The Struggle Against Apathy 1998-1999:

Both before and after the 2000 election, apathy served as a consistent theme for the Message staff. However, the reasons for and targets of student activism changed with Harold Pettigrew’s ascension from a prominent editorial writer for the paper to Student Body President. Instead of solely demanding an equitable voice for African-Americans in campus affairs, the Message shifted toward a more militant posture directed at ensuring that the newly-elected student leadership took action on crucial issues.

In his capacity as a writer for the Message, Pettigrew pushed for African-American student engagement with campus diversity and affirmative action policies in two prominent editorials, “The Wake Up Call,” published in January 1999, and then reprinted February 4, 1999 with a follow-up article from Pettigrew. In these two editorials, Pettigrew defended the need for African-American student organizations in the face of threats from the university administration to eliminate these black student groups. Speaking for the African American campus community, Pettigrew argued that such organizations served a crucial function as “a reflection of us.” However, at the same time, Pettigrew admitted that “we have become too comfortable,” and since “our sleeping brothers and sisters” became mobilized with this threat, the leaders of these organizations needed to pursue change that would “connect us to the broader sense of community.” In response, Pettigrew called upon African American students to become involved "in all facets of student life including student government, steering committees, and any other non-African American organizations." Despite the Message's desire for a separate media space, Pettigrew's editorial implies a need for engagement with the broader community paired with a recognition that "the enemy is within us all," and that black students should not "make the administration our enemy."

In both Pettigrew’s original article and a response letter from Kim McNair, the authors testify to the need to draw inspiration and motivation from, in Pettigrew’s words, “the blood, sweat, and tears of our courageous elders.” Meanwhile, as McNair wrote to the Message, too many African-Americans at NC State fell victim to “ignorance and Inertia,” and they needed to realize the fallacy of ideas about post-racialism and thus become mobilized as “freedom isn’t free.” More broadly, both McNair and Pettigrew identify the problem as originating within the "mindset" of many, but not all, African American students. Rather than lambasting the institutional barriers and threats to separate black spaces on campus, the content of the Message during this period takes a more inward focus.