While Heicklen has the First Amendment right to say whatever he wants, he does not have the right to equate how "blacks were treated in Mississippi in the 1950s" with Penn State students and how they're treated here by the State College Borough Council or our community. While subtle racism here does abound, I don't see many of the privileged youth here in our State College community experiencing: lynchings, bombings, violent attacks by the police, corrupt trials where whites who murdered African-Americans were found not guilty, unequal education, and "For Whites/For Blacks" signs at stores or lunch counters.

The use of the word was inappropriate and if he wanted "shock" value, he should have tried a different tactic that wouldn't be offensive to those of us cognizant of the past. The Black Caucus and others should be infuriated because again, remnants of our racist, historical past are being appropriated, exploited, and de-contextualized as a tool, not to fight racism, but to minimalize it by using it as a simile for an unrelated issue.