29 Years Ago....

Fall 1991, College of Charleston, Charleston SC.

His name was Carlos X — or at least that was how he signed the op-ed piece in The Cougar Pause, our biweekly student newspaper. He told his story of how he’d experienced racism on our fair campus.

People lost their damn minds.

There were multiple pages of letters to the editor in response. One was mine. And mine was one of two written by white students that didn’t automatically discount his experience. The other was J.J. Biondi, who if I recall correctly was a resident assistant at one of the dorms (or had been). We offered our apologies as they were, and offers of reconciliation and conversation. Funny the details we can recall. There was also a letter from Larry, a guy who was known for being somewhat militant around campus. Our very own Huey Newton or Stokely Carmichael.

I worked with two young African-American men in the computer labs. One was Trey, who was an absolute Mac whiz and who taught me what little I knew about Macs back in the day. We were working one morning and he suggested we go to lunch to continue a conversation we’d begin about the Carlos X situation. He personally knew Carlos. He told me things Carlos had left out of the op-ed piece, details which I knew were closer to accurate than not: how one of the frat boys (from a certain fraternity known to glorify the past) repeatedly called him boy when he worked the dorm check-in desk. I remember being dumbfounded. Trey opened my eyes that day to how he was seen as a black man on campus. I mentioned that I’d had classes with one person in the minority student council who was perceived as very militant.... he laughed and said, “yeah, that dude’s a bit extreme, and he’s just as wrong in some ways.” These many years later, I can begin to see why Nate’s views had been shaped that way.

A couple of days later, I was working with Troy, a sweet young African-American man in the computer lab. He always called me ma’am, no matter how much I tried to have him stop. He was polite to a fault. We were sitting there also having our conversation. He shrugged off the whole thing, and I really wanted him to take it more seriously, especially after my talk with Trey. In walked Larry and I asked how I could help him....

“You’re Annette McClellan, aren’t you?”

Oh shit. What had I done? I barely knew Larry, pretty much by name only, and his letter.

I squeaked our, “I’m Annette, and you’re....?”

“I’m Larry (last name), do you know me?”

“I know the name.....”

He held out his hand, “I came here to shake your hand. For being one of two people on this campus who doesn’t think Carlos is crazy.”

I exhaled, Larry smiled, and we shook hands. I told him I appreciated his kindness and he said the same. Troy eventually exhaled too. Larry went off to find J.J. to shake his hand as well.

And here we are, 29 years later. We’re still trying to figure it out. But things are different at C of C.  Just a week or so ago, it was announced that the college had revoked their acceptance of at least one student who had been shown in the past to make racially charged remarks, or other displays of racial insensitivity. We’ve made great strides.

And we have a long way to continue to go.