White students promoting black business owners caused a ruckus
Loyola University Maryland’s business school yanked a video promoting black entrepreneurship and mentorship, but will not explain why.
The Catholic university located in Baltimore hosts an annual contest called “Building a Better World Through Business” which included a competition where students would create videos pitching ideas on how to use business skills to improve communities.
Yet two months after the school pulled the video after complaints from student activists, neither university officials nor the activist group will explain why. Nor could The College Fix determine if there have been any repercussions for the student creators, as implied by the school previously.
The dean of the Sellinger School of Business and Management apologized to the university and said the university wanted to find “opportunities” for the school to “participate in a practice of restorative justice,” according to an email published by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
The College Fix emailed the dean of the Sellinger School, Kathleen Getz, and several spokespersons, Molly Robey and Rita Buettner, on April 20 and May 6 and asked if there would be punishment for students involved in the video, if it would mandate “restorative justice training” and what exactly was insensitive about the video.
No responses were received from university officials.
Someone reuploaded the deleted video and The Fix has it (below) in case it gets deleted again.
The Fix also asked if anyone besides Addressing the System complained about the video, that included quotes from former President Barack Obama and slavery abolitionist Frederick Douglass.
The student activist group initially complained to the school about the video on its Instagram page. Addressing the System said the students promoted “white saviorism, white supremacy, and most of all a lack of addressing structural racism.”
It did not explain how a video of white students promoting a project to match black entrepreneurs with black young adults to fix problems in a mostly black city contributed to any of the issues mentioned.
The College Fix messaged Addressing the System on its Instagram page on April 20 and May 10 and asked if the group could explain what was insensitive about the video, if it supported the project idea and if the project was well-intentioned with its goal to reduce systemic racism.
The group did not respond to either inquiry.
It has not posted about the issue on its Instagram page since March 24. One post from the group said that it turned down a meeting with Getz to discuss the issue.
“It is time for the administration to step up and put the same amount of energy, and greater than, into fighting against ALL FORMS OF RACIAL ABUSE as the students of color do,” the group wrote on Instagram.
The group, which convinced the school to pull the video and end the entire competition, said it “will continue to spark uncomfortable conversations” even though it is “TIRED” and dealing with “fatigue.”
The College Fix contacted Will Holmes, the chairman of the Baltimore Chamber of Commerce, on April 20 to see if he would comment on the video and its idea, but he did not respond.
Holmes is a black business owner in the area.
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