Kaleb Mulugeta is a black alumnus of SMU. During his time at SMU, racial micro-aggressions were regular and expected.
The #BlackatSMU movement began one year before Mulugeta arrived at SMU as a freshman. Five years later, the movement is trending yet again.
Kaleb took to twitter:
#BlackAtSMU is back??
I had so many racist experiences here that I wrote a book about it. Looks like imma need to speed up the publishing process 🤒— kaleb (@klbcomedy) June 2, 2020
Let’s play!
Preppy white boy calls me a nigga at a frat party and the apology was, “Sorry about Paul, he gets a little racist when he’s drunk.” #BlackAtSMU— kaleb (@klbcomedy) June 2, 2020
For Kaleb, Twitter is not his only vessel to communicate his experience; Mulugeta discusses being a black student at a PWI in his stand-up comedy material. “Have y’all seen the trailer for the movie BlackKklansman?” Mulugeta asked his audience at Backdoor Comedy Club. “It’s kind of like my experience at SMU.”
The audience laughed.
As mentioned in Kaleb’s tweet above, he is writing a book about his experience at SMU. He hopes to have it finished by the end of the summer.
Until concrete change is made, including penalty for racist sentiment on campus, black students at SMU will remain vulnerable to micro-aggressions.
“I’m glad I’m gone,” Kaleb laughed. “But I’m hopeful for the students who are fighting on campus that they’ll see some sort of change while they’re still there.”
Recently-elected Student Body President, Molly Patrick, is dedicated to enacting that change during her presidency. In response to #BlackatSMU gaining traction in 2020, Student Senate unanimously passed S-107, “A resolution in opposition to racism, hate speech, and promotion of racist propaganda towards students of African-American descent.”
“We are actively drafting proposed changes to the Student Code of Conduct to better protect and prevent our black students from having to endure [unjust things],” Patrick said. “Beyond #BlackatSMU, Student Senate has established the DFW Student Coalition for Justice to address the social injustices not only happening on our campuses, but in our nation.”
Working alongside Student Senate, The Association of Black Students at SMU has been working tirelessly to bring about change for black students. Their work has resulted in a Black at SMU Forum, published on the SMU blog. The forum gives students, faculty, staff and alumni the opportunity to craft a message to administration. Ideas and recommendations produced through the forum “to improve the lives of black students, faculty, and staff on campus” are then discussed amongst higher-ups at SMU.
The future is unclear, but the change and awareness that #BlackatSMU has brought about thus far provokes hopefulness.
Juliet Traylor 