A recent viral twitter post 
showed an email sent out by a Duke professor to his students cautioning them.. yes CAUTIONING them to stop speaking in Chinese around other faculty members. According to the New York Times, the professor, Megan Neely, has since stepped down from her role as director of graduate studies in the medical school, however STILL remains on the faculty. As outrageous as this incident seems, it’s not an isolated one.
Minority students all across the country are currently undergoing acts of discrimination simply for being themselves. You might remember the black Yale University student Lolade Siyonbola, who had the police called on her simply for napping in her dorm. Even after she unlocked her door for proof that she did in fact live there, an officer still asked for her ID to prove that “she belonged there.” You can get more details on that story here https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/09/us/yale-student-napping-black-trnd/index.html .
Still need a reason on why minority students aren’t feeling safe? Have you ever propped your feet up on a chair during a long lecture? Imagine getting escorted from class by a police officer for simply doing just that. For University of Texas at San Antonio student this was a reality. So why don’t these students speak out? They do! Chennel Rowe posted a viral video shown here where she announced the horrific things her roommate had been doing to her over several months which only ultimately resulted in her roommate just getting a “slap on the wrist” according to theblackyouthproject.com .
This is similar to the incident where an international student at Lehigh University poisoned his black roommate. The student has since been arrested but that doesn’t change the health issues that were caused due to his unthinkable actions. What is even more insane is that the international student, Yukai Yang, was a minority himself! At Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland a man was arrested for spraying racist graffiti on the second floor of a dorm at the college. Shockingly the student arrested for the graffiti was African American himself.
These targeted attacks on minorities are appalling enough, but when they become acts committed by other minorities, people begin to treat them more harshly. Why were the Goucher College Student and the Lehigh University student reprimanded more than the white college student who poisoned her roommate Chennel Rowe?
A college should be a welcoming and safe space for students to be able to thrive in a positive learning environment. These incidents that are happening to these students are going against that statement and can have lasting negative effects on each one of them.
How many of you have had a campus job or currently do? Many students choose to work on campus due to the convenience and flexible schedules that many on campus jobs offer. Oumou Kanoute, a student at Smith College, was confronted by police while eating her lunch on break due to a call from a white student pertaining to a “suspicious black male sitting in the common room. Why is it that minorities are having to fear being on campus simply doing daily tasks such as eating lunch? Why are the students who are negatively impacting these students lives not being reprimanded more harshly? More so, why are we as bystanders not doing more to help when we see these discriminatory acts taking place?
A recent article wrote by Newsone.com shows a string of recent racial profiling incidents across college campuses and how the number is increasing rather than decreasing. These are what we should be paying attention to so we can look out for when we are experiencing something violating a minority students basic right to education on any of our own campuses. If you see something speak up and remember you are NOT alone.
Minority Space 