Robes Vs No Torches Analysis

Robes versus no robes, torches vs no torches, this is the discussion that surrounds me as the end of the school year approaches. People bustle about in hallways, and I hear phrases like “We should just keep tradition” or “Did you read this article about torchlight?” or even “This doesn’t make any rational sense to get rid of torchlight”. I try to keep busy and avoid the conversation. Yet my mind goes back to this issue. It is not just a discussion with winners or losers. For me, it’s personal.
My grandmother grew up on a rural farm in Mississippi. She is the daughter of a sharecropper, the granddaughter of a slave. Her family was very poor. They lived in a tiny house, all eleven of them. They had no table to eat off of instead, they used the metal basin that they would take baths with and turn it over to use it as a “table”. When she was not in the fields picking cotton, she went to her grade school five miles away because she could not ride the white school bus. They would not take her to the “colored” two roomed schoolhouse that housed eight grades. She was also taught to not look at a white person in the …show more content…
The KKK is and was a white supremacist group who believe that white power should be enforced, and the White Christian community should come together to make a new America sans everyone else who do not fit the description above. They lynched a lot of Black Americans as well as many who were not. They bombed black churches and burned the houses down of many Black Americans. The KKK still exist today, and there is actually an active chapter not even 20 minutes away from Colgate. They left a scar of terror and oppression on the minds of many minorities, especially Black Americans. Many died and suffered on their account, so it should be no wonder that many people are triggered by the image of many students walking down the hill in robes with torches in their hands that resembles the