Indiana State U Issues Statement After Student Made "if you're Black, you're not country" remarks

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

I'm sorry, but if you're Black, you're not country," the woman says in the video. "I don't care. And I meant that in the nicest way. I know you were raised in the country or your grandparents were, I guess -- your great granny and grandpas -- but they was picking. OK? They wasn't planting. Just keep that in mind. They wasn't making money. They was getting sold for money. You ain't country."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/indiana-state-university-issues-statement-after-student-made-racist-remarks-in-video/ar-BB1luk2p

Indiana State University is speaking out after a student's critique against Beyoncé becoming a Black female country artist went viral.

According to ABC 33/40, WISH-TV, and WFIU, the video in which the student said remarks such as "I'm sorry, but if you're Black, you're not country" was posted after the singer released her Cowboy Carter album in late March.

University president Deborah J. Curtis said in a statement issued on Wednesday, April 10, that upon learning of the video's existence, her staff "immediately worked with the Vice President of Student Affairs to identify the student, communicate directly with student leaders, and strategize how to prioritize student well-being and safety."

---------

But that wasn't enough for some people who commented on the post. They expressed concern and frustration.

"I, as an Indiana taxpayer am demanding responsible action from ISU in the form the of expulsion of Asa Blanton from the nursing program. Your statement is nothing but lip service. ISU is a public university funded partially by tax dollars and action must be taken now," someone wrote.

"If your school can’t recognize how dangerous it is to let people like her into our medical system, you shouldn’t have a nursing program," another noted.

"Is she still a student there? I'm not comfortable with a racist person like her becoming a nurse and being put into a position to care for those she sees as 'less than.' She could cause serious harm to vulnerable people," another wrote.

&t=50s

[wcmagumba]

1. Just OMG, and she's becoming a nurse with responsibility helping others...

Guess she'll be looking for a job in a clinic with a "whites only" sign on the door...jeez, what a loser...

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

2. by the end of her rant, you can see she's enraged.

[Johnny2X2X]

27. The contempt she has in her voice is chilling

Just appaling. Girl is reaping what she has sown right now. What a racist POS.

[NanaCat]

3. Good grief, the ignorance is appalling

Does this utter moron really think the white trash plantation owners were planting seeds? No, you ignorant traitor trash, the slaves were doing the planting and the picking while the slave owners sat on their bums reaping the rewards of that work.

I hope she's expelled for being as stupid as she is bigoted.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Where I Was Heading

Beyonce is in her early 40s. That would mean her grandparents were likely born in the 1930s.
This moron mentions her grandparents were owned as slaves. 70 years after the Civil War.
She's a racist nut, but she's obviously incapable of simple arithmetic.
Too stupid to be a BSRN.

[Emile]

4. My sister-in-law a long time ago taught nursing at Indiana State.

Indiana is full of ignorant racists.

[LiberalFighter]

38. KKK had a strong hold in Indiana. I think there was a governor that was KKK.

Indiana still has a long ways before racism doesn't have an imprint.

[Emile]

40. I remember a coworker back in the 70's

who got in trouble at the factory I worked at for handing out KKK literature at work. I think he got three days off work for punishment. Another time a white girl got into a screaming match with a black girl and both were sent home. That night someone lit three wooden crosses in the front lawn of the factory that faced a US highway. Racism in Indiana is not near what it use to be, but from this article it's apparently still showing it's ugly head every now and then.

[spooky3]

5. Public universities are very limited by the First Amendment in

Responding to incidents like this, especially when the student doesn’t take or threaten any particular action against someone. People should read up on these cases.

[exboyfil]

20. That is my thought

Now the nursing license is a different matter. How can society be sure she will render professional care to black patients. From an employer's perspective, this video could fuel future potential liability and loss of confidence in the provider.

[spooky3]

21. I suspect she will not be given interviews because of this video.

Potential employers won’t tell her why (they don’t have to) and will avoid the liability problem.

[Ray Bruns]

6. Is she part of John Robert's "This isn't a racist country anymore"?

[Goodheart]

7. What the hell? Demanding that ISU expel her? No freaking way.

I certainly don't agree with what she said, but as a public university ISU should uphold her right to free speech. And I don't buy that just because she thinks Beyonce is not a country singer she couldn't be trusted to provide good health care to patients.

I seem to recall many African Americans complaining about "cultural appropriation" when whites took up rap, or when Paul Simon sold an album of African music. Same difference, until you convince me otherwise.

[yardwork]

15. Let me try to convince you otherwise.

What we know as "country" music has deep roots in African American and Spanish culture. American country music is a melding of British Isles folk music, African instruments and rhythms, and Spanish instruments and rhythms. The banjo is descended from an African instrument. The guitar was brought by Spaniards.

This misconception that country music is all-white has its roots in segregation. Black musicians in the U.S. helped create every uniquely American type of music, from jazz to gospel to rock to pop to blue grass to country.

Simply put, none of those uniquely American types of music would exist without Black Americans.

[Johnny2X2X]

24. If that was all she said, maybe

That was way beynd just saying, "If you're black, you aint country." She went to other places about picking cotton and your grandparents being bought and sold.

While I don't know about expulsion, I could see that this violated the code of conduct she agreed to adhere to as a student. This was way more than one sentence.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

30. Terrible Interpretation

If you'd watched the video, the complaints don't come from anything about Beyonce' but the other hateful racist comments she made.

For you to minimize the actual racism and spin it about cultural appropriation is part of the problem cited in conversations regarding the evil nature of racism.

[meadowlander]

41. I agree.

College is where you go to learn, often independently of the context you grew up in for the first time, and part of learning is fucking up and getting smacked down and not making those mistakes again. If you expel people from college for saying stupid things, you create a chilling effect on speech which means festering bullshit like this is never aired and confronted.

And it's the job of employers to vet her to ensure she doesn't become a nurse with racist attitudes not the job of universities to deny her access to education to gate-keep the industry.

[live love laugh]

8. I hate country music but I'm so happy Beyonce "invaded" the genre.

They’ve gone from uproar to uproar. They hated that the little mermaid was cast as black now this.

Fuck them.

PS: Expulsion will do no more to fix this problem than training police does. Disgusting people pretty much stay that way.

[Goodheart]

9. She can't be expelled over that.

[maxrandb]

12. Right, because only progressives that say stupid stuff will be punished

Can't wait to see this young lady dragged in front of Alyss Stefanik's congressional committee to get grilled about "bias" on college campuses.

I won't hold my breath.

[Goodheart]

13. That's not why.

She can't be expelled over that because it's her free speech right to assert that Beyonce isn't a country singer. Such a statement doesn't threaten or promote violence nor does it impinge on any other person's rights.

[yardwork]

17. It depends on the program she's in.

I don't know if the IU school of nursing has requirements that their students maintain a high level of professionalism and ethics.

Her grossly bigoted and ignorant statements (and I'm talking about the latter part of her comments, not the earlier part that the media are mentioning but the part where she says Beyoncé's grandparents were slaves who didn't contribute anything) might have crossed the line for IU's nursing program.

In any case, her stupidity in putting her bigoted comments out on the internet will follow her and definitely affect her career.

[spooky3]

22. It's Indiana State U, not IU. Nt

[yardwork]

34. Sorry, my mistake. My point stands.

[intheflow]

10. Jesus, the statement could have at least addressed

the historical inaccuracy by noting how contemporary country music has stolen instruments and rhythms from enslaved Africans. It’s not enough to denounce racism, you need to educate people about why it’s ignorant as well as racist.

[yardwork]

16. Yes, and also the other bigoted and historically inaccurate things she said.

The statement that Beyoncé's grandparents were slaves and that slaves didn't plant crops or contribute beyond "picking" is breathtakingly offensive and inaccurate. It's far worse than her uninformed comment about country not being Black.

[malaise]

11. Charlie Pride

That is all

[Dr. Strange]

26. Yup.

[malaise]

32. Charlie was on the playlist for every rural ar in the

English - speaking Caribbean😀

[edisdead]

18. While I find Beyonces song tone deaf and boring

While I find Beyonces song tone deaf and boring this lady’s take is ridiculously racist and stupid.

[Iggo]

19. A lot of stuff people call racism is just run of the mill bigotry.

But right here we have some bona fide A-1 American-style racism, kids.

You ‘bout to get kicked outa school, hon.

[Hugin]

23. Please, someone correct me if I'm wrong...

Wasn’t there a point where all of these gidgets thought Beyoncé was “white”?

[haele]

25. If she's too stupid to understand "locker talk"doesn't belong on social media

Where everyone can see it and be able to judge your character based on it - forever - she's too stupid to realize she's set herself up to be a walking medical lawsuit waiting to happen if any of her future employers look. And Medical employers do tend to look at Social Media if their hire is going to be working with the public in a critical capacity like Nurse or Doctor

Racist idiots like her are why medical outcomes for patients of color to be more complicated and worse - because of the racist plantation owner attitude that most people with Black or Native ancestors are at best only a few generations from the unskilled, uneducated workers who bred like animals to become hardier or stronger; so even if they're well off or educated now, they must be exaggerating if they come in with a complaint.

Where does she think Country Music - especially Cowboy Swing or Country Blues - comes from?

Haele

[RandySF]

29. It's been white supremacist genre for decades.

[RandySF]

28. Can I say "If you're country, you're probably an insurrectionist"?

[sakabatou]

31. Oh no! How DARE black people have cross-over hits and make music in certain genres!

[Deep State Witch]

33. Charley Pride

Darius Rucker, and Cowboy Troy beg to differ.

[Silent3]

35. Since when does a college have any obligation whatsoever to respond to stupid shit one of its students says?

If we were talking about something said in a speech given at ISU, or some other activity sponsored or promoted by ISU, that would be one thing.

But this is, as far as I can tell, a personal social media post made by someone who happens to be a student at ISU. Why does anyone expect the university to apologize for it, or go further and assume the job of disciplining the student for it?

[MorbidButterflyTat]

36. We were all admonished in another thread to reach out to college students,

try to understand and educate them.

So difficult to keep up.

[LiberalFighter]

37. The last paragraph is how I feel.

[LiberalFighter]

39. I wonder if she has any instructors or fellow students that are minority?

[maxsolomon]

42. She's probably too isolated in all-White rural culture to know

that "Country" is an insult in African American culture.

But she's white and rural, so let's all respect her resentments. She is, after all, a "Real American."