Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Black students rally for change at University of Oregon
EUGENE, Ore. — A dozen black student leaders at the University of Oregon organized a rally Friday to hold the administration to account, express the pain of racist incidents on campus, and be buoyed and inspired by one another.
“Many of us feel like mourning, and (we) feel hopeless and burned out,” undergraduate Ashley Campbell told hundreds of students and faculty gathered at the Erb Memorial Union amphitheater. “But as black students and leaders we have to be the ones to change the dynamic of the university. I know it’s exhausting, but the change has to start with us.”
The students — and some of their parents — said they were hurt by the law professor who donned blackface on Halloween, by three teenagers who appeared on campus in blackface and by threats targeting the Black Student Union in the wake of President-elect Donald Trump’s election victory.
Portland resident Nike Greene, mother of Oregon student Natashia Greene, described a gut-wrenching drive south on Interstate 5 after her daughter called about a message on social media directed at her that contained racial epithets.
“It was hurtful because, I’ll be honest, we had to pull our daughter off this campus because there was no way that you could ensure that she would be safe,” Nike Greene said.
She said Oregon law professor Nancy Shurtz should face consequences for wearing blackface as part of a Halloween costume, no matter what she was trying to say with the makeup. Natashia Greene’s father, north Portland pastor Herman Greene, said he can’t believe his daughter was the target of racial threats in 2016. “How is it that the Klan’s mask of the ’60s has been replaced with social media?”
“How is it that they’re still using the same tactics of fear and intimidation?” Herman Greene told the students. “They want to scare you because they don’t want you to recognize the powerhouse that you are. They want you to be afraid. They don’t want you to stand up and be strong.”
The students chided the administration for delivering on six of 13 demands that a Black Student Task Force gave to the university one year ago. The students did not praise President Michael Schill, who watched intently from a seat in the amphitheater, for the progress he has made. Instead, one at a time, they described what was lacking.
The students repeated the demand to remove university founder Matthew Deady’s name from Deady Hall because of his mid-19th century support for slavery. They didn’t mention that Schill had seen to the removal of KKK member and history professor Frederic Dunn’s name from a dormitory this fall.
When Schill took the microphone near the end of the two-hour event, he agreed that “many students, faculty and staff do not feel included in the University of Oregon. Some have been victims of intentional discrimination. Some have been hurt by careless, thoughtless behavior by members of our community. This is unacceptable. It is intolerable,” he said.