The following is an editorial written by Dennis Shiraev ’12, Editor-in-Chief, and Oliver Renick ’12, Executive Editor. It will appear in the semester’s final issue of The Cornell Review, which hits newsstands Wednesday.
During a protest by Africana Center supporters on Friday, one African-American graduate student took the microphone and told the crowd bluntly: “[I am] not going to be forced to go into buildings with pictures of people who do not look like me.”
In an attempt to express her anger about the Africana program being merged into the College of Arts & Sciences, she exemplified the same intolerant philosophy that caused restaurant and store owners in the 1960s to hang ‘no blacks’ signs on their front doors.
Racism is alive and well at Cornell University.
In the spring of 2009 the Program House community erupted over the administration’s routine fiscal review of the program. This marked the first step in an ongoing series of events created by Cornell’s most vocal minority representatives that has created feelings of anger, betrayal, and prejudice on campus. After administrators repeatedly assured that the Program Houses were not at any kind of risk, members of Ujamaa, Black Students United, Latino Living Center, and the LGBT community continued to falsely claim that the University was trying to get rid of ‘safe spaces’ at Cornell.
Again, in the fall of 2009, the Program House leaders injected racial tension into the community when American Indian students and faculty at Akwe:kon circulated an email with hurtful statements about Europeans and linked to a website supporting the release of convicted murderers and terrorists.
The trend was continued last month when Ujamaa and Black Students United hosted a Unity Hour where students and professors held a conference call with convicted cop-killer Eddie Conway. Those leading the event introduced Conway as a political prisoner who had the misfortune of being a black man targeted by a justice system – run by whites – that targets the African-American community. The event contributed nothing positive to race relations on campus.
The Program House community’s efforts to paint itself as the victim culminated this week after the University announced that the Africana Research and Studies Center would come under the wing of Arts & Sciences. The Africana Center is currently operated under the supervision of the Provost’s office. Like a moth to the light, ex-Ujamaa RHD Ken Glover led his team of radical activists from the Program Houses to shout cries of racism and bigotry on the steps of Day Hall.
While claiming to protest against the ‘lack of dialogue’ between the University and Africana, students and faculty members fired one epithet after another. Ken Glover claimed the move was based on “white supremacy.” Prof. N’Dri T. Assié-Lumumba, advisor to Black Students United, called the move “institutional racism.” Robert Harris Jr., Director of the Africana Center, further isolated the Black community from the greater student body by saying, “We don’t need [the administration’s] help.”
If this is their idea of dialogue, silence is golden. But could they be right?
Provost Fuchs noted that the move would not diminish the Center’s autonomy – since it is already operated under the supervision of the Provost’s office – and would actually increase the resources available for students and faculty.
But this reorganization is by no means unique. Many departments have been faced with restructuring or budget cuts since the university’s endowment took a massive hit in 2008. In early 2009 the University announced its plans to discontinue the entire Swedish and Dutch language programs. Then in February 2010 the administration announced significant cuts to the Theatre, Film, and Dance department—cuts that led to the elimination of multiple faculty positions. Later that spring the Russian Department came under scrutiny when the administration announced plans to eliminate the Russian major and merge the department with Comparative Literature. But the budget cuts were not confined to small departments. Earlier this year the administration announced plans to cut four of seven assistant professors’ positions in the Math department.
In every instance, vocal students and faculty members raised concerns about both the lack of dialogue that went into the university’s decisions and the crippling effects the cut would have on their departments. Nancy Pollak, chair of the Russian department, was quoted in the Daily Sun as saying, “We [the Russian faculty] were not presented with the idea — as far as I know — of suspending the Russian department or getting rid of the Russian major…” Professor Tara Holm, Math, voiced her concerns in an email to the administration in which she emphasized that the cuts would severely impact the level of instruction that students received as well as the overall competitiveness of the department. After the administration announced cuts to the Theatre, Film, and Dance department, one student was quoted in the Daily Sun as being “shocked at the news” of the proposed cuts.
The speakers at Friday’s Day Hall rally were right about one thing: the Africana decision has indeed proved to be distinct from the other restructurings. Unlike the representatives from any of the other departments, those from the Africana Center instead decided to take an unmistakably racial tone.
Glover characterized the decision as being about “control, money, power, and domination.” The same grad student who conjured memories of pre-Civil rights segregation added that the move was “about getting rid of black people from this campus.” She aptly noted that she discouraged her friends from applying to Cornell.
Vitriolic and hateful speech that so frequently emanates from the teachers and leaders of our students is an embarrassment to Cornell. The continuous efforts to mislead the public are a stain on an institution that goes to great lengths to accommodate the needs of students from every background.
Ken Glover’s racist comments and Robert Harris’s declarations of “systemic racism” are shameful remarks and a disgrace to minorities at Cornell who choose not to marginalize themselves by the color of their skin. As student representatives of the Program Houses continually echo the cowardly sentiments of leaders like Harris and Glover, a much more significant and time-sensitive issue is illuminated.
As long as the University allows ideologically dangerous people such as Glover to lead our students in both academic and personal settings, animosity between different cultures and racial tension will continue to build on campus. It has been this editorial board’s stance that the most rampant form of racism today is the creation of fear and accusations of racism where it does not exist. We call upon our readers, our colleagues at The Daily Sun and The Cornell Progressive, and Cornell’s administrators to take a stand against the discriminatory behavior exhibited at Friday’s Day Hall Protest. Until students and administrators have the courage to stand up to bigotry in public forums, the integrity of Cornell’s student body is at stake.
This article is a joke.
The comment above me is the epitome of the reaction Africana supporters have displayed this week. This is actually out of control. It’s sad free speech requires us to hear the offensive speech those folks were spouting outside Day Hall. Why is this kind of racism allowed?
Finally this article was written by someone with enough huevos to do it
Cymone, the real joke here is that certain members of the minority community at Cornell are trying to find racism where, quite frankly, racism doesn’t exist. In fact, if you read some of the statements by members of the Africana Department, they are based off broad generalizations of the Administration based on their…race. Sound like racism to you? It sure does to me. This was no more than a business decision, and one that leaves the department with greater resources at its fingertips. Now, if the complaint is the exact way the administration handled the transfer, that is valid; but to treat this as an act of aggressive racism is at best foolish and at worst dangerous.
The real solution to this is the immediate elimination of all departments that end with the word “studies.”
So now its racist to call people out on their actions which can be perceived as racist. Then is this article racist for calling the racists racist for calling other racists out on their racism? I guess that would make me a racist for thinking this article is racist for so vehemently trying to disprove racism. I’m a black student and no I don’t see the racism with the move of the africana center and I have been repeatedly saying that this was ultimately an adminstrative/business move that is trying to do what is best for the university as a whole in order to keep it financially afloat. Unfortunately you guys must realize that a history of racism in this country and on this campus does not easily go away just because this is the 21st century and we have a black president and Clinton lives in Harlem and blah blah blah (so please no one yelling that racism was in the past). The fact of the matter is that the africana center was born out of a period where minority students had no voice and had to fight in order for it to be established. For those such as Glover who had to fight this racism during their academic years it is obvious that these actions would be viewed as racist, after all a major change was made with out the consultation of the people it effects. I whole heartedly do not believe this action was racially motivated (more economically. three cheers for a school that wants to stay in the black <<hey was that a pun?) but when you disregard those who formed a department of study on the basis of giving a voice to those who were disregarded due to their race, you kindof have to be expecting to be called a racist at some point or another.
@Anon.
Thanks for your comment. You are correct that we cannot view this situation outside of the context of the history of the africana center. It certainly seems like that history can explain some of the feelings being articulated at this time. That being said, does this context Justify the mischaracterization of the administration’s decision? (since you agree that it is mischaracterized). I certainly don’t think it does.
The strange thing about this article is that its written from a point of view that sees racism as something that ‘getting better’ and if people like Glover would just stop bitching and ‘instilling’ anger then Cornell could be great.
“Ken Glover’s racist comments and Robert Harris’s declarations of “systemic racism” are shameful remarks and a disgrace to minorities at Cornell who choose not to marginalize themselves by the color of their skin.”
Translations: Minorities should be good and act white and definitely forget their past.
This article was such a joke. I agree that race relations and race cards and all that can be sticky politicized business. The real solution is to try to move past the socially constructed racial categories. That does not mean forgetting history and being ignorant of harsh racial realities.
It sounds to me like Glover was upset that he wasn’t being listened to…I wonder why…
You’re pretty prickly for a Teddy bear, Artois.
Nice translation of the text. While you’re at it how about you just translate everything into an entirely different article and analyze that one instead. Never did the author say minorities should be good and act white – that’s a gross misrepresentation of what is said. The whole “whites just want blacks and latinos and asians to be like white people” thing has been a curtain for race-card-players to hide behind whenever their ethnicity are critiqued.
‘Sticky politicized business?’ I’d say. More like cowardly politicized business. Guys like Glover and the other guy in the article. Regardless, that girl said she doesn’t want to “go into buildings with pictures of people who don’t look like her.” If the leaders of the community aren’t strong enough to discourage statements like that and evaluate their situation outside “institutionalized racism,” they shouldn’t be leaders.
As an African American student in college, I think behavior like the kids and professors at the rally is an epidemic. Those quotes are messed up, I’d never say anything like that.
As a minority myself, I just have to side with Glover.
What’s wrong with that girl saying she doesn’t want to enter a building with pictures of people that don’t look like her?
^Not a rhetorical question. I think there may be some misconceptions about what racism is and why it exists that are at the root of all this nonsense.
Ya Sick, I’m with Tedddy.
I stay out of Ujamaa cause I can’t stand being in a building with pictures of black people. Ughh…sends shivers down my spine. That’s not racist.
Above poster, your honestly is unprecedented and appreciated by Teddy.
Teddy would like to add that the only reason he replied to this article in the first place is that he loves the Cornell Insider. He love the timely coverage of his school and simply wanted to point out an instance where the Insider missed the mark.
I am a Latino American and I support progressive thinking whether it comes from an African American or Caucasian American.
I feel that this move may be financial in nature. None-the-less, I also feel that in this country the affluent (who happen to be few and Caucasian) have always inherited the wealth (weather monetary, political, institutional, etc) of this country passed down through generations without ever wanting to inherit the truth of how that wealth was made and the social responsibility that now comes with that wealth. Reparations are in order, because no apology, or recognition of what happened over 145 years ago and till this very day still strikes at the psyche of the African American has ever been made by a department figure.
Moreover, think of the psychological effect that mentality had on the African American or any one dark in skin for that matter.
This is a reality that no matter how much you read on the subject someone of a lighter tonality who has never had to deal with the reality of racism will find hard to comprehend in a time when people are complaisant and don’t want to assume responsibility for their actions.
If your mother were to pass away and had debts, believe it that you as a child of her would inherit her debts!
Dear Dennis and Oliver,
As a college educated Jamaican who is not ‘Black’ but clearly has African ancestry, I have to say that your article really does miss how institutionally racist its POV is. Not having the direct history of US racism on my back or that of my ancestors, and yet still having to bear the burden of that racism in my life time I am always amazed at the level of cognitive dissonance of Euro-Americans.
Fortunately, there are Euro-Americans who have met the challenge of truly facing the very real privileges of being “White” in American society. I highly recommend you watch if you have any real desire to escape the racist and privileged perspective that your article indicates you hold.
At the same time, I can’t say I find the actions of the minority individuals you are reporting on laudable, or even defensible. I don’t know of the facts to guess at the latter, but definitely not in the way you reported it.
I’ve only taken the time to respond to this, as an outsider, because I do believe you both are making an attempt to get beyond your racism. If you are not really willing to look honestly at your personal and the US shadow, you never will. Although it is a challenge for us all facing our shadow is rich, rewarding and empowering when genuinely done.
Happy Boxing Day and Blessings for the New Year!,
Ishmael
Sorry, I don’t get blog HTML which looks a little different than standard based on the hints, below.
The video is titled “Mirrors of Privilege: Making Whiteness Visible” and the whole rest of my post was not meant to be a link, although it apparently still works correctly.