Yale, Missouri outcry yields action on racism

Longstanding complaints of racism at University of Missouri’s Columbia campus came to national attention earlier this month as a variety of protests, including a graduate student’s hunger strike and a strike by the football team, led to the university president’s resignation.

Yale University similarly erupted into protests after a fraternity allegedly declared its party open to “white girls only” and an exchange over Halloween costume policy and racial insensitivity triggered widespread student criticisms.

Protestors say the incidents are just the latest examples of ingrained, pervasive racism on campus. The outcries bring to light a need to examine practices at universities across the nation.

“You can’t image what it must feel like to be on a college campus thinking you are surrounded by enlightened individuals and then, at the end of the day, realize that you are still seen as this racial epithet by so many people,” said Kevin Cokley, professor of counseling psychology and African and African diaspora studies and director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Texas at Austin. At a UT Austin town hall meeting he attended, a student said that a white classmate had called her the n-word after they disagreed over pop culture.

Outcries

At the University of Missouri this fall, racial slurs were hurled at the Legion of Black Collegians, a student government group, while they were rehearsing a play, as well as at the student government president. By many accounts, these were further evidence of deep-running racism and the administration’s blind eye.

In 2010, two students, in what seemed an effort to evoke the image of slave plantations, covered the yard in front of the Black Culture Center with cotton balls. A journalism professor told the Huffington Post that she was the victim of racial slurs more times than she can remember throughout her 18-year career at the university.

This fall, student anger built from what largely was viewed as inadequate efforts on the part of university officials to acknowledge and address concerns about racism on the heels of the harassment of the LBC and president. Although the chancellor took some actions — he made statements condemning the slurs and announced mandatory diversity training for staff, faculty and students in 2016 — Tim Wolfe, university president, was seen as unconcerned.

Tensions rose in late October when protestors confronted Wolfe while he was in his car during the homecoming parade. Protestors said Wolfe ignored them; ten days later, in late October, a student activist group, Concerned Student 1950, issued a call for reforms — including Wolfe’s resignation.

In early November, grad student Jonathan Butler launched a hunger strike.

Meanwhile, Yale’s Intercultural Affairs Committee sent an email advising students against wearing potentially racially or culturally offensive Halloween costumes. A faculty member sparked outrage when she sent her own email questioning whether the university should take a role in censoring costume choices. Students said she was valuing free speech over needs to prevent racial stereotyping and create a safe space for all cultures and ethnicities.

Demands by students at Yale and University of Missouri included increased recruitment and retention of minority faculty, sensitivity and racial awareness training for faculty, staff and students and mental health programs that have an understanding of minority experiences.

The lists echoes many demands presented by the Legion of Black Collegians in 1969.

Stifled voices

John O. Nwosu, Jr., president of the National Black Graduate Student Association, said racism is prevalent in all American universities and institutions.

“In all campuses that exist within the U.S. there is some form of institutionalized racism that impacts students,” he said. “Racism is essentially the status quo.”

Resistance to acknowledging that stems comes from people’s fear of disturbing the status quo as well as an unwillingness to believe that such inequality could still persist in America, he said.

Cokley, who has taught at three universities, said incidents like those at University of Missouri and Yale happen every year and that black students’ accounts are frequently dismissed as exaggeration.

“[They keep] being told they’re too sensitive, that they need to toughen up, that it’s not as bad as they make it out to be,” Cokley said.

The power of recent protests to capture national attention comes from social media and camera phones that make it easy to present evidence that racism is not an isolated incident but as pervasive and real as black students say, the NBGSA’s Nwosu observed.

“These issues have been expressed by students across the nation at various points in time,” Nwosu said. “A lot of people would like to believe racism is a thing of the past or not as big of a deal as it is. But when you have stories that continue to circulate on social media and video footage that shows exactly what happened, you can’t argue with that.”

Ingrained racism

Cokley said he was not surprised to hear that University of Missouri has difficulty retaining faculty of color. He taught at the school between 2004-2007 and said the environment was so negative that black faculty members typically leave as soon as they have the opportunity.

Cokley was the eighth former University of Missouri faculty member to sign an open letter attesting to structural racism they had witnessed there. The signers had been at the institution during different periods of time, across a span of 15-20 years. One constant they all noted: discrimination.

“The anecdotes we share about our experiences are remarkably consistent,” Cokley said. “This is not just an isolated incident.”

During his time there, Cokley said he witnessed vandalism and other racist acts targeting the Black Cultural Center. In addition to acts perpetrated by students, many adults contributed to the negative culture. The letter pointed out that white faculty twice voted against proposals for a diversity course requirement for undergrads.

The administration also frequently dismissed reports of racism, he said.

“University administrators hear these stories and know there are problems. And as we see in the case of Missouri, the problems are ignored or minimized,” Cokley said.

Reforms

University of Missouri’s president and campus chancellor resigned on Monday Nov. 9, and a black interim president was appointed three days later. The university also announced that by early February 2016 several reforms would be in place: a Chief Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Officer appointed; greater support for hiring and retaining diverse staff and faculty; greater support for those who have experienced discrimination and a review of campus police and staff conduct.

Meanwhile, Yale announced a diversity initiative that allocates more than $50 million over five years into increasing diversity recruitment and bringing diverse visiting professors.

Nsowu said that while the reforms are a start, ideally, conversations about diversity would take place far earlier than during college.

“Too many people come to college with diversity and social justice conversations being fresh, being things they haven’t had experience with,” he said.