Members of Iowa State’s Black Student Alliance who attended the 27th Annual Big 12 Conference on black student government said a mass e-mail that attacked the conference’s theme of black empowerment was really a nonissue.

Minority students from 37 colleges attended the conference, held at Kansas State University last weekend, said Tiana Williams, Black Student Alliance adviser.

At least one person at the rural Kansas school was opposed to the conference, sending a mass e-mail that attacked the conference’s theme of black empowerment.

“At the conference, there were 1,500 minority students coming into town, and the letter was addressing that,” Williams said. The writer of the letter thought it “was just too many black people coming into one place.”

The e-mail, unsigned and addressed “Dear Niggers,” stated black power was “powerless,” and blacks and other minorities had no right to empowerment because they had contributed nothing to society, according to a statement from Sarai Arnold, president of the Black Student Alliance.

Despite the strong language, the letter was a nonissue at the conference, Williams said.

“There’s always going to be some force that will try to negatively impact a good thing that’s happening,” she said. “It didn’t affect me at all. I was very empowered by the conference, and I think our students brought home a lot of things that they could share with Black Student Alliance and other organizations on campus.”

Speakers focusing on the conference’s theme, “Empowerment: Learning From Our Past to Conquer Our Future,” inspired students with stories of black achievements rarely mentioned in conventional history classes.

The conference featured speeches from black leaders and workshops ranging from “The Secret of Love” to “Academic Survival Suggestions for Students.”

African historian Ashra Kwesi explained how many American symbols, such as the Washington Monument and the original urban design of Washington, D.C., are rooted in ancient Egyptian design, said Dimar Brown, freshman in political science, who attended the conference.

The ISU attendees were especially moved by Taylor and Jonathan Sprinkles, Brown said. Taylor’s speech focused on being the best person one can be, Brown said. Sprinkles spoke on how to organize empowerment, an issue the Black Student Alliance needed to improve on, said Jasmyn Dyer, junior in biochemistry.

“We took down notes on his speech, so that we could apply the ideas here,” Dyer said.

Iowa State will host to the Big 12 Conference on Black Student Government in 2006.