Political and Social Context in the U.S
Between fall 2016 and spring 2017, white supremacist propaganda and racist incidents on college campuses increased 258%.(1) Incidents ranged from racial slurs on doors to bananas being hung around campus titled “Harambe Bait.” This also included an increasing number of calls made to the police that racially profiled African-Americans, Latinos/Latinas, and indigenous peoples. These racist acts occurred at universities across the United States, including:
University of Pittsburgh
University of Alabama
Syracuse University
Lehigh University
American University
Cabrini University and
Cornell University
To provide a timeline of the events currently occurring in America, the Students of Color Oral History Project listed some of the most recent incidents.
Fall 2016: NFL players take a knee during the national anthem.(2)
August, 2017: "Unite the Right" pro KKK, neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville, VA.(3)
September 2017: Cornell students attacked in racist incident.(4)
April 2018: Police called on former Obama aide Darren Martin who was moving into an apartment on the Upper West Side of New York City.(5)
May 2018: ABC cancels TV show Roseanne after racist tweet.(6)
1. Dan Bauman, "After 2016 Election, Campus Hate Crimes Seemed to Jump. Here's What the Data Tells Us," The Chronicle of Higher Education (2018), https://www.chronicle.com/article/After-2016-Election-Campus/242577
2. Tom Krasovic, "Colin Kaepernick takes a knee during national anthem in San Diego and is booed," Los Angeles Times (2016), https://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-chargers-kaepernick-20160901-snap-story.html
3. Hawes Spencer and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, "White Nationalists March on University of Virginia," The New York Times (2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/11/us/white-nationalists-rally-charlottesville-virginia.html
4. Elizabeth A. Harris, "Racially Charged Incidents Shake Cornell Campus," The New York Times (2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/18/nyregion/racially-charged-attack-slurs-cornell.html
5. Eli Rosenberg, "A black former White House staffer was moving into a new apartment. Someone reported a burglary," The Washington Post (2018), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/05/01/a-black-former-white-house-staffer-was-moving-into-a-new-apartment-someone-reported-a-burglary/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.28437e486c13\
6. John Koblin, "After Racist Tweet, Roseanne Barr's Show Is Canceled by ABC," The New York Times (2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/29/business/media/roseanne-barr-offensive-tweets.html