On November 12th, 2015 in Amherst, Massachusetts, three women of color organized a sit-in against racial injustice. What had originally been planned was a sit-in in solidarity to support the recent events at Yale University and the University of Missouri. An email sent out by the Dean of faculty alerted the faculty members of the sit-in and encouraged them to allow their students to go. As hundreds of students joined together in the Robert Frost Library a social movement was born. This soon became known as the Amherst Uprising. The event was unique in the fact that it turned into a confessional, where black and Hispanic students discussed their feelings of alienation and invisibility on campus. In this moment, the students composed a list of items that they asked administration to do. For those who are unaware, Amherst College is a small, private, liberal arts school. While highly diverse, some traditions die hard and the ones at Amherst are outdated and-quite frankly offensive.
Most importantly, the students wanted the college to stop calling it’s athletes the Lord Jeffs, as he was a British commander who advocated germ warfare against Native Americans. Additionally, they asked the students, who had posted posters regarding the Free Speech and All Lives Matter movement, to undergo extensive training for racial and cultural competency. The protestors also wanted the administration to apologize for “our institutional legacy of white supremacy among many other forms of discrimination…”
But at Amherst there has been pushback, from both the administration and student body. The demands issued during the protest were met with skepticism and criticism that the students were demanding too much and trying to get rid of free speech.
Since starting this campaign the Amherst Uprising website has named 8 main goals relating to diversity:
Cultural competency: necessitate that faculty, staff, current and incoming students participate in training, programming, and discussions on cultural competency
Academic Policy: ensure that the academic environment is accessible and respectful of students’ identities so that they may flourish
Prospective Students: extend resources to prospective students of diverse backgrounds and ensure their continued support
Hiring and Retention: increase diversity and ensure continued support of Amherst faculty and staff during and after the hiring process
Student Resources: increase the visibility of student resources to support and establish an inclusive community
Funding: improve the funding process so that it supports diversity on campus
Alumni and Outreach: reach out to current and former members of the Amherst community to improve the quality of alumni-student relations, and involve them in Amherst Uprising
Mental Health: prioritize the mental health of the student body, through hiring diverse staff across identity and practice metrics, as well as updating current policies
http://metadeliberation.com/
http://amherstuprising.com/
It seems like many of the black pride movements in the United States are being driven by college students who have a very loose grasp on the consequences of some of the policies which they would like to see put in place. From what I read in your blog post I was able to see what kind of protests these students are organizing and, despite my support for racial equality, I believe that the Amherst administration is right to resist the movement. Marginalizing the white population and their views as a response to black oppression is not the road to equality, but rather a reversal of the racial issues that we see today so that current-day minorities are given more power than the white population.
Great, informative post. Beautiful things happen when people get together in the name of equality and love, and I think it’s really cool that those types of things are what you choose to write your passion blogs about. Some important notes in here too about how protests should be well organized with clear goals for it to e effective. Keep up the good work!