If Saturday’s game against USC finishes without any racially charged incidents from the student body, it will not be much of a surprise. It probably hadn’t occurred to many students that calling for a blackout at Autzen — that is, wearing black clothing to the game — could have implied anything else.
University senior Austin Berry started a Facebook group called “Autzen Blackout” to encourage the crowd to dress in black at the USC game on Halloween. He said he had seen the unity that dressing in coordinated colors brought Boise State fans on Sept. 3 and wanted to inspire the same for the Ducks.
The Bias Response Team, part of the University’s Office of Student Life, pre-empted the plan with concerns that students could replicate racially insensitive behaviors exhibited at other schools when there were calls for a “blackout,” most notably Oregon State University in 2007 when students wore afro wigs, black face paint and gold chains.
That certainly was not what Berry, whose father is black, had intended. It’s hard to believe any reasonable person would have interpreted the instructions that way, at least before the idea appeared on the front pages of two newspapers and was featured on television news in Eugene and Portland.
After conversations with representatives from the Office of Student Life, Berry changed the name of his Facebook group to “Lights-Out Autzen, Wear Black vs USC on Halloween Night,” an innocuous enough change. More bizarre, however, was the request he add quotations to the phrase “black clothing.” If there is any way to add a racial subtext to this event, the partial quotes seem to be the way to do it. Instructions to wear black clothing say to wear clothing that is black. Instructions to wear “black clothing” seems to add a wink at something else entirely. Punctuation matters.
It would be an overreach to say that racially incendiary behavior has been encouraged by drawing attention to the possibility of it, or that a misuse of grammar would be to blame if anyone dressed inappropriately. The controversy seems manufactured in the first place, driven by concerns not about this student body but of others. There are real diversity issues on this campus, and we should all spend resources worrying about them instead.
Any student attending the game this weekend should be aware that there is a difference between showing school spirit and advancing negative racial stereotypes. They should also not interpret the word “blackout” to mean that they should not be able to remember the game come Sunday. But saying so always comes with the risk of a backlash, and most reasonable people do not need to be told anyway.
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