Black UMass students host safe-space gathering after yet another racist incident on campus

AMHERST, Mass. — The University of Amherst Black Student Union hosted a safe-space discussion Thursday night for Black students to heal from some of the recent events.

In just the past several weeks there have been racial slurs yelled at a group of Black students, the nationally-reported racist letter that went out to Black student organizations, and this week an application to a Black student organization with more racist language.

“For me, it wasn’t surprising because I’m used to it,” said UMass senior Shelby Casimir. “Institutions of power, it takes a long time to get things done.”

Current and former students talked about whether or not they felt safe while on campus, many of them saying no, except in their own safe spaces that they created within the Black community. They say these incidents are taking a toll on them as they try to heal.

“I was having a conversation with my friend and she was telling me she’s just afraid to be out at night because she doesn’t know what’s going to happen,” said UMass Senior Evelyn Maina. “From reading the email I also felt it could’ve been a threat as well, so the atmosphere is probably fear.”

Those fears are part of the reason for the safe-space discussion to create action steps to garner stronger responses from the university and their white peers.

“I’m a senior and I just remember that every semester getting an email basically where this happened,” said UMass senior Connor White. “I certainly didn’t think the racism was so prevalent in our campus. I have a friend who lives in Canada and he called me up and said, ‘Man your school is racist as hell.’”

The students hope their meeting can be the start of actual change.

“Sometimes it feels a little bit performative from the administration but having this run by us the students it felt very empowering,” said Casimir.

The University says they have hired a cyber-security team to look into both the application and the letter that was sent to the Black student organizations to try and track down who is doing this.

The school will also be hosting more events in the coming weeks and will also implement a new Black Advisory Council, and increase funding for the Center of Racial Justice.

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