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Students from 3 Schools Picket Nashville Store

Photo credit: K. Cummings/The Meter Eighty Nashville college students came together to protest an incident at the You Greek, Me Greek store.

By Kirsten D. Watkins and Eddie R. Cole Jr.
Black College Wire

Eighty Nashville college students from three schools gathered to protest a Greek paraphernalia shop, charging that the wife of the owner called three members of a Tennessee State University sorority a racial slur.

Spearheaded by members of the Alpha Beta chapter of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority Inc., community members joined students from Tennessee State, Vanderbilt University and Nashville State Technical Community College on Nov. 9 to picket the You Greek, Me Greek store on the city's West End Avenue.

Sorority members Ashley Coleman and Latoya Trice told the Meter, the Tennessee State University newspaper, that they and their sorority sister April Gardner went to the store on Oct. 28 because the faded lettering on T-shirts ordered on Oct. 5 did not meet with the chapter's approval.

Photo credit: K. Cummings/The Meter Store manager posted a sign in the window denying wrongdoing.

But Trice said when they attempted to return the shirts, Jamie Roppel, wife of store owner Steve Roppel, told the three ladies to "Go to hell, you fucking nigger bitches."

Coleman added that Jamie Roppel referred to the three students as a "gang" and said they were "scaring away the customers."

For sorority member Fatime Badjie, that was enough.

"We've experienced discrimination in the heart of Nashville," said Badjie, a senior mass communications major from the Gambia in western Africa. "They referred to black organizations as a gang. Being a person who believes in justice and nondiscrimination, it is my duty to see that this store gets shut down. This store does not deserve to be here."

Trice said that in addition to being subjected to the racial slur, the $100 refund was thrown in their faces.

The store was closed during the protest, but a statement posted in the front window denied wrongdoing.

"You Greek, Me Greek has had a 15-year tradition of providing quality screen printing services to corporate and individual customers, including (Tennessee State University) and Nashville," read the statement from Steve Roppel. "If a remark considered racist were made, I did not make it. Beyond that, any issue is irrelevant."

However, protesters didn't think so.

Chants such as "You [Greek] me Greek, your excuse are weak" and "Honk your horns for justice" rang along West End Avenue.

"This is Rosa Parks in action," said Cass Teague, a Tennessee State alumnus at the protest. "Rosa Parks is not dead. Her spirit is very much alive in these young ladies."

And Vanderbilt students agreed.

"In 2005, this racism exhibited is unacceptable," said Vanderbilt sophomore Jessica Jackson, a Little Rock, Ark., native majoring in human organizational development. "I am extremely proud. This project demonstrates that we are a community."

Student leaders in attendance, such as Miss Tennessee State University Tomeika Dobson, Miss Junior Terra Bell and Student Government Association representative Patrick Walker-Reese, said the protest represented more than standing up for the African American community.

"This protest is a good move on behalf of our generation," said Walker-Reese, a freshman history major from Nashville. "It will change the perception of how this business and others will look at black students. Sometimes, we tend to be complacent in our lives and the racism that exists today in our society."

Kirsten D. Watkins and Eddie R. Cole Jr. are students at Tennessee State University. Watkins is arts and entertainment editor of the Meter and Cole is editor-in-chief.

Posted Nov. 14, 2005