Dr. Karla Holloway is distressed.
The James B. Duke Professor Emerita of English at Duke University, who retired last year, doesn’t like how a senior administrator used his power and influence to cause two campus coffee shop contract workers to lose their jobs this week because he was offended by some of the lyrics in a song they were playing.
The administrator, Vice President for Student Affairs Dr. Larry Moneta, didn’t just happen to be White, and the apologetic worker he discussed it with didn’t just happen to be Black, Holloway suggests. What happened, she contends, was a display of “institutional arrogance” that has much to do with race and power dynamics.
The unfolding story at Duke is among a recent spate of highly publicized incidents on college campuses that many perceive as racial intolerance and bias.
When a Black Yale student studying in a dormitory commons area nodded off, a White resident who saw her asleep called campus police and complained, resulting in an unpleasant encounter early Tuesday morning. Police interrogated the 34-year-old Black student, who posted videos of portions of the encounter on social media.
On Saturday, social media was ablaze with video that quickly went viral showing a White graduation official manhandling Black students who were celebrating as they crossed the stage at a University of Florida commencement exercise. He reportedly rushed or restrained upwards of 30 demonstrative graduates, mostly Black.
Two Native American brothers on a Colorado State University college campus tour last week were detained and missed the rest of the event after a parent called the police and said she was nervous about the teens’ presence.
