You have to hand it to the Ohio University student body. We sure can have some interesting and, I think, revelatory discussions about our community here in Athens.
On Wednesday, via Twitter, another one of those discussions was sparked by the accounts @BlkOUConfession and @BlackOUCrushes — apparently non-affiliated spinoffs of @OUCrushes and @OU_Confessions.
Their creation promoted the people over at OU Confessions to ask: “Are you kidding me @BlackOUCrushes and @BlkOUConfession?”
I wanted to know what those behind the black accounts and the “main” accounts thought of the Twitter drama. First, I reached out to the creator of @BlkOUConfessions. I sent the account a direct message with my number and promptly received a call. The ID was blocked. The man on the other line refused to give his name, though I assured him I would not use it in print.
I found him to be very kind, respectful and comfortable in speaking with me about his viewpoints.
“I was isolated for the past year because there was so much gossip and so much hate (on campus),” he said, adding that he is a former OU student who just recently dropped out. He said he was a resident assistant in a residence hall where many people — white, black, whatever — told him things. They confessed things in private to him, he said, adding that he thinks doing so is not really all that wise.
But, “The only way you can change a community is if you change the mindset of others,” he said.
He meant to do that by airing out the dirty laundry.
“We (gossip) behind each other’s back. That’s kind of f-cked up, right? Now, nobody knows who said what, but it’s been said.
“So eyes are looking around.”
And “that’s the point,” he said, because he said he wanted people to be irked by the gossip on his Twitter feed. Because if people were irked, they could learn that “if you stop gossiping, this hate won’t exist. People need to realize that.”
I asked: OK, but why make it for black people? Why put “black” in it?
His answer was simple: He’s black, so he wanted to start by talking to what he felt in his “community.” He had the hope that, down the line, people of all races and ethnicities would get his drift.
“This is a page that shows gossip destroys the community. It wasn’t about race until they made it about race.”
In speaking with him, he seemed sincere in his line of thinking.
Next, I tried Black OU Crushes.
Someone replied: “I don’t want any extra attention drawn to myself. I just made the page because I always heard people complain about not getting their crushes posted. I also noticed (The Ohio State University) had a black crush page, but I never seen any debates about it, so I thought an OU one would be cool, too.”
I thought that was sincere.
Then I reached out to the “main” pages. Someone at OU Confessions said he or she didn’t want to comment and explained that the situation was “touchy.”
I thought that was sincere.
OU Crushes did not respond to my tweet asking me to follow the account, so I could not direct message it.
OU students are good at this. We are good at starting conversations and debating issues that matter to us. And we prove that hate shouldn’t be ignored or dismissed. It should be combated with good.
We as Bobcats seem to know that lies and truth — and hate and love — must coexist for us to be able to know which is which. I think there’s a little bit of both in all of us, including those behind these gossip accounts.
So, today’s another day. What are we going to talk about now?
Joshua Jamerson is a junior studying journalism and the local editor of The Post. Email him at jj360410@ohiou.edu. His regular column Party Lines will return next week.
