This article is a corollary to the article @NoVADad99 posted earlier, “Nation’s prominent public universities are shifting to out-of-state students,” which quotes Ms. Bennett in the story. ("(A) senior in English and African American studies from Atlanta, said she turned down schools from the Ivy League and elsewhere to come here because Alabama offered the most competitive academic scholarship. ‘I couldn’t have asked for a better deal,’ she said.")
I don’t necessarily agree with all the student demands, but I do think it depicts a healthy dialogue between UA students of color and the current administration. And I think when you start recruiting students from other states and regions, you have to expect that they will influence and help shape the direction of the university.
Unfortunately, Amanda Bennett is likely a liar. She stated in a video that went viral (around the time that Mizzou was in an uproar) that Whites at UA were attacking Blacks and kicking in doors when Obama was elected. I have asked journalists to investigate this claim. A writer at the Tuscaloosa News says that he could find no support for her claim. The only thing he found was a claim from a Black professor that someone had defaced her Obama election poster.
It is very irresponsible for someone with the platform (HuffPost writer) Ms. Bennett has to make such a huge unsubstantiated claim. But she knows that most people in the media are afraid to investigate racial hate crime claims, no matter how bizarre or unsubstantiated, especially when the school in question is Southern. So she gets away with it. Thus, it is a good strategy for critical race theory activists to make these unsubstantiated claims.
Don’t you think she should have been more cautious in presenting it as a fact? I am not going to cut her slack simply because she is a good student. It is shameful what she did. Calling out her own school, with a serious unsubstantiated allegation that she knew would get national attention.
Any number of people have made the point that there have been no reports of attacks on the night that Obama was reelected. The story is so outlandish and unsupported that it is hard to call it anything other than a lie. It’s almost like the UVA rape case where “Jackie” was encouraged to fabricate an outlandish story to prove her victimhood.
As for the objectionable painting, what exactly is the university to do? Should black people simply be excluded from any future historical paintings? Should they be censored out, like they used to do in dirty movies? Must every portrayal of a slave in the Old South be of the slave tied and a white beating him with a whip?
It is politically incorrect to do anything but condemn old Confederate heroes. One doesn’t have to think the Confederacy was goodness and light to respect the right of Alabamians and other Southerners to protect themselves from the Union army, which by the way, almost completely destroyed our beloved UA campus.
When I first saw that video my thought was that she was stating what she’d mistakenly thought she’d seen take place (or heard had taken place from other students) on the night of Obama’s reelection. I honestly have no idea if the claim is based in reality or is a figment of her imagination, but unless there’s proof she’s willfully and intentionally lying, I think it’s too strong a word.
This debate about how to deal with the racist past of universities everywhere from Alabama, to Yale, to the University of Oxford is part and parcel with the free exchange of ideas that we should be encouraging at our universities. We don’t have to agree about everything, but people on both sides of the debate need to be willing to listen to each other and be open to changing their minds. I think Dr. Bell is handling the conversation pretty skillfully.
How does one mistakenly see Whites attacking Blacks and kicking in doors? If she had heard it as a rumor, she should have said so. Most people across the nation would easily think she had first hand experience or knew Blacks who were attacked, and whose doors were kicked in. If a White person had said something like that about Blacks, he or she would have been pilloried.
As for our racist past, I am all for talking about it, but don’t get it twisted. Almost every American leader of that time was racist. Even Lincoln was racist. And he committed to keeping slavery forever legal in the South at his inauguration. The freeing of the slaves motive only came later in the war. And both before and after the war, the North was not a bastion of racial progress.
My one concern about the “demands” of WeAreDone back in November I believe was that they wanted all freshman to take a gender and sexuality elective course to address equality concerns at UA…I am far from a bigot or racist but requiring students to take a course that they are not comfortable pursuing isn’t fair imho. Another thing is the whole idea of a proposed safe space for minorities at UA…as a hispanic white student I see safe spaces as coddling and demeaning to minorities. It makes them look weak and spineless when they are confronted with supposed racial or sexuality harassment. That is my view of their case from a minority perspective. You may or may not agree with what I said and that’s fine. I hope I did not trigger or rustle anyone with my ideas.
@atomicPACMAN07 We all know there is a good bit of self-segregation that goes on between blacks and whites; not so much Hispanics, I don’t think. There are already plenty of “safe” spaces available for those needed to spend some time around only members of their own racial and/or social group. In fact, people are already in “safe” spaces a good bit of the time. There have been some demands for dedicated “black only” buildings or centers, which I find pretty ridiculous and counterproductive.
If there’s not enough integration, then something must be done. If there’s too much integration, then something must be done. In any event, no one should ever be satisfied with the way things are.
I agree with you @EarlVanDorn. I guess my critique was mostly about the prospect of black safe spaces from my minority perspective. It’s counterproductive because instead of peaceful debate and dialogue to bring together people to have boundaries of communicating and respect, it causes people to start seeing blacks as “special”, demanding privileges just for their race, and needing to self-segregate to feel better. That is the exact opposite of an equality movement that I have heard of… and believe me there still exists segregation between blacks and whites. People are naturally inclined to prefer being around those they are familiar with, whether it be culturally, spiritually, or what you care about. The difference in segregation is that we have progressed tremendously from the days when minorities were pistol whipped, hit with batons, and had police dogs sicked on to “keep social order straight” and protect racial segregation. That is largely gone. Is racism over? Absolutely not. Far from it. But it’s a lot better than it used to be. That much needs to be appreciated. The black middle class would have not existed without the great progress made by people like MLK and other leaders standing up for what is right. In today’s society, you’re always going to have narrow minded a******* who wants to make things worse or the occasional corrupt cop with a grudge. It does not mean (from my perspective) that systematic persecution really exists like it used to. A public funded safe spaces for a race just separates us and sends the wrong message. A house can be a safe space to come home when things get rough. A church can be a safe space when you need to turn to a higher power for guidance. A safe space for your race in the corner of a school’s library is not. This situation would not be any different if it was a hispanic safe space for someone like me. Wasting public resources “just for my kind” makes us all worse off. Integration and equality gets better with a simple remedy…time. Newer generations become more open to being with others while the old wither. All we need is patience. I hope that observation was objective enough since this topic can get antsy with others.
@atomicPACMAN07 I’m just asking this out of curiosity, but do you feel discriminated against very much at all for being Hispanic? In the Southeast, outside Florida, there traditionally have been very few poor Hispanics. Most have been highly educated; so there isn’t the reflexive discrimination, at least where I am from. There is always discrimination against people who are different, but I had a number of Hispanic fraternity brothers 30 years ago, and they were just some of the most popular and well thought of guys around. They were fully Americanized; for example, in one set of brothers the eldest brother had a Hispanic name but the younger brothers all had Anglo names.
People are quick to discriminate based on an accent (as I well know), but my experience has been that a guy who is just a little tan but otherwise like everyone else is just a guy with a tan. Girls actually find these guys very attractive, from my experience, and I’ve always been a bit envious! Anyway, I’d just like to know your experience since you are willing to share on the subject. Hope you don’t mind my asking.
@EarlVanDorn Actually here in Denver there is a decent amount of harassment against hispanics…the area I live in is close by to a poor hispanic neighborhood with household incomes up to $20,000. My dad does tax returns and always talks about clients he helps over there. Essentially the image of poverty from the people of the area does not help relations at times. There will be moments when I have people yell out obscenities because tensions run hot after a murder or major robbery committed by a latino american. Being a white hispanic does not help when some people like to joke calling me “white washed” while others can jab calling me “that albino ****”. Racism is all relative to geography as always. Being from a city with an awful homeless situation and high cost of living, the hispanics here have their own fights with racism. It is not only my area that has this problem. Most of southern and western Denver has this going on…
