American University in Washington D.C. is dealing with two incidents of alleged racial bias.
As the school’s Black Student Alliance puts it, someone threw a rotten banana at black student during class, and another woman, also black, found a rotten banana placed at her dorm room door. Someone allegedly wrote penises on her white board. They say these women were previously harassed by white male students, and someone wrote the n-word on black students’ door doors at the same residence hall.
From the group’s statement, published Friday:
American University is an institution that prides itself on “Diversity & Inclusion.” However, as it pertains to the issue of race, the administration continues to take little to no action. Although it may not always become physical, similar instances have been happening for years.
One such incident included a post, calling for a slave auction of black students.
The university addressed the allegations in a statement published Friday. They said the incident in the residence hall, which happened on September 8, actually wasn’t characterized as a bias incident. The Dean of Students investigated, and has filed conduct charges.
Regarding allegations of other incidents, the Dean of Students and Department of Public Safety are continuing their investigations We want to find out more and hope students can be helpful in providing additional details that will help us understand what has happened.
The racist idea that black people are like monkeys (hence the bananas) has roots going back at least 500 years. It has even shaped attacks on President Barack Obama.
[h/t The NY Daily News]
[image Iurii Kachkovskyi and Shutterstock]
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