WATCH: Mizzou Race Activist Hijacks Orlando Vigil as Gay Community Rebukes Her

'Multicultural' official scolds whites who preach unity
MARK SCHIERBECKER
The College Fix
Jun. 15, 2016

A vigil Monday planned by several University of Missouri student organizations was supposed to honor victims of Sunday morning's deadly shooting rampage in a popular gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

It turned into a blame session against Mizzou's LGBTQ community for not being intersectional enough.

Latino activists, including a Mizzou official, scolded the mostly white gathering for ignoring racial issues. That led one attendee to fume on Facebook that the organizers had invented a "race issue" out of a "homophobic attack" by gunman Omar Mateen.

The attack on the Pulse nightclub took place on Latin night, with most victims Latinos in their 20s and 30s.

'Who are you really here for?'

At the event outside the Boone County Courthouse in Columbia, Mizzou graduate and activist Tiffany Melecio chastised the crowd for putting the interests of the LGBTQ community above those of "people of color."

"I wish this many people came out to our racial demonstrations and our Black Lives Matter movement," Melecio told the crowd, which The Columbia Missourian estimated at more than 800.

“Those are things you don’t consider when you are white or when you are an American,” said Melecio, a former staffer for the Missourian. She recalled fumbling over Spanish, her non-native language, when she came out as bisexual to her Spanish-speaking mother from Guatemala. Her family is Guatemalan and Puerto Rican.

“I’m tired of the black and white dichotomy we hear when we talk about race,” Melecio said. “We never take the time to talk about the shades [of skin] in between – like mine.”

Melecio implied that among white people, support for the Latino community was not as strong as it was for the LGBTQ community.

Read More