Cowards and Noise: A Critical Eye Toward Politicians and Institutions:

Despite the widespread optimism and jubilation that accompanied the student government elections of April 2000, the staff of The Nubian Message took a skeptical, yet hopeful view of the new leadership. This skepticism generally manifested itself not in specific criticisms or ad hominem attacks on Pettigrew and other African-American student leaders, but instead it appeared in columns expressing a broader disillusionment with politicians who promised substantial “top-down” reforms and changes. More broadly, these stances indicated a continuation of the Message staff’s determination to counter narratives that black students holding leadership positions provided evidence that the dawn of a new century meant the end of racial prejudice in the United States.

For example, Brandon Buskey’s “Put Up or Shut Up” editorial in the first edition of the Message during the 2000-2001 academic year helped establish the tone that the paper’s staff would take toward the new student government administration. Looking backward, Buskey asserted that political “talk,” apathy, or busyness would not suffice as excuses for inaction on issues of tuition increases, diversity, and tolerance that proved crucial for African-American campus organizations. For Buskey, the true measure of whether African-Americans at NC State truly reached “the dawning of a new day” would be to what extent both their leaders and black students themselves could establish “a more tolerant and racial climate” on campus.

One of the clearest statements of the Message’s position in relation to the NCSU student government is found in the “Cowards in Our Midst” editorial from September 28, 2000. Published by the Message staff, the editorial declared, “those who will not stand up for their fellow black brothers and sisters on campus, those who fear being labeled as too black or too militant are in the opinion of this paper, cowards.” As the staff diagnosed the racial issues on campus, “too many times our student leaders have no other solution but to restate the problem,” which ensured that “others will find a solution for us,” because “our community is placed in the position of reaction and protest.” Despite this apparent critique of the university leadership, the Message presented a case for proactive and engaged African-American community that could apply significant pressure to their elected student leaders.  

Meanwhile, the newly-inaugurated opinion column written under the pseudonym “Darkchild,” also provided a source for conveying the Message’s doubts about the progress that could be achieved by new student leadership. Although the origins of the Darkchild mystery column are not clear, it is evident anonymity granted to the author provided a medium for critiquing the new student leadership. Moreover, the Darkchild column’s first appearance in the 2000-2001 academic year corresponds to the beginning of the administration led by Student Body President and former Message writer Harold Pettigrew. In one of the initial columns from Darkchild, published in late September 2000, the mystery author opined that the “mythological ‘there’ that we as African Americans have been trying to reach for centuries is looming in the distance.” For this writer, these goals could only be achieved if African Americans agitated for “the actions to back up those words.”