A prominent university is creating a fund to benefit the descendants of black slaves while black students at a second university went on a hunger strike to demand free housing and free food, among numerous other demands.
Georgetown University students recently voted to approve a fund for the descendants of slaves sold by the university in the 1830s.
The College Fix reports the vote’s results were announced after a “contentious day” on campus in which fliers explaining arguments against the referendum were torn up and discarded, and opponents of the measure said they felt scared to voice their opinions.
All totaled, 66 percent of students voted to approve the measure.
Horace Cooper, a former constitutional law professor and a spokesman for the Project 21 Black Leadership Network, says people have convinced themselves that a wrong conducted by people 200 years ago affects people’s circumstances centuries later.
“That’s wrong,” he insists. “It’s not born out by reality and it allows us to waste time focused on that instead of focusing on things that actually could be good for the country and good for ourselves.”
At the University of Kentucky, meanwhile, activists on campus forced the university president, Eli Capilouto, to cave to their demands after six days of a hunger strike.
The president gave in to the demands of the Black Student Advisory Council and a student-led movement called the Basic Needs Campaign, which is pushing for free housing and free meals.
Campus Reform reports the university will offer a “permanent seat” to a black student on a search committee for administration officials. The same story also states:
Other demands to which he conceded include the taking down of a historic 1930’s mural on campus that depicts scenes such as black people planting tobacco, the revising of a scholarship historically meant for “underrepresented students” and those in “financial need” with the goal of enhancing the program for black students specifically.
Stacy Washington of Project 21 suggests this is characteristic of the post-racial era following the Obama presidency.
“Why is it the college’s responsibility to provide you with housing above what they’re providing to everyone else based upon your race?” she asks.
Written by Chad Groening and Bob Kellogg for One News NOW ~ April 18, 2019