BUZZ
Black Student Union member wanted school to ‘acknowledge the ‘institutional failures’ that allowed for racism to occur’
Approximately five months after a “racially motivated incident” at Gonzaga University, students are still voicing “concerns” about how university officials handled it.
The Gonzaga Bulletin doesn’t inform readers exactly what the incident was; however, a search shows it appears to be a late-February Harlem Renaissance-themed dinner and dance hosted by the school’s Black Student Union.
According to the Substack History Can’t Hide, the event — “supposed to be a celebration […] a night of joy, community, and cultural pride organized by Black students” — turned into something “that was intruded upon, disrespected, and reduced to spectacle.”
White and Asian female attendees allegedly were there to “shop for Black men,” someone said the n-word “openly enough” that the BSU ended up shutting down the event, and anonymous users on the platform Fizz made racially insensitive remarks.
These comments included “a reportedly stolen debit card was actually an EBT card,” and accusations “BSU members had pulled guns.”
In response, Gonzaga “condemned any acts of discrimination or harassment,” blocked Fizz from its local network, and contacted the company “expressing concern over students’ language on the network.”
In a statement, the BSU called the university’s statement “severely disappointing” and said it “does not fully capture the seriousness and pain of racist slurs, derogatory language, offensive stereotypes and violent rumors and threats that directly violate the dignity and safety of students, staff and faculty of color and our allies.”
One member of the BSU wanted Gonzaga to “acknowledge the ‘institutional failures’ that allowed for racism to occur.”
In early March, Gonzaga established a “Presidential Task Force on Accompaniment, Safety and Belonging” in response to the incident(s), and in May did an audit of “existing campus resources and identified continued areas of improvement.”
Task Force Chair Kent Porterfield noted he “helped to organize teams” to “work toward addressing” nine of the BSU’s ten demands from April. As before, The Bulletin provides no reference to the specific demands, but they’re noted on a May BSU Instagram post.
Among other things, the BSU wants a Gonzaga “institutional statement on racism & accountability,” a “comprehensive racist harassment accountability framework,” a “dedicated diversity publication,” and a “dedicated cultural community & engagement center.”
But according to The Bulletin, some students still are dissatisfied that “the university was not holding students accountable for racist actions.”
In addition, the BSU referred to the elimination of Gonzaga’s chief diversity officer position as an “institutional betrayal.” In an Instagram post right before summer, the group said it will “not continue cooperating with an administration that has lied to us for months.”
The BSU noted the now-former officer, Robin Kelley, was “one of the few administrators [it] trusted,” and that it was “assured” that Kelley was to have “a greater role” in the Presidential Task Force on Accompaniment, Safety and Belonging.
BSU Director of External Affairs Grant Barnes reiterated those fears: “I think that it is concerning that there hasn’t been a clear explanation on how [Kelley’s] work will continue.
“When the chair of the task force […] looks you in the eyes when you’re at your very worst, and tells you that things will be OK and that certain things will happen — then the moment you’re off campus, none of that is true — that hurt me more than the racism and threats that we saw on campus all year.”
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