Precinct Reporter Group News

Top Menu

  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Food
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy

Main Menu

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • Subscribe
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login
  • Precinct Reporter News
  • Food
  • Subscribe
  • Privacy Policy

logo

Precinct Reporter Group News

  • Home
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Read Our E-Edition
  • ADVERTISE
  • Subscribe
  • BHM: Black History Parade, Campus Events

  • Black History Month Health Events Look at Race Bias

  • BHM Events on Campus and MOLAA

  • Tyre Nichols Video: Can Policing Be Reformed?

  • Reparations Task Force Agrees to Extend Its Work

Latest PRGNews
Home›Latest PRGNews›CBC Hosts Forum: Racism on College Campuses

CBC Hosts Forum: Racism on College Campuses

By Precinct Reporter News
September 16, 2017
2604
0
Share:

By Lauren Victoria Burke and Freddie Allen

Congressional Democrats, led by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), the ranking member on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, recently hosted a forum on Capitol Hill titled “Affirmative Action, Inclusion, and Racial Climate on America’s Campuses.”

Conyers said that recent signals from the Justice Department hint at a change in administration policy and new attacks on affirmative action programs.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.) recently hosted a forum on racism on college campuses on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. This photo was taken during a forum on criminal justice reform in Northwest Washington, D.C. in July 2015. Photo: Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA

“This is not the time for the federal government to retreat from protecting equality in higher education,” said Conyers.

Student leaders, college diversity officials, and legal experts discussed the role of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in ensuring that students are welcomed to a safe, inclusive learning environment free of harassment and intimidation on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

Title VI, “was enacted as part of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. It prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, and national origin in programs and activities receiving federal financial assistance,” according to the Justice Department.

“Title VI remains a critical tool in eliminating discrimination in schools,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. “It was a tool that was originally shared by the Department of Justice and by private plaintiffs.”

Ifill continued: “Now, we’re faced with an administration that is hostile towards civil rights—hostile to the Office of Civil Rights, itself.”

Ifill said that even though the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the constitutionality of the merits of affirmative action, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is preparing a unit in the Department of Justice to challenge the law at colleges and universities across the nation.

In the wake of violent protests and the White nationalists’ rally in Charlottesville, University of Virginia President Teresa Sullivan testified at the forum on what the university has done in the past and is trying to do in the future to promote diversity. Sullivan referenced past acts of naming various locations on campus after African Americans.

On August 11, hundreds of torch-bearing White supremacists marched across the campus of the University of Virginia to protests the removal of a Confederate monument from a public park.

“Let me be perfectly clear,” said Sullivan. “We’re not interested in having those folks back.”

Sullivan, Mayor Michael Signer, and the Charlottesville City Council have been criticized for not being more prepared for the “Unite the Right” rally and violence and mayhem that erupted in the small college town. The gathering was billed, weeks beforehand online, as one of the largest gatherings of White supremacists in U.S. history. One protester was killed and two Virginia state troopers died in a helicopter crash in Charlottesville over that weekend.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, gave remarks during a forum on racism on college campuses on Capitol Hill. This photo was taken during a meeting with civil rights leaders and then-candidate Hillary Clinton at National Urban League Headquarters in New York City in 2015. Photo: Freddie Allen/AMG/NNPA

Taylor Dumpson, the student government president at American University and Weston “Wes” Gobar, the president of the Black Student Alliance at the University of Virginia also delivered remarks during the forum. Both student leaders documented specific incidents of racism on their campuses.

Dumpson was the target of a series of racist acts in May, when someone hung bananas in nooses around American University’s campus; some of the bananas were marked with “AKA,” the letters of Dumpson’s sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha. The incident occurred a day after Dumpson was elected the first African American female student body president.

“In America we tend to think of racism and White supremacy in the most blatant and hateful individuals and forms of discrimination like the [Ku Klux Klan], Neo-Nazis, and the alt-right, while ignoring the more subtle and systemic forms,” said Gobar. “It is important to condemn the most visible elements of White supremacy, but we must further address these subtle and systemic forms.”

Gobar said that he’s heard racial slurs and racists comments that were yelled by White supremacists during the rally in August, repeated in hushed tones on campus; he has also seen anonymous posts written online calling Black students ‘monkeys’ and messages written in chalk on campus suggesting that Black people have lower IQs than White people.

“At a recent student council meeting, one student said that, ‘Thomas Jefferson raped Black women, but so did everyone else at the time,’” Gobar recalled.

Gobar continued: “Well, before August 11 and 12, this has been the climate for students of color at the University of Virginia and this climate has served as an unnecessary burden towards our learning experience.”

The student leader said that many incoming students of color now feel scared and unwelcomed at the University of Virginia after the events of August 12.

“To tell the truth, this is a nearly constant feeling on campus,” Gobar. “There are pervasive incidents of harassment like this every year and they are by no means isolated.”

Systemic problems require systematic solutions, said Gobar.

Gobar noted that Black student enrollment at the University of Virginia is only 6.4 percent and recommended more funding for existing scholarships, financial aid and fellowships that target underrepresented groups. He also advocated for increasing the funding for organizations that serve minority populations on campus.

“The status quo can longer be acceptable,” Gobar said.

Ifill recommended that congressional lawmakers conduct oversight hearings to ensure that the Justice Department properly enforces Title VI and that lawmakers exercise budget authority to fully fund the enforcement of civil rights laws, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015, Title IX and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Ifill also recommended that Congress pass legislation that will provide vigorous civil rights protection, like Equity and Inclusion and Enforcement Act, (H.R. 2486), co-sponsored by Reps. Scott, Conyers, and Alma Adams (D-N.C.) and Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-North Mariana Islands)

“LDF’s commitment to promoting equitable educational opportunities for America’s students has endured for decades,” said Ifill. “We have no intention of rolling back our commitment to that.”

TagsBlack PressCongressional Black CaucusNNPARep. Bobby ScottRep. John ConyersSherrilyn IfillTitle VI
Previous Article

Reyes Launches #FAB47 Community Recognition Program

Next Article

Redlands Jumps to #20 After Impressive Win

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Precinct Reporter News

Related articles More from author

  • Latest PRGNews

    Mourning Kofi Annan, Remembering Ron Walters

    September 11, 2018
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Receives NNPA National Leadership Award

    September 17, 2020
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    The Importance of Educating All Children

    September 20, 2017
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Sharpton, Clergy Push for Social Activism

    September 12, 2017
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Black Press Honors Black Lives Matter Founder

    March 21, 2019
    By Precinct Reporter News
  • Latest PRGNews

    Rep. Norton Fighting For D.C., Black Press in New Congress

    March 7, 2019
    By Precinct Reporter News

You might be interested

  • Latest PRGNews

    Secure the BAG Conference

  • Latest PRGNews

    Activists Make Xmas Happen for Kids

  • Latest PRGNews

    SBPD Honors First Black Officer

Ads

Advertise with us!

Ads

Ads ||

Ads |

ADS III

Find us on Facebook

Ads

Precinct Reporter News Group

Your local news resource for 50 years in the Inland Empire, Orange County, Long Beach and surrounding areas!

To subscribe or advertise, call 909.889.0597

About us

  • Broadcasting & Media Production Company
    357 W. 2nd Street
    San Bernardino, California, CA 92401
  • mailto:sales@precinctreporter.com
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • BHM: Black History Parade, Campus Events

    By Precinct Reporter News
    February 2, 2023
  • Black History Month Health Events Look at Race Bias

    By Precinct Reporter News
    February 2, 2023
  • BHM Events on Campus and MOLAA

    By Precinct Reporter News
    February 2, 2023
  • IE/OC Prostate and Breast Cancer, Change the Menu

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • Join our Recipe Competition!

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015
  • SB Budget Cuts CDBG

    SB CDBG Cuts Have Local Nonprofits Braced for the Worst

    By PRGNews
    July 16, 2015

Follow us

© Powered by Hotspotwebsites.net. All rights reserved.