Yale students march against racism on campus following Halloween costumes scandal

Recently, student organizations have made their voices heard at the University of Missouri and Yale University. Similar demonstrations have forced the University of Missouri system president and chancellor to resign. They began their protest at the Afro-American Cultural Center then went all over the campus.

Janay Williams, a senior at the University of California Los Angeles, said she is the only black person in her biology class and is routinely among the last picked for group assignments. In the wake of Wolfe’s resignation, reporters flooded the campus, but students formed a human shield around the black activists who had achieved this victory to rescue them from being interviewed. She says, “American universities were once a safe space not only for maturation, but also for a certain regressive, or even transgressive, experience; increasingly, it seems, they have become places of censure and prohibition”. One woman of color was reportedly denied entry to a fraternity party because she’s not white, and a faculty member drew criticism after rejecting calls for students to avoid racially insensitive costumes on Halloween.

In the wake of all this, the Black Student Alliance has developed a list of demands for the school, including mandatory education on race and gender issues, as well as the removal of
Christakis. Students of color have banded together to rail against the systemic racism they say pervades campus life.

Students at a few schools, such as the University of MI, said the Missouri case has emboldened them to take a harder stance against administrators if they don’t keep their promises. That’s why laws like Title IX apply, and I’d contend that these institutions (ignoring the fact that their primary goal is to foster learning and understanding) have a duty to respect the First Amendment and the right to free speech. I do have your back.

“I believe safe spaces are essential”, Middleton said at a press conference Thursday afternoon. “And I’ll do better”.

“I have disappointed you and I’m really sorry”, Nicholas Christakis told about 100 students gathered in his living room on Sunday for a meeting also attended by Jonathan Holloway, the dean of Yale College, and other university administrators. Monday’s crowd chanted slogans including: “We are unstoppable, another Yale is possible”.

Nicholas Christakis responds by vehemently supporting his wife’s right to freedom of speech, noting that “I stand behind free speech, especially when it’s offensive”. And so, we ended up being out on Cross Campus for hours and hours right before the confrontation with Nicholas Christakis happened, and people were just telling him their experiences.

The action took place following a William F. Buckley, Jr. Program on free speech.

In their email, Yale University officials say they hope to share steps to enhance diversity with students before Thanksgiving.

“A lot of institutional changes need to be done in terms of getting more support for ethnic studies, getting more faculty of color on campus”, student organizer Kathleen Calderon said. “Now, here. Always, everywhere”. It was too f-ed up”, he said. “All of the officers treated me well, and I feel bad for putting a security officer who was just doing his job in a position where he had to drag me out.

This is the crux of my column-it’s time to clarify that I won’t be touching the hornets’ nest that is a 21-year-old white male talking about race and privilege.

News 8 caught up with the President of Yale University Peter Salovey at the march yesterday. At colleges like Yale, a poisonous form of the idea is gaining support: that entire campuses should be considered safe spaces.