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Students at the Sundial
UPDATE: Protest ended promptly at 9 pm, when attendees were invited to a following Black Student Union (BSO) meeting. There was also a small prayer circle on the sundial with Muslim, Hindu, and Christian prayers.
Students started gathering at the Sundial this evening at 7 pm to participate in #STUDENTBLACKOUT, a protest in response to recent racially-motivated episodes at the University of Missouri and Yale. The event is meant to be an opportunity for students of color to “heal, express ourselves, support each other, and most importantly celebrate the courage and resolve of our brothers, sisters, and siblings around the world.”
After an introduction focused on segregated education, black students were invited to come up and share their own experiences with racism. Here are a few of them:
- “I lived in the top floor of John Jay, called the Attic. There were a lot of people of color there. Someone put up a sign called “‘Home of the Monkeys.'”
- “I am a black engineer and have never had a math or science teacher who looks like me. I walked into lecture of 300 students and only about 10 of them looked like me.”
- “My mom went to Barnard 28 years ago. Her experience is eerily similar to mine. She did not interact with white students because they did not want to interact with her. She could not separate the fact that she was on full scholarship and from low income neighborhood with her identity.”
- “In 2009 a professor came to her office to find a noose hung on the door. It was a news story across New York. Columbia swept it under the rug. When I got here I didn’t know about it.”
Other stories touched on casual racism and financial inequality; many speakers expressed concerns about the future.
All the while, student leaders declared, “All the people who hear us and are walking by are part of the problem. If you’re not saying the chants you’re not involved. Everyone has to contribute as much as possible. People are being oppressed. But the victims feel it the worst of all.”
They also noted the increase in participants in this protest, compared to similar ones last year. One person suggested, “”I think there are more people here than last year because it is easier for you to stand with a black college than for a black man who was selling loosies [cigs] at the subway,” referring to the case of Eric Garner.
There is NYPD presence in the form of a van between 115th and 116th St. on Broadway, as well as a car on 114th and Amsterdam (although it is facing away from Columbia). Helicopters are occasionally visible, but they might be unrelated.
We will update this post with any further developments.
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@Anonymous I am a short ugly Italian. No one looked at me or gave me the time of day either.
@Anonymous We still have to get around the fact that 90% of violent crimes are committed by blacks and minorities. What is being done about this? This is why people are appropriately afraid.
@Anonymous It is unfair that people get special consideration based on their skin color. Affirmative action must end. If we knew everyone was there based on merit, feelings would be different.
@hmmm Believe it or not, a large majority throughout America abhor racism, and believe in an open and welcoming society. If you don’t believe that this is true in one of the most liberal universities, in one of the most liberal cities in America, then you have a hard time recognizing reality. Yes, there is an elitist mentality in such places. That is not racism, and neither do some very thinly sourced smatterings of racist incidents. Believe it or not they happen everywhere. If you want to feel bitter, you may exercise that right. But you have no need for it.
@hmmm To the black engineer who laments the fact that your teachers don’t look like you–
Thanks to you, if you study hard and distinguish yourself, a black engineer in the future will have a teacher who looks like him or her. What more could you ask for? And what else, precisely, do you think is fair?
@hmmm The professor who had a noose hung outside her office was found to have very likely done so herself, and she was dismissed if I remember properly. Do pesky little things like “facts” ever percolate into the minds of people who live their lives in the bubble of campus activism?
@Anonymous Check your own facts before mocking others. No one ever pronounced judgement as to whether she hung the noose herself. She was dismissed over plagiarism charges, which had surfaced before the noose incident. Of course, we’re all entitled to be suspicious that she did hang the noose! Just as I’m suspicious about the duct tape that recently appeared at Harvard Law School…
@Peak discourse >”My mom went to Barnard 28 years ago. Her experience is eerily similar to mine. White students did not want to interact with her.”
> “Black boy act like those white boys he kicked it with really are his friends.” -Slam poem (Performed at the event)
No win situation, eh? Either “ignoring us” or “So, I guess this is your ‘Black Friend’, huh?”
@peak Discourse all these comments are peak Discourse 10/10
@Anonymous “If you’re not saying the chants you’re not involved.”
This sounds like a cult, not a political movement.
@Plz I came towards the end and thought the gathering was generally uniting-ish, so it’s a bummer to hear that people were called out like that earlier. I understand frustrations, but can we try to stay focused on what we, the people presently showing up, can do? Maybe our progress working together will draw in those walking by. Informing is better than shaming, yeah?
@oh come on and I’m not saying that the issues aren’t real, or that there shouldn’t be protests. There are very real issues that need to be discussed, including the incident at Howard and the reaction of the student body to the Mizzou conflict. The people at these schools and in those communities need real support, real help, and a real presence. I know I can’t physically help at the moment, however I don’t try and mask my guilt by engaging in slacktivism.
But this event was ineffective and pretty much the peak of slactivism. It was hostile in that calling out people who were trying to get places that weren’t the protest made me, at least, feel unsafe. God forbid people need to get through the middle of campus (literally) to get places. And the chanters can talk about being made unsafe to great applause, but suddenly calling out individuals walking by is alright?
Since I’m not a “person of color” I guess I’m a worthy target.
@oh come on “protest” yeah right.
Their chanting consisted of repeating what their “leader” said. It was more of an ad hoc open mic than a protest. Verbal parroting is literally the death of intellectualism, but I guess we’re all too wrapped up in feeling good about ourselves to actually make a difference.
The BSO leaders or whoever was leading this didn’t make a difference. They didn’t add to discourse. They didn’t educate anybody. They created a black only space for non-black students to spectate.
But hey, segregation and objectification is bad, right?
@uh 1. “All the people who hear us and are walking by are part of the problem. If you’re not saying the chants you’re not involved”
2. “I think there are more people here than last year because it is easier for you to stand with a black college than for a black man who was selling loosies [cigs] at the subway.”
So in the first quote, they’re criticizing anyone who HASN’T joined their protests, and equate that with “being a part of the problem,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.
And in the second quote, they’re criticizing those who HAVE decided to join their protests, in the same way that a hipster says he liked something before it was cool.
You’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. This social movement will never have lasting impact until they operate from something more complex than just perpetual outrage at everyone and everything that’s Other.
@Anonymous gay af