On Friday, November 13, the campus of Hobart and William Smith Colleges organized a peaceful protest in response to the racially charged threats circulating social media on this campus, in response to the protests that took place at the University of Missouri, and to continue to support and encourage the “Black Lives Matter” movement that has been circulating this country for the last year. Members of the student body, faculty, and administration who wanted to show their support of safe spaces for minorities on this campus and who publicly oppose the bigotry and ignorance that was recently displayed on Yik Yak were encouraged to come and speak or silently participate. The outcome was spectacular with hundreds of people gathered to discuss issues of racial, ethnic, and gender-based discrimination and marginalization not only on this campus but in our nation-wide institutions. The weather was brutally cold with temperatures reaching the lowest we have seen this year, but students and members of the faculty amazingly enough still showed their support and withstood the forces of mother nature. The wind might have caused the protest to end earlier than expected, but it definitely did not affect the spirits and passion that these people all shared.
The Protest began at noon and students began to gather at the front entrance of the Scandling Center, a few even gathered outside of the second-floor windows as they observed from above. President Gearan and many other members of the colleges’ faculty and administration accompanied the students. The rally began with 25 minutes of silence where hundreds of students banded together and linked arms. A banner was presented to the crowd that read, “We stand in solidarity with Mizzou,” referring to the racial protests at the University of Missouri that eventually lead to the resignation of the University’s President, “but what we don’t stand for is inequality on our own campus.”
After the period of silence, students of all genders, races, ethnicities, and ages were encouraged to step forward and speak their mind in a safe environment. Some students had printouts of offensive and racist posts from Yik Yak and read them aloud, others talked about personal experiences of ostracism on this campus, and some directed their conversation towards the administration saying that the institution is in desperate need of a change.
Many brave students stepped forward and, with a microphone that projected to the entire rally, spoke not only about the racially charged social media posts, but how women and students of all races, religions, and socioeconomic status have all shared some experience of marginalization and discrimination in some form. Four members of the Hobart Football Team stepped forward and openly talked about how they feel as though they are at this school for nothing more than to play football. They do not feel like they belong and they do not have the same access to free and safe spaces as other students do on this campus.
These forms of racial protests have been hitting college campuses all across America following the racial intolerance at Mizzou where hundreds of black students fled campus out of fear of their own lives. Just a few miles from Geneva in Ithaca, New York, a walkout was staged at Ithaca College to demand the resignation of President Tom Rochon due to his poor responses of incidents of racism and bigotry on campus. We can also see this happening up north at Yale University where hundreds of students marched in protest to what they claimed as racial insensitivity of the school’s administration.