Dear Joe,
I’m writing in response to the article posted in the Jan. 26 edition of the Chronicle titled “Shuttle boycott honorable, but misguided.” Just to begin, I will say that article was disrespectful.
Being an African American, knowing members of my family tree who died so that I could be a student at Quinnipiac, so that I can freely sit on a Quinnipiac shuttle wherever I like; it hurts me to the core to hear you publish such ignorant things. “The shuttle boycott may educate, but also devalues the concept of boycotting.” The concept of the Montgomery boycott was not merely an act of not hopping on the city bus. It was a statement, a movement, and a fight; so when you publish things that say BSU is minimalizing that commitment you are the one devaluing the fight that my family endured. Yes, opinions will always be made, but how dare you publicly disrespect the honor I’m giving my family because you don’t understand it. But because you don’t understand the sole purpose of [Wednesday’s] boycott, let me take a step back and do as Martin Luther King Jr. would have done, and try to explain it to you: Our Quinnipiac shuttle boycott was to pay tribute to what our country went through, not only in the 1955 boycott, but in the Civil Rights Era as a whole.
Wednesday’s celebration should be a personal praise from everyone, no matter your race; this isn’t about color anymore this is about exaltation. If a person never takes the time to try and feel what our country’s brave men and women felt during that fight, they will never humble themselves to it. Did you try to boycott the shuttle today, or pick up a button in support of it? Did you read the facts about the boycott that we were giving out to educate and remind everyone about the struggle? Did you even take a moment to look outside today, at all the snow, slippery roads, blocked sidewalks; and think to yourself, my family walked in this for miles and miles, day after day, for a whole year to get to where they had to go-where they had to go that day, and where they had to take us today. Did you think that today? I did, and it brought tears to my heart that they did that just for me, and all that BSU was asking of us was to do it for them; just one day to remember them. It is not flattery, it is honor; and MLK and Rosa Parks were indeed smiling down on us today for remembering them in just one simple way that we could. So when you try to make a mockery of our celebration today, you made a mockery of the ones we are celebrating.
Quanita Jones
P.S. Was the Quinnipiac Bus Boycott necessary?… Is it necessary for us to remember our veterans? Is it necessary to remember our 9/11 heroes? Is it necessary to remember our lost love ones? If you dare to say no, your heart is indeed misguided.
Oh Dear • Feb 4, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Quanita, what BSU did was an ineffective way to memorialize the Civil Rights Movement. Period. We are not disagreeing with your motivations, just giving objective feedback as a community. BSU should accept that for what it is. You say that the intent was to “educate.” The overwhelming response from the QU community was that it failed. Get over yourself, admit you guys made a miscalculation. Learn from it and do better and different next time.
Personally, I think a lot of this is due to poor administrative leadership and also apathy from the students. Apart from a token visit from Spike Lee, the students are feeling confused and lost about how to properly celebrate Black History Month. And that’s why this kind of confused and confusing gesture took place. Seriously, what’s going on with “Diversity Affairs”? Wasn’t this the reason why we took on YET ANOTHER “vice president”?
Seriously • Feb 4, 2011 at 10:28 am
i read the article you are responding to and agree that it is a little off. And I can also understand why after putting in your time to do the boycott you would feel disrespected by what you read. But honestly, how do you compare the bus Boycott to 9/11 and veterans?
We remember 9/11 because 3,000 people died in an attack against our country. We remember our veterans because they fight wars so people like you do not have to.
Its like saying the Bus boycott is equivalent to Memorial Day, the day we honor our dead soldiers.
Irony • Feb 3, 2011 at 12:14 pm
What I love, as I open the QU for Feburary 2nd is this letter, with a vote breakdown showing that a resounding 70% of voters did not think the boycott was necessary.
and 20% were undecided.
We’re just a bunch of Lost, Souls ain’t we?
Ricky Williams' Bong • Feb 2, 2011 at 5:14 pm
if you want to honor the bus boycott, vetrans, 9/11 victims…i get that. thats a noble cause and nobody would ever step on your toes while youre going about your preferred method of doing that…..the way it was done just seems ineffective. you can tell me it brought tears to your eyes, made you feel pride, and i bet it did. i dont doubt that for a minute. and maybe there was no other way of remembrance that would ahve accomplished that…but it was ineffective for the community. it was slightly more effective than putting up pictures of cartoons as your facebook picture to raise child abuse awareness, sure…and somethign is better than nothing. im not in the BSU, im not even that creative of a person so im not here to tell you how to go about it better, just saying there must be a better way. i wasnt moved by it, i didnt feel a since of pride becuase of it, i hardly knew it went on.