UMass investigating racist emails to Black student orgs
UMass Amherst is investigating after several Black student groups at the school received what the school called “vile, blatantly racist, and violently offensive” emails earlier this month — one of several anti-Black incidents the university has acknowledged this year.
“These anti-Black racist acts run in stark contrast to who we strive to be, which is a campus where all students are welcomed and feel a strong sense of belonging,” Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer Nefertiti Walker wrote in an email to students following the reports. “We condemn all acts of anti-Black racism and will work to diminish their intent to cause harm to Black students on campus.”
That’s following an email, posted via screenshots to Facebook by multiple Black students, contained the subject line “Interested in joining,” and was sent under an apparent pseudonym of “Derek Vinn.”
The email, which was several paragraphs long, relied on racist stereotypes of Black Americans. It was signed by “UMass coalition for a better society,” which is not registered as an official student organization, and was not found online.
“I’m officially exhausted,” one student who posted the screenshots wrote on Facebook. “I don’t know if I’ll finish this last year. Just someone get me out of here.”
Another student who received the email wrote on Facebook that “this is the culture of UMass Amherst,” citing other racist incidents at the school. She added, “It is incredibly scary to go to school somewhere and know that there are people out there bold enough to not only say or think such things but to send it out.”
Walker’s email to students added that Black student groups’ “Contact Us” forms have received antiBlack hate messages. In another incident earlier this year, someone drove by a group of Black students, yelling “an anti-Black racist epithet” at them, per Walker.
In response to these incidents, the UMass Police Department is partnering with UMass IT to find the sender of the emails. As of Thursday, the investigation was still ongoing, the school says. Other measures the school has taken include outreach and support for the students who received the emails. Walker also shared the process for students to report hate and bias incidents.
This is not the first time the school has seen reports of racism on its campus in recent years. In 2014, someone wrote a racial slur and encouraged violence against Black students on the mirror in a single-stall bathroom in Melville Hall, a student dorm. Another similar incident occurred just weeks earlier.
In 2018, UMass Police officers questioned a Black staff member of the school whom a caller described to police as an “agitated Black male,” though the employee in question was walking to work.