Burden of proof: Missouri protests drives wedge between activists and skeptics

COLUMBIA, Missouri — Allison Hughes is an 18-year-old freshman here at the University of Missouri. She is from St. Louis and she is of mixed race. Like almost every other student, she is getting questions from home about what's been going on here, in the wake of days of protests that ultimately led to the ousting of the school's president and its chancellor.

"Even my mom has been asking, 'What do you think of this?' " Hughes said. "I don't feel affected … but maybe I should."

Hughes' dad, who is black, always told his daughter she would face racism. She says she hasn't endured much of it, except for maybe the occasional joke: "You like watermelon because you're black." She shrugged it off, thinking nothing hateful was meant.

Now, though, she's beginning to wonder about her own reaction. You can sense her mind changing even as she speaks of the jokes.

"They've never bothered me," she said. "I can see how they would bother other people. It does get annoying. I think those little things need to stop. The little jabs are hurting me."

It's a similar story for Amir Paschal Jr., a senior from Ferguson, Missouri. He said he's heard the n-word several times while at the school, and didn't react.

"I've never said anything," he said. "I've kind of let it – it's something I've just dealt with."

Paschal has seen the protests at his school, and he's been comforted in a way.

"It's kind of nice to know for once, minorities are being heard on this campus," he said.

Heard, but also doubted.

One of the incidents leading up to the protests was a swastika drawn in feces in a dorm. Some had cast doubt on the veracity of the episode, as there had been no known photos of it. That's despite a police report in which an officer was led to the scene and saw it. (UPDATE: Photos of the swastika were published Thursday.)

Then there was a rumor on Tuesday night that the KKK had arrived on campus. This was relayed by the school's student body president, who is black, only to later be proven untrue.

And overnight Wednesday, the Black Cultural Center was vandalized. The word "Black" on the sign in front of the building was spray painted over. Nobody knows who did it, at least not yet.

Campus police are investigating, hoping the perpetrator(s) will be revealed through surveillance cameras that were installed after a prior incident in which cotton balls were left on the lawn in front of the building.

The refrain from skeptical onlookers is basically, "Where's the proof?" There's even a strain of thinking that minorities are exaggerating or embellishing to prove their point of racism on campus. There has not been an immediate threat, and fortunately no violence, so now there's debate over what creates an atmosphere of fear, and what doesn't.

"Everything you saw on TV in the '60s, the dogs and fire hoses, that becomes the standard of what racism is," said Louis Moore, associate professor of history at Grand Valley State. "You miss everything else. And those are the things that are easy to deny. The small things the student feels but the white person didn't see."

Those "small things," like the jokes and the slurs, are becoming more of a focus of the students on this campus, and others. The social media hashtag "BlackOnCampus" started a broad discussion of slights that clearly hurt those who have dealt with them. Even presidential candidate Bernie Sanders saw the hashtag and called for a harder look at "structural racism on college campuses." For minority students, there's a greater awareness of them. For some others, there's a greater scrutiny of them.

Adding to that difference of opinion is a rift over what the university is supposed to do about these "microaggressions." The social media threats that spooked the campus this week, aimed at black students, came from off campus. It's not known, and may never be known, who drew the swastika and who vandalized the sign. Paschal doesn't know and probably won't know who hurled the epithets at him. It's clear many students and faculty feel not enough is being done, but what exactly would change the behavior of people off campus? Or people on campus who act in a way that makes minorities feel a part of a hostile environment?

"It's a problem with the world," said Hughes, "and trying to attack it in one school, I don't know if it is going to help that much. But at least people are trying."

The University of Missouri is in a unique time in its history. Enrollment is at an all-time high, thanks in part to its recent move to the Southeastern Conference and the success of its football team. As a result, the student body is as diverse as ever, leading to the fusion and collision of ideas.

The discussion of what constitutes racism is going on constantly now, on campuses and on social media. The eventual result will ideally be a greater awareness. But along the way, there will be a lot of judgment, and a lot of conflict.