Mizzou is finally talking about race, and that’s a good sign, says this alumnus

It’s good the University of Missouri is talking about race. It didn’t really do it before. At least, when reporter Rhitu Chatterjee attended. She studied biology and journalism as an international student at Mizzou’s graduate school back in the early aughts.

She only has good memories. But she recently talked with a friend at the journalism school.

Her friend told Chatterjee about the experience of an Eritrean student at the journalism school. The student was a friend of an instructor and the instructor’s family. She’d come over to hang out, eat and the like. But recently, the student called the instructor in tears.

“She was crying on the phone hearing about all the incidents that have been coming out lately and she said, ‘You know, I have such good memories with you guys at Mizzou, but I faced this everyday,’” Chatterjee described her friend recalling the call.

The instructor and his family were shocked to hear the story and hear that people would cross the street when the student approached. Such daily slights built up.

She dealt with it everyday.

The family asked why the student never told them about it. “She said, ‘You know, you were my happy memory. I had such a wonderful time when was hanging out with you and your family that I didn’t want to spoil it by bringing up bad stuff,’” she told Chatterjee.

Chatterjee says she imagines her African-American friends on campus probably experienced the incidents, slights and hate. She doesn’t know. She never asked and they never openly talked about it.

So that’s why these protests on campus could be good. They’ll get people to talk and hopefully learn.

Chatterjee isn’t so sure it will change the campus. She says her friends tell her that it’s a really divided place right now. “But I hope there will be a positive conversation, an ongoing conversation, that brings about change.”