T.J. Holmes touches on a "touchy subject"

The much-anticipated UF MLK event hosted by the Black Graduate Student Organization and various other campus organizations was truly a night of food, fun, and remembrance. I think it's easy for us to forget about the way things were during the time in which Dr. Martin Luther King lived. It's not good enough for us to simply remember the things he (and many others) fought for, but to advance the cause. The night's Keynote speaker, former CNN and BET anchor, T.J. Holmes really drove this point home. He opened the night with a few jokes, but then he got down to the heart of the matter, which is that as African Americans we are held to a certain standard. There are people all across the world that may never come into much contact with someone of our race on a personal/individual level. So what little they know about us is what they learn through media. While there are some positive portrayals of African Americans in media, there are far more negative ones which people use to form opinions of all of us. He told each and every African American student in the room that they only way to change this is to a) have more positive African American portrayals on television and b) as individuals we need to carry ourselves in a way that defies those negative stereotypes on daily basis. While both are reasonable goals, it's clear that accomplishing the latter is far easier. But I think the even bigger picture here, is that this task can be set for any group who is negatively portrayed in the media. The bottom line is we should all hold ourselves to the highest standards.