By now most of you have probably heard of the incident that occurred at East Tennessee State University (ETSU) last week. A young White college student, Tristan John Rettke, taunted a group of Black Lives Matter protesters. He was bare-footed, dressed up as a gorilla, carrying a Confederate flag, taunting protesters with bananas, ropes and nooses. He had a bag labeled “marijuana” and spoke in broken dialect.
Sometimes I wonder if we are living in 2016 or 1916!
As a professor who teaches at ETSU, I had an understandably curious and vested interest in what had went down on my campus. What was even more interesting — and at the same time, disgusting — was that the incident took place at Borchuck Plaza. The plaza is only a few feet from my office at Rogers Stout Hall, which is located directly in front of the university library. Adding insult to injury, this is the plaza where a fountain was established to honor the five Black students ― Eugene Caruthers, Elizabeth Watkins Crawford, Clarence McKinney, George L. Nichol and Mary Luellen Owens Wagner — who integrated the university in the 1950s. This is where the students were holding their protest.
As you can imagine, more than a little hell broke loose. Things went down much differently for the young person who admitted that his intentions were to “provoke the Black protestors.” Indeed, Retkke’s antics made both national and international news, yet he became the latest poster boy for outlandish and shameful racism.
I was not on campus at the time of this disgusting display of subhuman behavior by Retkke and in some ways I am glad that I was not. I might have been inclined to leave my office, run outside, confront him and go all MBM (mad Black Man) on him. I am sure that is what many of the students he was taunting wanted to do as well. That being said, I admire and commend our students involved in the peaceful protest for acting in just that manner, peacefully. They did not allow their emotions to overcome their better judgment. They did not sink or succumb to his pathetic level. Rather, they managed to let their message reign supreme.
Trust me, all of us who are well past our late teens know that, at that stage of your life, you can often react and snap, especially when you feel you are being disrespected and your humanity is being challenged. Again, bravo to the students at my institution.
Eventually, campus police confronted and identified Rettke. Afterward, he was detained and charged with civil rights intimidation. He was later arrested and is to be arraigned next month.
