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Part of Students lead solidarity demonstration

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Davidsonian.com
Page 3
A list of participating schools, including David-
son, can be found on its website.
“As members of the Tau Omicron Chapter of
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Incorporated here,
typically we’ve been a part of that movement,”
Lara said. “Our chapter and students like us have
been big leaders in events like these, in moments
like these, and so we felt it was our duty and re-
sponsibility to react as well.”
Although they were pleased with the turnout
to the event, both Lara and Phillips noticed a dis-
proportionate ratio of students of color to white
students. “Where are 70% of white people?” Phil-
lips asked. “Hello? Where are you?”
Lara blamed these absences on a desire to feel
comfortable rather than challenged. “It’s OK to
be wrong. It’s OK to try and fail when it comes
to understanding race,” Lara said. He hopes to
encourage students to “ask the hard questions, to
really try and step out of their comfort zone so
they can learn, and so we can actually progress.”
Hannah Lukow ‘17, who spoke up at the dem-
onstration about white silence, said, “this lack of
reciprocity in racial dialogues is unacceptable.”
She urged white students not to place the bur-
den of racial education on people of color, but
rather to learn to both listen and engage. “As a
white person, my race profoundly affects my
experience—I just have the privilege of not no-
ticing,” Lukow said.
The Rev. Rob Spach ’84, Davidson’s chaplain,
ended the demonstration with a prayer: “How
long, how long, how long must this struggle con-
tinue?” He invited students to participate in one-
on-one prayer with him after dispersing.
The organizers hoped that standing in soli-
darity with Mizzou would bring to light the expe-
riences of people of color at Davidson. Lara said
his biggest goal for the event was “to continue to
make the issue of race salient to students and fac-
ulty so that it can be addressed and changed and
not just passed over, as it often is.”
Coates addresses origins of
black criminality
Continued from page 1
crime log
Stalking at 409 Ridge Road and 102
Nelson Lane.
Prosecution Declined.
11/18/15 at 1437 hrs
Time
Description / Location
11/10/15 at 1940 hrs
Larceny Misdemeanor (Placards)/In-
jury to Real Property at Chidsey.
Prosecution Declined.
11/12/15 at 0114 hrs
Injury to Personal Property (Vehicle)
at Eco House.
Further Investigation.
11/12/15 at 1532 hrs
Larceny Misdemeanor (Bicycle) at
Richardson.
Further Investigation.
11/13/15 at 2345 hrs
Underage Consumption at Chidsey.
Dean Referral/Medic Transport.
later turned out the true suspect had dread locks,
was fifty pounds heavier, and was a good many
inches shorter than Prince, who was 6’4”, had
close-cropped hair, and the build of a NFL wide
receiver.
Their common denominator, nonetheless,
argued Coates, was their blackness. In the tragic
tale of Jones’s death, Coates provided a personal
example of the implications of institutionalized
racism. Coates said he was convinced that had
Prince been white, he would not have been shot.
The policies which have criminalized black peo-
ple are interwoven in our nation’s history, he ex-
plained. He spoke about the fugitive slave clause
in the U.S. Constitution, old slave codes that
forbade blacks to learn how to read, to worship
in a church without a white pastor, or to gather
amongst other blacks. The justification for lynch-
ing was that black men had allegedly raped white
women. The criminalization of the black race is
part of the foundation of our society. Coates calls
it the “heritage that murdered my friend, that en-
dangers my son.”
After the lecture, the floor opened up for Da-
vidson students, and the following day there was
a small-group Q&A. Coates shocked his audience
with his unconcealed honesty and realistic view of
the world. At both Q&A sessions students sought
advice on how to change people’s intolerant and
dogmatic beliefs and asked if Coates’s attempts
to do so were exhausting. Coates responded that
writers cannot change the minds of people who
are not willing to listen. As an example, he spoke
about some people’s denial of slavery’s tie with
the Civil War despite documents from the nine-
11/14/15 at 0041 hrs
Underage Consumption at Chidsey.
Dean Referral/Medic Transport.
11/14/15 at 0219 hrs
Posession of Malt Beverage Underage
at Armfield.
Dean Referral.
11/14/15 at 0229 hrs
Underage Consumption at Watts.
Dean Referral/Medic Transport.
11/15/15 at 1332 hrs
Injury to Personal Property (Vehicle)
at Eco House.
Further Investigation.
teenth century that explicitly stated the purposes
of the war. “Be careful of assuming the burden
of other people’s ignorance,” he warned. “It does
stuff to your humanity.”
Dr. Tae-Sun Kim, Director of Multicultural
Affairs, emphasized that Coates provided one of
many opportunities for students to educate them-
selves about racial issues. “I thought Coates made
a convincing case for self-directed education and
liberation”, Kim said in a written statement. “He
described himself as a selfish learner who had the
privilege of being raised in a home environment
and attending a college that supported his intel-
lectual development and journalistic inquiries.
Though many of us in the Davidson community
do not share a similar family or educational back-
ground as Coates, his point is still well taken. ‘The
lack of information’ is not the problem, Coates
insisted. For example, several faculty members at
Davidson, several core Africana Studies faculty
come to mind, have been teaching and preach-
ing on the criminalization of black bodies, edu-
cational excellence in black schools, and African
American literary masterpieces for decades.”
Coates’s visit to campus came as discussions
about systemic marginalization of students of
color are pervading college campuses nation-
wide. Last Thursday Davidson students voiced
their solidarity with students at the the University
of Missouri in a demonstration. (Read more on
Page 1.) Furthermore, SGA Collaborative, SGA’s
Diversity Coordinating Board, and Residence
Life Office are sponsoring an open discussion
about the issues of college protests and anti-racist
activism in the 900 Room at 4:30 p.m. today and
encourage all those who feel their voice has not
been heard to attend.
Continued from page 1
Coates delivered the prestigious Reynolds lecture. Photo by Bill Giduz.
Demonstrators support Mizzou
Students stand in solidarity with the University of Missouri. Photo by Shea Parikh.
The Davidsonian would like to clarify a quote in the article “Transition to
Atlantic 10 brings more intense travel schedules for athletes” published on
November 11. A comment from a player on the volleyball team suggested
that the team missed three days of Tuesday-Thursday classes, a number
that would have exceeded the permitted number of missed classes for those
days. The player has since clarified that the team flew to matches on three
Thursdays but missed class on only two of those days. Therefore, the team
did not exceed the permitted range.
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