Diversity seems to be the topic that really affected me more than most during my time here at the University. Many people have come up to me recently and asked me where my passion for diversity comes from.

Following the town hall forum on the Mothers bar incident held two weeks ago, student group Connect 4 hosted a roundtable on Monday to create task forces for addressing racial discrimination and profiling on campus and to bring greater awareness of diversity issues to the student body. The student group hoped to focus the current energy sparked by the Mothers bar incident on creating long-term action plans for making positive change on campus and in the surrounding community.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has been an integral player in the response to the Original Mothers bar incident. The ADL contacted the group of six black students three days after the original incident to offer them access to the organization’s infrastructure and advocacy from the group.

Students expressed anger at the Original Mothers bar and demanded that the establishment issue an apology and return students’ money at a town hall forum Monday night.

According to Alan Griffin, a 27-year-old Chicago native, discrimination is nothing new to Mother’s Bar. Griffin said that he experienced the same treatment as six Washington University students on two different occasions.

Washington University seniors on their class trip accused a Chicago nightclub of racial discrimination over the weekend, protesting nearby after the club allegedly denied entry to six black male students because of their race.

The recent instance of racism directed at six seniors during the class trip to Chicago last weekend is a stunning reminder of the racism that still exists in our world. Two hundred members of the senior class experienced racism firsthand, when six black students were denied entry to Mother’s Nightclub Original bar due to their “baggy jeans,” even as several white students with baggier jeans were allowed in.

Around 200 Washington University students participated in a protest Sunday morning in Chicago in response to what is being called an act of racial discrimination that occurred at Mother’s Night Club Original bar the night before.