Experience in Mizzou

A little after midnight on Tuesday, I got a call from my friend James asking if I wanted to drive through the night to Mizzou, where students were protesting racial issues and death threats against black students had just surfaced. The idea was a little crazy and I was already exhausted, but of course I said yes.

We had no idea what we would find when we arrived. The most recent development in this story was threats on the anonymous app “Yik Yak” threatening to “shoot every black person I see.” Students we know at Mizzou told us that many students had left campus, unsure what the next day would bring.

            Because I was awake almost all night, I was able to follow the search for the students who posted the threats. Around 6 a.m., police arrested two men.

            Regardless of those arrests, James and I were surprised by what we found on campus: nothing. Even though it was a Wednesday morning, only a handful of students could be found walking to class. The quad, where less than 24 hours before had been filled with tents and student protesters, was now eerily quiet. All that remained were a few news crews preparing to do their last on-scene reports, and three men in orange vests picking up trash.

            Our hope of getting portfolio worthy news photos was instantly shot down. It was time for plan B. We decided to spend the day talking to students and taking portraits, in hopes of creating a portrait series that showcased a variety of student’s view on the protest.

            I quickly learned many details about the protest. The group, Concerned Students 1950 (CS1950), had been protesting racial slurs on campus for many months. It wasn’t until the graduate students protested and saw action taken on their health insurance being taken away, did the CS1950 get fed up with not being heard by the university.

            “[CS1950] has been peacefully protesting for so many months that it finally had to come to this,” said Mcguire Mcmanus, a student at Mizzou.

According to Mcmanus, the protests have been happening ever since the incidents in Ferguson.

As the day went on more students began showing up to campus. Some said they had barely even seen or been affected by the protests. This really made me think of how the media portrays things. I’m not in any place to say that there wasn’t a real danger on campus, but I can say that I and other students on campus did not feel threatened whatsoever. The media made James and I feel as though we were walking into a dangerous situation, but it turned out not to be that at all.

Even though we missed the action, I’m glad we chose to make the trip. It gave us a chance to experience the atmosphere and form our own opinions, free of the media’s influence.

We will be putting together some kind of portrait series this weekend with quotes from all the students we talked to. I look forward to sharing our experience more with you!