Blatant Racism Rears Its Ugly Head at South Dakota State University

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American Indian students number some 200 out of a student body of 12,000 that attend South Dakota State University. The majority of the American Indians who attend the university are from South Dakota.

On Monday evening, almost a dozen American Indian students attended a meeting that was convened to discuss the incident.

“We discussed racial issues here on campus,”

said the unidentified student, who said there have been other things that have happened on campus previously.

“There have been other racial slurs in the past. There have been times people have just been disrespectful to Native American students. We are outnumbered.”

The American Indian students who met on Monday evening hope that the university handles the matter in a proper fashion.

So far, none of the non-Indian students have said anything about the incident, according to the Lakota student; nor has there been any who have come forth to apologize.

The student hopes that something good can come out of this incident.

“It is a good problem, because it opens people's eyes. People see racism still exists today,”

he said.

Campus police are in the process of investigating the incident, according to one university that the Native News Network talked to on Monday afternoon, though she indicated that she was not authorized to discuss the incident per a directive from the president of the university. The Native News Network was referred to the university media relations office. The Native News Network calls have gone unanswered as of press time by these university officials.

Editor's Note: As a matter of journalist standards, the Native News Network chooses not to show crime scene photos with racist words that only incite more anger and give perpetrators satisfaction.

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posted October 2, 2012 8:40 am edt