Today I had the unfortunate experience of listening to Dr. Serene Jones give her Founder’s Day lecture. I was appalled to sit in the audience and listen to Dr. Jones speak of white privilege, the “poor kids” in Ferguson, MO, and belittle our military. As she spoke I wondered where she had gathered her statistical information from and why she deemed it relevant, as she did not make clear either point. Statistics were given as propaganda, politics were the main focus of her lecture, although she made it clear in the beginning of her lecture that her biased views “span bipartisan America” as if as though she has given people who oppose her views a chance to make their points. If she has, she surely did not represent them clearly in this lecture. She talked of how Tea- Partiers are afraid of black and Hispanic people, how whites are afraid of a multicultural takeover, all while lacing her lecture with an overall “poor black people” ideology. I would like to point out that as much as she feels sorry for the black community and what is happening to our nation, she didn’t mention the officers that have been brutally murdered as a result of the protests in Ferguson. Mike Brown came up more than once, but the names of Police Officer Wenjian Liu, Police Officer Rafael Ramos, and others killed in the line of duty by armed criminals went unmentioned. Clearly Dr. Jones has an agenda to point out white privilege and continue to push discrimination of people of all races, ethnicities, genders, and cultures. My point can be further proved with the tweet that Dr. Jones wrote just yesterday. It reads, “On MLK day we remember that white privilege makes white people at best delusional and at worst deadly. The moral truth is, it must end.”

As I sat and was offended over and over by a women who I thought would be a positive Christian example of peace and love within all communities, the Iraq war veteran (and my good friend) sitting to my right began to clench his fist. When I looked over at him, I saw tears in his eyes. He ended up walking out of the convocation before the question and answer portion was completed. I didn’t blame him, as I would be offended as well if I fought for a person’s freedom of speech only to hear them mock the National Guard and all our nation stands for. Dr. Jones indicated that the National Guard was present in Ferguson, MO only to be a threat of force and law to the “young black community” that resides there. I thought maybe they were there to assist with the lootings and the buildings that were burning to the ground, a direct effect from the “young black community” who chose to riot after they didn’t get their way instead of exercising their Constitutional right to be heard in a peaceful way. She also spoke of Ferguson being “like a war zone,” although I think veteran friend may know what that looks like a little better than her, and trust me, it does NOT look like Ferguson, MO.

What bothers me the most is that lectures such as Dr. Jones’ makes people afraid to speak out. I love my country, I love ALL people, and I love my heritage. I am white, and I am proud to be white, in the same way Dr. Martin Luther King was proud to be black. Everyone should be proud of who they are and everyone should get all of the facts before forming an opinion. Giving us facts from both sides and introducing ways to improve our communities were absent from today’s lecture. I would like to propose that Lakeland College better screen the individuals they choose to have speak to the study body and community. I would

also like to propose should people like Dr. Jones be invited to speak at Lakeland the college give them a more thorough introduction for the public to read before choosing whether or not to attend the convocation. The article written about Dr. Jones on the Lakeland website truly misrepresented her and mislead people such as myself into attending a convocation that I thought was going to be about the Christian view on today’s economy, not social politics and biased hot topic opinions.

Thank you for taking the time to read this e-mail and listen to me. I hope it is taken into consideration with future speakers at Lakeland.

Sincerely,

Jacque Roerdink

Lakeland Student

A list of my sources can be seen here. It includes all Police Officer’s killed in the line of duty, the link to Dr. Jones’ twitter newsfeed, and the article about Dr. Jones off the Lakeland Website:

http://www.odmp.org/search/year?year=2014

https://twitter.com/search?q=Serene%20Jones&src=typd

http://lakeland.edu/Lakeland-News/rev-dr-serene-jones-to-present-founders-day-lecture