Black Student Union "It Could've Been Me" Program Recap
It Could’ve Been Me was a program discussing the issues and the seemingly commonality of police brutality in America. The program began with two spoken word pieces performed by students Naim Cooper and Kenny. Both were incredible and went perfectly with the purpose of the program. Different organizations that cosponsored the event gave brief presentations of the topic that was to be discussed. After the presentations, one of the people speaking posed a question and opened the floor for anyone to answer, including the three panelists: one of whom was Keith Way an African-American police officer for the Charlotte-Mecklenberg County Police Department, Brenda Tindle, an African-American professor at UNCC and Dr. Samuel Lopez, a Latino director of multicultural academic services on UNCC campus. Of course, everyone has an opinion about what has been going on involving the ongoing issue of police brutality and what is and what is not being done about it, so at times, the open-floor discussions got somewhat emotionally intense. Especially when questions were posed to the officer, some of his responses caused tension that could be felt throughout the room. Unsurprisingly to me, the young women in the audience had many things to say. However, I was surprised to hear so many stories of how they had experienced some of the topics that were discussed, like being stopped by the police for no reason, giving personal experiences of the school-to-prison pipeline, and one female experiencing discrimination simply because of her African accent. There was even a white transgender female who was quite vocal about the issues and was not afraid to throw local and national facts and statistics in to prove her point. Overall, It Could’ve Been Me phenomenally addressed concerns that African-Americans across the United States face every day. The open discussion was a great asset to the program, as well. The audience’s participation and eagerness to give their viewpoints really made the program as successful as it was.
Alexus Westberry
