Professor shares real-life discrimination

During a casual lunch with a colleague in 1975 in New York City, Akwasi B. Assensoh was asked to exit the restaurant he was dining in because the manager told him, "Your presence is driving away business." After charging the meal to the restaurant, Assensoh, an African-American man, was asked to leave.\nThe race for equal opportunity and equality is one that Assensoh, associate professor of Afro-American studies, discussed Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day.\nIn a speech entitled "King's Dream: Deferred or Realized?," Assensoh spoke on both a personal and professional level.\nThe event, officially "A Cup of Tea," was sponsored by the Asian Culture Center. Nearly two dozen of IU's faculty members and students gathered to hear Assensoh speak. Among those to attend the speech was Dean of Students Richard McKaig.\nAssensoh, originally from Ghana, superceded his introduction with a list of education and experiences. He earned his undergraduate degree from New York University before getting his bachelor's degree at Dillard University. While doing research at Stanford University, Assensoh worked one-on-one with Coretta Scott King, widow of Martin Luther King Jr., studying the work of her late husband.\nDuring the speech, Assensoh reiterated that King's beliefs were designed to reach everyone.\n"(King) was not only fighting for blacks -- (but for) anyone, even poor whites. All of us have our share in his legacy," Assensoh said.\nSome audience members said they found Assensoh's speech a means of positive enlightenment.\n"I'm extremely interested in history and the progress of the civil rights movement," senior Justin McCann said. \nOthers that came to listen said they felt the issues discussed, such as racism and the advancement of equality, could help improve the Bloomington campus.\nSenior Dietrich Willke, IU Student Coalition president, came to hear Assensoh. \n"IU's trying to overcome it," Willke said of inequality. "Things can change by sharing ideas. That's the beauty."\nWillke said he will be creating a discussion assembly entitled "The Reality of Racism" Feb. 7 in the Indiana Memorial Union's Alumni Hall. He said he hopes the event will encourage communication among students of different backgrounds.\n"I think IU is trying very hard and making an earnest effort to improve cultural diversity," Assensoh said.\nFor the future, Assensoh said he felt advisors should work to encourage students to interact with minorities both in and outside of the classroom.\n"It is true that more men and women are, today, living, learning and working together across the lines of race and ethnicity than ever before," Assensoh said. "People of color have more opportunities than ever before"