Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) stated that race issues bubble up on the University of Missouri’s campus from time to time “maybe for a variety of reasons, some of them uniquely midwestern” on Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “MTP Daily.”
Cleaver said that there have been “problems with — at MU, in Columbia for decades, not consistently, not constantly, but off and on, for decades, probably going back to the ’70s.”
When asked what causes these problems, Cleaver answered, “Well, I mean, we’ve had, from time to time, issues regarding minority students on campus, and I think that it hasn’t been anything that was organized by the Klan, or that kind of thing. I just think from time to time, and maybe for a variety of reasons, some of them uniquely midwestern, we have these kinds of issues to bubble up to the top. So, if you go back and look at the news from the 1970s on, you’ll see that maybe every five or six years, maybe, you’ll have an issue that will end up in the — at least in the state media, but I’m glad this happened, for — as one missourian, and the reason, I think chaos can do us a favor, but if all we do is discuss the chaos, we’ll very likely flunk the favor. Because we have an opportunity now to do some systemic changes. The — having a resignation today didn’t solve the problem. One human being cannot be blamed for the problems they’re having down on campus. So we got — if we end this today, if everybody steps aside, it’s going to bubble up again, it’s just a matter of time.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett