When I first read the newspaper weeks ago about the “beating” Deantrious Mitchell endured, I was enraged.

We have enough racial problems on this campus as it is, without some drunken idiots going and making it worse. I would have to say that I was ready to stand in line and pay to get my crack at those idiots.

Then, on Monday I returned home only to be greeted by what my roommate told me. He said that the whole beating thing was a hoax. After hearing that, all I could do was stand there in silence.

But now, my silence has turned to rage and contempt. Not for the whole black community, not even for most of it, but for Mitchell and those who think we should feel sorry for him (BSA and President Jischke).

How can you feel sorry for someone who has single handedly raised the racial tensions on this campus to astounding proportions? I mean, it’s one thing to say that a bunch of white guys jumped him, but to add that they kept calling him a “nigger.” That is uncalled for. A word like that should be stricken from the english language and Mitchell knew what its impact would be.

How would the black students of this campus have felt if it had been a white security guard that was “beaten” and he said that a group of black guys jumped him calling him “honky” and some of the white community condemned the whole black community?

President Jischke says, “I hope people will react with understanding and compassion… .” How is that possible when everywhere you turn, there’s a group, a movement or a student ramming the thought down our throats that every white person on this campus is a racist.

After doing this and finding out that it was a lie we’re just supposed to roll over and let the BSA keep shunning us? What do I mean by shunning? Well Meron Wondwosen, BSA president, contests that even though the Mitchell incident was false, the ISU campus still isn’t safe for minorities.

So what would be safe? Going back to segregation? Maybe splitting ISU into a minority school and an “all-white-damn-those-whom-are-different-from-us” school?

No, I believe that we can all co-exist if we don’t take every incident and amplify it ten-fold.

Am I racist? No.

Do I believe that punishment should fit the crime? You’re damn right and I hope Mitchell goes to jail for what he has done. Just as I would feel if the color roll was reversed.

But then again, that’s just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Michael O’Neill

Sophomore

Open Option