Editor's Notebook
Chronology | Reflection | StudyWRITTEN CHRONOLOGY OF 'BLACKOUT RESER'
Oregon State University sophomore Casey Grogan started an event called "Blackout Reser" in preparation for an upcoming football game against the University of Arizona. After creating an event on the social networking Web site Facebook.com, Grogan's idea gained momentum. Thousands of students had committed to participating. A photo illustration of the event was printed in the Oct. 5, 2007 edition of The Daily Barometer, the student newspaper at OSU. The illustration was the dominant art on the newspaper's front page, and it showed a student dressed in black. The student had black paint smeared on his face and hands, creating a reminder of 1920s and 1930s minstrel-era blackface. Also, a caption said, "Paint your face black, it scares Wildcats."
The illustration was meant to show how those planning to attend the Oct. 6 football game should participate in the event. Students were quoted in the original article as saying that they thought the event, if it worked, would be the coolest thing they had ever seen. Barometer columnist Renee Roman Nose submitted a column to Barometer editors on Oct. 16 regarding the "Blackout Reser" event. This was 11 days after the article had been printed. Barometer editors decided to hold the column, which was widely circulated via OSU cultural centers and their e-mail listservs on campus.
The game and "Blackout Reser" event passed, and on Oct. 22 - 17 days later - the event and Barometer coverage garnered attention on a blog kept by OSU employee Eric Stoller. Roman Nose's column appeared on Stoller's blog. According to Stoller, "The Barometer editorial staff/advisory board took umbrage with Renee's column and have banned that column and any of her future columns from being printed in the student newspaper." It was believed that Barometer staff members intended to censor Roman Nose indefinitely because the original version of the column was held.
On Oct. 24, The Corvallis Gazette-Times addressed the issue in print. That story, which included photos of OSU students wearing black face paint at a football game, also mentioned students who were wearing Afro wigs with their game attire.
"'I've got team spirit all the way,' [Roman Nose said to the Gazette-Times]. 'But put an Afro wig and blackface on a white student, and I have a problem with that.'" Many believed that the photo illustration on the front page of the Barometer included an Afro wig on the student. In reality, the student's actual hair was shown. Roman Nose also asked readers to consider how an image of a white student in blackface would make other Black people feel. She asked if that image would make people feel welcome at Oregon State.
On Oct. 25, KVAL 13 TV news, based in Eugene, addressed the issue and interviewed me as Barometer editor in chief. OSU student Joakina Mode was quoted saying: Some students came in black face with Afros. So you can't tell me that you're ignorant of what you're doing when you just put on an Afro, I mean why would they do that? I don't like that. If you want to be honest you put on that Afro because you're correlating the black face and the black face paint on your face, to black skin."
Two other students where quoted saying they didn't know that black face paint would be offensive. It was during this week that another Facebook event had been created to organize a second "Blackout Reser" event. On Oct. 26, the Barometer printed a revised version of Roman Nose's column that was originally submitted on Oct. 16. Alongside the column, the Barometer staff offered an apology to readers. Roman Nose articulated her desire for the university community to spark conversation and create change all over campus and in the Corvallis community.
"Apparently, I missed the memo that said it was acceptable to go out in public in blackface," Roman Nose wrote. "Much to my chagrin, a friend of mine, Wolof, who is also an OSU graduate student who is Black (one of the mighty 264 [a name that was coined for the 264 Black students at OSU]), approached me and asked me what was going on at the paper and if I had seen the issue."
Roman Nose made the point that the blackout would not have been offensive had the newspaper not implied that students should also go out in black face paint. Black clothing would not have been offensive. Roman Nose continued, "No one should attend a game in any kind of Afro unless God gave him or her that Afro when they were brought into the world. To wear an Afro wig to the football game with your face painted black is crossing the line, and you should wake up and get an education."
I wrote an editorial to accompany the piece by Roman Nose. The editorial explained the decision to delay running the column by Roman Nose and offered an apology to readers. The editorial stated, "It was a decision [holding Roman Nose's column] made so that we could appropriately and accurately respond to the campus community - with the opinions of Barometer staff members, community members and especially the opinions and understanding given to us by Renee Roman Nose. We apologize to the members of our community who we might have offended." Many readers took objection to one statement made in the editorial. Barometer staff members said, "To this we ask, couldn't that be a good thing that the era of offensive mockery is now far enough behind us that it was not present in our active memory?"
On Oct. 31, Roman Nose addressed the topic again. Through blogs, Facebook and Barometer forums, many students expressed their disagreement with the column by Roman Nose. Essentially, they disagreed that there was a racial issue to begin with. Those students did not see black face paint as a direct reference to mistrel-era blackface. Roman Nose asked, "If there is no problem on our campus or in our community, why are so many people angry? If there is no topic to discuss, why are so many people talking about it?" Roman Nose also addressed the claims made by students on the Internet that she was unqualified to talk about the marginalization of races other than her own.
On Nov. 1, the Barometer printed a column by Robert Sanchez, an OSU student and regular columnist. Sanchez explored the side-taking that had been taking place on campus.
It is easy to take sides or feel defensive when a topic like racism is brought up. Open dialogue is essential for digesting the tension that race issues often engender. We can argue about who is right and who is wrong, but this strong polarization limits the usefulness of discourse. An opportunity is lost when judgment of others' opinions takes precedent over reflection and desire for understanding all sides and parties involved.
Sanchez discussed the intention of the illustration printed in the Oct. 5 edition of the Barometer. He said that it was unclear whether the image was intentionally racist, but that all parties involved did not want to be considered racially insensitive. Sanchez wrote, "Renee Roman Nose has been accused of constructing a racial issue where none 'really' existed. Critics of her interpretation of the facts even express concern that she is furthering racism herself by raising the issue." Sanchez, like Roman Nose, stressed that those involved must be willing to communicate in order to grow from the experience. The dichotomy of opinions expressed by those at OSU and in the Corvallis community was made apparent by the letters to the editor printed in the Barometer in the weeks following the apology and Roman Nose's column. George Scott wrote that Roman Nose fabricated racism and "sees something that no one else sees." Kaitlyn MacLeod wrote, "What annoys me the most is that her original article portrayed everyone wearing black paint as either racist or completely ignorant of everything. This ignorance was also a theme, though I noticed that in every article she writes she is portrayed as the pinnacle of racial understanding."
On Nov. 8, a noose was spotted hanging from a tree at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house. This, paired with the Barometer illustration of "Blackout Reser," inspired talk of intentional racism. OSU student Shannon Warren said that she strongly believed that the blackface issue led to the noose incident. Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house manager Lewis Hagen said that the noose was used as decoration for haunted house fundraiser. At one time, there had been a witch hanging from the noose, but the witch was removed. Hagen said that fraternity hadn't gotten around to finding a ladder to remove the noose.
According to an article in Willamette Week, the Barometer "refused to run any opinion editorials opposing the 'blackout' in the paper." The Barometer, in fact, refused to print any submissions longer than 350 words, including opinion-editorials. A protest was scheduled for Nov. 10 in front of Reser Stadium on OSU's campus. The protest took place before the game against the University of Washington. According to a story printed in the Barometer after the event occurred - written by a staff member of the Lebanon Express - around 40 students and community members were in attendance of the protest. The demonstrators carried signs that said, "The Barometer Hates Black People" and "OSU 4 Ignorance Not Diverse People."
Other commentary followed, including a column by Jess Thiessen in The Daily Vanguard. Thiessen wrote that "... this 'era of offensive mockery,' must be present in somebody's active memory, because otherwise no one would have cared. It just wasn't present in the active memory of these white students." The column continued: In any matter of discrimination, it is a common defense of the accused to say that because the intentions were not offensive, the actions weren't either. But nobody lives in a vacuum, and everything's contextual, especially when you're at a public event, or in a published newspaper, being seen and heard by thousands of people.
The "Blackout Reser" issue hit the national stage when journalist Peter Schmidt published "A University Examines Underlying Problems After Racist Incidents" in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Dillard was quoted as saying, "Lessons get forgotten."