far, BSU has discussed “Racial Identity” and “Being Black and Mental Health.”
The most recent topic, however, was not part of the scheduled conversation series; it was a debriefing of the recent offensive hate messages that appeared on campus this month.
According to BSU Vice President Brittany Williams, 21, this is the first time BSU has made these conversation topics their main focus. Williams is a senior Theater Studies major and an African and African-American Culture minor — and believes these conversation topics will better the environment on campus for not only students who identify as black, but with other intersectional identities.
“The reason why it was implemented was to express to our fellow black students that BSU is for every kind of black student,” Williams said. “BSU does not want anyone to feel they are not accepted because of their religion, ethnicity, gender, sex, ability or sexual orientation.”
BSU’s meetings are not limited to just the black population on campus, but also for anyone who considers themselves allies of the community, which is why everyone in welcome.
In regard to the recent event on campus, supporting each other is a necessity,“through their hate, it confirmed why we needed to love each other more,” Williams said.
