After years of uncertainty and being enrolled at UC, why is #theirate8 forming now and not before?
Over the last several years similar versions of this movement have come together. Two years ago a group came together to put pressure on administration to support Dean Jackson. Dean Jackson was the Dean of McMicken Arts and Sciences, the largest college of UC. He was also black. A fellow faculty member drew racists cartoons of Dean Jackson and Carol-Tongue Mack and distributed them in buildings and in offices. However, since the person was tenured, UC would not fire him or release his name. Due to lack of support from UC, Dean Jackson resigned. Black student leadership united to call for administration to fire the individual who circulated the comics and support Dean Jackson. Five years ago, similar tactics were used to achieve the renovation of the African-American Cultural and Resource Center (AACRC) which had rats, mold, and pieces of ceiling falling down. A group of students collected and marched into offices of UC and demanded that the AACRC be renovated. I am sure you have heard that history repeats itself. And it has. Over and over since the beginning of time, but also over and over since UC integrated. History is again repeating itself, but we are hoping to make changes in the infrastructure of UC so that this can be the last time that history must repeat itself at UC concerning racial inequity.
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Connor Harris
