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Section: Opinion
HBCUs
Allow Me To Reintroduce Myself: A Message on Behalf of Greatly Underinvested, Often Forgotten Historically Black Colleges and Universities
To say that 2020 has been one of the most abnormally jagged and oddly long years serves as an understatement. From a pandemic that has emancipated the souls of over 211,000 Americans to young people taking to the street to erasure of the country’s oldest institutions, 2020 has shaped into one of the most unpredictable and emotionally exhausting years in decades.
October 13, 2020
COVID-19
COVID-19 Testing: The Key to Keeping Students, Staff, Campus, and Community Safe
One of the great strengths of a college campus is the free flow of people and ideas. Students, faculty, and staff from diverse backgrounds and locations add to the unique tapestry of each individual institution. Human interaction, whether in a classroom, a lab, or even just the cafeteria adds immeasurably to the collective community experience.
October 9, 2020
Students
HBCUs and White Churches: a Collaboration Long Overdue
Churches have a long history of advocating for civil rights. During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, the Baptist, Methodist and other religious denominations united to support civil rights for African Americans. Many churches, for example, provided shelter to protesters during civil rights marches. They organized food assistance programs, assisted homeless with housing needs […]
October 5, 2020
Social Justice
Equity Requires Action
COVID-19 has affected us all in different ways. During the spring semester, most colleges and universities had to pivot to move courses online. At that time most, if not all, students left campus. As the American Medical Association pointed out, the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) populations because they “suffer disproportionally, due to the inequities in society perpetuated by systematic practices.”
October 2, 2020
Opinion
America’s School Districts at the Decision-Making Crossroad
Following the first Coronavirus cases in the United States, most school districts across the United States paused in-person instruction in March 2020. Thereafter, these districts scrambled to provide quality virtual instruction that would continue the continuity of face-to-face instruction for the remaining two months of the 2019-2021 academic year. After students and teachers departed for their annual support vacation, most school administrators spent the summer planning for a virtual, hybrid, and face-to-face instruction for the 2020-2021 academic year.
October 1, 2020
Faculty & Staff
Say Their Names, But Not the N-Word
The current reckoning about anti-Blackness in the United States is exposing the limits of solidarity. Millions of white and non-white people have marched and expressed support for Black Lives by saying the names of men and women brutally killed or shot in police custody. This powerful act of solidarity humanizes these victims while bearing witness to systemic racism. At the same time, faculty in some of our nation’s colleges and universities continue to defend the right to utter the N-word as part of their educational practice. This counterintuitive notion is not just tone-deaf to the national reckoning but harms the institutional culture, devalues the presence of Black faculty, staff and students, and compromises the moral credibility of the professoriate.
September 30, 2020
Opinion
Trump’s Handling of Census Proves He’s the Anti-Diversity President; Plus, Univ. of California’s White Affirmative Action
The presidential debate is coming up on Tuesday, but there’s no question about this: Donald Trump heads the most hostile administration when it comes to diversity.
September 28, 2020
Latinx
Why I Won’t Give Up on My Fraternity
When I joined my fraternity, I knew I made a commitment for a lifetime and not only during the years that I was in college. I was invested in joining the organization for the connections and opportunities it gave me as an undergraduate along with the opportunity to give back to my chapter through mentorship and to give back to the broader Latinx community through the work the fraternity does regionally and nationally. However, during the August-October months, when the fraternity leadership is encouraging undergraduates and alumni to remain active and pay membership dues, I am surprised with how many social media posts I see in brotherhood forums of members questioning the leadership, critiquing the fraternity at large, and resisting becoming part of the solution.
September 25, 2020
African-American
Why Countering Racism Requires Regular, Dedicated Anti-Racist Work
As a qualitative sociologist I am drawn to stories that demonstrate social facts. Here is a story that I would like to share that underscores why I believe that we must be committed to anti-racist work and do so even in the midst of a year defined by disruption.
September 24, 2020
African-American
HBCUs Have A Champion in President Trump
When President Trump says he saved Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) he is 100% correct because he did. He could have cut their funding in his budget, signaled to Republicans they were not a priority, vetoed all bills increasing funding, and refused to publicly tout value, but he didn’t. During this year’s observance of HBCU Week, the record shows that there has been no greater champion for HBCUs in the White House than Donald J. Trump.
September 24, 2020
African-American
Black Students Must Experience Black Life Outside of the U.S.
When I reflect on the Black Lives Matter movement and the many viral images that have galvanized protesters into action, my mind keeps going back to a disquieting video that did not result in belligerent shouting or bloodshed.
September 23, 2020
Opinion
Understanding the Historical Context of the Black Lives Matter Movement
When the National Association for Black Culture Centers brought Dr. James Stewart to Vanderbilt University in 1999 as a keynote speaker, the focus was on understanding the dangers of focusing on multiculturalism as a framework for achieving equity in higher education. He expressed concern that this approach would deflect attention from the long history of […]
September 22, 2020
Students
Can We Judge Colleges by Their Success at Encouraging Grit?
One of my former students recently filled me with hope for the next generation. Clifton Jett Jr. is the director and writer of a play that he was about to bring to the stage, “Black Tar Boulevard,” when the pandemic hit. Although many productions have shut down, Clifton decided instead to pivot and turn the play into an independent film. He says, “We have worked too hard and waited too long to just throw it all away.” He and his team are moving ahead, in a safe and responsible manner.
September 22, 2020
COVID-19
Voter Suppression During COVID-19
Since the United States’ founding, our elections have been fraught with fraud, abuses of power, and the suppression of particular voices. After the enactment of the 15th amendment, which granted the right to vote to former slaves and people of color, numerous measures were put forth to suppress the votes of communities of color. In recent decades, such efforts have come in the form of strict voter ID laws, cuts to early voting days, and purges of voter rolls, to name a few.
September 21, 2020
Opinion
Higher Education’s Racial Reckoning
The public lynching of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers, broadcast for 8 minutes and 46 seconds in a constant loop over television and social media, was a turning point in what has become a cultural spectacle of Black death. Floyd’s killing took place amidst the backdrop of a nation reeling from […]
September 18, 2020
COVID-19
If the Storm Keeps Raging
“Though the storms keep on raging in my life; And sometimes it’s hard to tell the night from day ….” These opening lines to the powerful track “My Soul Is Anchored” by Douglas Miller are an apt description of the year that has been 2020. Some have suggested that this year has had way more […]
September 17, 2020
African-American
Public Charter Schools Send Thousands of Students to HBCUs Every Year
As a proud Spelman College student and KIPP Public Schools alum, I urge Sen. Kamala Harris to support public charter schools. Nearly 90% of Black Democratic primary voters support expanding access to more public school options, including charter schools. In Atlanta, where I live, 83% supported providing “more choice in the public school system,” including charters.
September 15, 2020
Opinion
Downplaying Coronavirus and the New Town and Gown
Journalist Bob Woodward’s new book, Rage, had pre-release bombshell when it was revealed last week that President Donald Trump essentially confessed to downplaying his knowledge of the coronavirus.
September 15, 2020
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