Tonight at 6 p.m., the Purdue chapter of the NAACP held a discussion forum with students and community members about last week's incident at Triple XXX. After brief introductions, a female member of the group that was allegedly discriminated against last weekend took questions from the audience. The room was filled with over 150 attendees that included West Lafayette mayor John Dennis, 2 representatives from the city public relations committee, 3 reporters and a photographer from the Exponent, students from Purdue College Democrats, 2 heads of the Purdue Queer Student Union, and other various students and community members.

The female said that although the group had been drinking earlier in the evening, they were not drunk "or else the police would have breathalyzed us or something." As reported earlier, she and her friends were told to sit in the back of the restaurant and were refused service for no apparent reason. The pregnant woman was "thrown" into the window. Finally, the cops interviewed only blacks, no whites nor the security guard or waitress(es).

Well there we have it, folks, restatements of what we already know. (Except for the drinking part which was rather vaguely tiptoed around.) A flow of new information there was not at this meeting.

Soon, however, the meeting broke into expressed concerns about other supposed racial instances such as the graffiti of a "male genitilia with F--- Obama under it" on the Diversity Tree before the election. The vandalism implied racial hatred because it was painted on a tree that is known to be a black student stomping ground, said the NAACP president, and that the genitilia was a vulgar reference to blacks. Now, I personally fail to see how the penis with Obama's name indicates anti-black sentiments because first of all, black men aren't the only ones with penises. Secondly, students draw penises next to lots of things and want to "f---" lots of things too. Thirdly, "F--- Obama" had been sprawled over many areas of campus including the Liberal Arts and Engineering areas and other non-Diversity Tree places. And finally, who's to say that the culprits didn't just oppose Obama for his environmental or abortion stances?

By the time the forum ended (I give them credit for ending promptly an hour later), most attendees who had come with predetermined ideas were ready to march down to Triple XXX that very second to protest. By golly, those students were ready to do something about it all! However, to some disappointment, no pitchforks, torches, or signs were seen marching down State Street. Even if they had, the activists' efforts would have been in vain because Triple XXX is closed on Sunday nights.

As an attendee myself, I have a hard time believing anything substantial will come out of the incident or tonight's meeting. It seemed many were there just to rant and to find unfound reasons to suggest racial tension in many situations. I've been at Purdue for three years now, and most of the time the issue blows over, people lose interest, and the desire to do anything about anything is lost.