Concerned students, faculty, and community members are gathering together online via Zoom on Sunday April 18th from 4-6 pm to host an Anti-Racist Town Hall to discuss racism in Binghamton together as a community, both its history and its latest incarnations (see below). How can we move Concerned students, faculty, and community members are gathering together online via Zoom on Sunday April 18th from 4-6 pm to host an Anti-Racist Town Hall to discuss racism in Binghamton together as a community, both its history and its latest incarnations (see below). How can we move forward together and demand the accountability and action we need?
ZOOM ID: 986 8339 8361
Inquiries/Contact: antiracistBing@gmail.com
Facebook Event Page: https://fb.me/e/1JchKfsDU
We are hosting 10-12 speakers from the university and the community to share their knowledge about racism in Binghamton and about resisting racism. Afterward there will be an open conversation.
Confirmed Speakers Include:
Shanel Boyce
Kendra Gourgue (Black Student Union)
Amiya Castro (Latin American Student Union)
Claire Choi
Rev. Harold Wheat (Pastor Tabernacle UMC)
Jennifer Lynn Stoever (English)
Josh Price (Sociology)
Sponsor: BU Sociology
Co-Sponsors: BU Black Student Union, Latin American Student Union
*There will be e-security for this event*
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Catalyst for the event: On February 19, 2021, an undergraduate student at Binghamton University publicly described his TA, a Black woman PhD student in the Sociology Department, using incendiary racist and sexist insults including the “N-word” and the “B-word.” As his microphone was unmuted, the entire discussion section heard this conversation between the student and his roommate. Concerned students and faculty reported the verbal assault to the Harpur Dean’s Office, who then reported it to Student Conduct and the Department of Equity and Inclusion.
In doing so, we have found the response of the Binghamton University administration to be fundamentally inadequate. The campus policies on racist speech are unclear and difficult to actually apply, nor are sanctions readily applicable. It has been over a month and the student has yet to be held accountable; the Graduate Student TA is exhausted and worn out by the administration’s lack of response and secrecy around such overt racist harm, and the campus community has only been informed of these events in vague language and empty rhetorical gestures.
This is unacceptable, and cannot stand. Binghamton University must take concrete measures to support BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students on campus and to center their safety, dignity, and right to an education free of harassment and dehumanization. There is no such thing as “a right to be racist” (as one BU administrator has said in response to this act), because racism is inherently exclusionary, violent, and harmful. We also stand in solidarity with BIPOC community members in Binghamton who are also impacted by racism and the university’s refusal to address it on campus and off.