Several University of West Georgia student organizations rallied together to sponsor a student panel to address racial tension and student body division on Jan. 26 in the Campus Center Ballroom. The panel, named “Coexist,” featured student panelists answering pre-selected questions asked by a moderator, in hopes of promoting unity among the students, faculty and staff.

Organizations sponsoring the event included the Student Government Association, the Black Student Alliance, the Inter-Fraternity Council, the Latino Cultural Society, and the Baptist Collegiate Ministries. The panel was comprised of seven students from differing backgrounds and ethnicities, all representing different organizations.

Panelists included India Brown, BSA; Fred Curtis, SGA and College Democrats; Scott Fields, BCM; Joe Gonsalves, IFC; Amanda McCarty, BCM and SGA; Rebecca Parrish, IFC and SGA; and Shiloh Patrick, SGA. Walter Swanson, president of Omega Psi Phi fraternity, moderated the event.

The panelists answered questions ranging from personal heritage, cultural upbringing, common interest, stereotyping and racial tension. In what was anticipated to be a controversial and potentially heated dialogue from opposing views, the panelists were very selective in how they answered questions posed. They seemed to agree more than they disagreed.

The Coexist panelists concluded that racial tension and student division are complex issues that may have more to do with common interest than race itself.

“Common interest is very important,” said Curtis. “The people that I hang out with like the same food I like to eat, they like to watch the same things I like to watch and we share the same faith and beliefs. Sometimes commonality may be about race, but sometimes it isn’t.”

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Anon

Wed Feb 3 2010 22:25

Perhaps those on the panel were tempted to be "politically correct" because they would be "easy targets" had they not been. Were those who were disappointed looking for a fight? Were those disappointed willing to be on the panel themselves and speak "freely"?
It'd be interesting to read their comments here.

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