About 150 people, mostly University of Vermont students, gathered outside of the Waterman Building Tuesday afternoon to decry school administrators’ response to campus racism.
The event kicked off with an address by John Mejia, a UVM staffer who has vowed to remain on a hunger strike until the university and the city of Burlington address a list of nine demands.
“As a non-black person of color, my place here is not to speak for my black family members,” Mejia told the crowd. “My place here is as an accomplice, to throw my body into the twin, heartless gears of white supremacy and anti-black racism that run this city and university — to force them to grind to a halt.”
Mejia, the assistant director of UVM’s office of student and community relations, has been on a water-only diet since Friday, the same day someone taped racially charged note cards to the Mosaic Center for Students of Color display case.
“When you get to the point where you are starting to target specific departments, the next logical step is someone targeting an individual with violence,” Mejia said in an interview. “I could not live another day with myself if I thought that was true and I did not take as much action as possible to make it stop.”
After Mejia’s address, the crowd moved into the Waterman Building, where student organizer Angelica Crespo briefed protesters on safety precautions and reminded them to follow all instructions from campus police officers.
Inside the building, more student organizers took the microphone. Some led the crowd in chanting slogans in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and to demand the resignation of three administrators, including UVM president Tom Sullivan and vice provost for student affairs Annie Stevens.
Sullivan and Stevens both signed an email sent earlier in the day addressed to “members of the University of Vermont community” concerning the recent racist incidents and Mejia’s decision to begin a hunger strike.
“As a public institution we remain mindful of the rights of all to express freely their views on issues of importance,” the letter reads. “Our university remains steadfast in our commitment to diversity, inclusion, and racial equality, and as we grapple with these difficult challenges, we will continue, as we have, to speak out against racism, bigotry and injustice.”
Harmony Edosomwan, president of the Black Student Union, acknowledged that some progress has been made in addressing campus inequities. For example, the Student Government Association has increased funding to clubs affiliated with the Mosaic Center for Students of Color, she said.
UVM alumni Ebony Nyoni and Infinite Culcleasure were among the rally attendees. Nyoni is the founder of Black Lives Matter Vermont and a Winooski City Council candidate, while Culcleasure is running for Burlington mayor.
After the event, David Daigle, chair of the university’s board of trustees, offered his “unwavering support for the senior leadership of the University of Vermont.”
“These professionals have dedicated their careers to promoting student interests, and have been strong and vocal advocates in fostering a welcoming and tolerant environment for all students,” Daigle said in a statement. “They should be commended by our entire community.”
Read Mejia’s full list of demands below:
1. Complete adoption of all student demands from #nonamesforjustice
2. Installation of a fourth flag pole at the Davis Center to permanently fly a Black Lives Matter Flag
3. Tripling the staff of the Mosaic Center for Students of Color and its operating budget
4. Board of Trustees to announce UVM’s endorsement of the Movement for Black Lives platform as an institutional supporter
5. Submit an application in collaboration with the City of Burlington to the Kellogg Foundation for the implementation of their $4 million grant for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation and the formation of a Racial Justice Center at UVM
6. Ongoing and intensive training of UVM police in anti-racism and implicit bias on a semester basis. The permanent installation of a Black Lives Matter flag installed at UVM police headquarters
7. Increased funding for anti-racist events on campus from all sources including but not limited to Training & Professional Development, University Program Board, all named lecture series, etc.
8. Committing to becoming a Restorative Institution and city within 5 years.
9. Funding for 4 full-time positions to offer ongoing Examining White Identity and Racial Aikido Trainings for all interested staff and faculty. Increase capacity so that these trainings are offered to ALL NEW EMPLOYEES.
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What are the nine demands?
Getting sick of this yet Vermont?
Expect even more of this every time you cater to these racists demands…
Snow Creek, these aren’t racist demands. I suggest you read the wikipedia page for institutional racism, so you might come to understand a little more about the issue. To quote a bit of it, “[institutional racism] is reflected in disparities regarding wealth, income, criminal justice, employment, housing, health care, political power and education, among other things. Whether implicitly or explicitly expressed, institutional racism occurs when a certain group is targeted and discriminated against based upon race. Institutional racism is mostly implicit in our ideas and attitudes, so it is often unnoticed by the individual expressing it.” It’s understandable that people in Vermont can be racist – most white Americans are. Even if one isn’t using the n-word, or drawing swastikas, or doing other explicitly racist actions, many times our beliefs or assumptions can make a racist impact. You and I have never experienced the racism that these folks have, and we’ve grown up in a society where implicit racism is rampant.
Still, I challenge you to think about the way these people – human beings – must feel when people look at them suspiciously, call them names, cross the street when they approach, touch their hair, or are told that the very notion that their lives matter is ‘racist’. There is a lot of nuance that neither you nor they seem willing to navigate. Of course all lives matter. But, when you hear the words “pilot” or “doctor” or “lawyer” my guess is that you picture a white person (probably a man) every time. In the same way, when you consider the concept of human life, you most often consider those around you – other white folks. BLM is an affirmation of black lives, which is perhaps most important in communities like ours where we come across relatively few black people and other people of color. This is not about white lives NOT mattering – it’s just a statement of fact that we all could ponder more intentionally to make our society a more positive place for everyone.
You are wrong- You dont seem to understand what the word ‘institution’ means. The ONLY form of institutional racism in place in the United States in 2018 is Affirmative Action. And its racist against white men….
Your claims are nothing more that bloated hysteria
Furthermore it IS racist to come out and make absurd race based claims of abuse with ZERO evidence to back up your claims. And the BLM movement is a race based supremacy group on no better ground than any other race based supremacy group. Their actions are divisive and unhelpful in every way. If they want to be part of our society then perhaps they should start acting like adults rather than throwing temper tantrums and making demands.
Vermont was doing just fine before these groups showed up and started pushing their agenda
How can you say they’re any kind of supremacy group, when all they are doing is affirming that their lives matter? Don’t you believe that their lives matter?
And you are the one who doesn’t understand what institutional means – it refers to everything from the government, down to, yes, schools. Other examples of actual institutional racism include the prison system, the public school system in just about every major city, housing in just about every city, health care, standardized testing, and so on. It seems, in fact, that you are the one denying that such racism exists without any evidence of your own.
Finally, when you say that VT was fine before they showed up, I think you’re confusing correlation and causation. BLM arose around the same time as some other important things – constant murder of innocent black men by police, and the lack of punishment for those same police, the rise of rampant white nationalistic tendencies, a president who thinks it’s okay to sexually assault women, to name a few. BLM is a response to some of those things, which are the things that actually ruin our society.
you are wrong- show me a federal or state policy in place discriminating against any minority in any institution in the united states. Just one
and the BLM groups is a supremacy group like any other race based group. The modern KKK for decades has declared themselves a non violent group who only is seeking to protect white lives and white culture. Is that OK too?
I dont feel that ANY race based group or politically affiliated group should have access to our public places of higher education. Period.
You seem to be entirely missing the point about implicit bias and racism. It’s not explicit, but there are numerous policies both governmental and commercial that lead to racist impacts. That is to say, drug laws explicitly target drugs, but implicitly target black people. This is shown in the proportion of drug users who are African-American (12.5%) compared to the proportion of incarcerated drug users who are African-American (33%). Flint, Michigan’s water crisis is another example – regardless of the explicit policies and rationale behind the decision, the water provided to a majority black community was, per federal guidelines, toxic waste.
And you didn’t answer my question: do you think black lives matter?
Here, have an explicitly racist policy, while we’re at it: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states/
You are wrong- none of those examples are official policys nor are they even examples of racism And the executive order by trump- are you kidding me! Oh man…
You should really learn what “institutional” means. While yes the examples you cited are institutions- there is no official policy in those institutions discriminating against black people.- as you were claiming.
When you misuse terms to bolster your agenda it weakens what you are attempting to say. And when you outright make things up to try and defend what you have previously said it quite frankly makes you look absurd.
we could debate the examples you cited in terms of whether or not they rise to what can be construed as racism- but that was not what is being debated here nor does it back your previous assertions of “institutional racism.” I will say it again- the ONLY form of institutional racism in this county is Affirmative Action- and it primarily discriminates against white men.
And I will disagree about the supposed need for the BLM. You said that the group was formed in response to: BLM arose around the same time as some other important things – “constant murder of innocent black men by police”
Where is that going on in Vermont?
the fatal police shootings in Vermont have been with black officer shooting white men to death. Three times
Yet we hear nary a peep from the BLM groups in this state
Why is that?
IF they care about all lives and reducing the amount of fatal shootings by police- where are they?
Does BLM care about the lives of white Vermonters?
they seem awfully silent
“Snow Creek, maybe you ought to change your online name to KNOW IT ALL. You sound awfully bitter.”
sure- right after you change yours to SOUR GRAPES
I remember my college days when all races and creeds united together to protest the Vietnam war. My own father, a decorated WW II veteran, told me to go to college to get deferred from the draft. I remember his words well. He said “you don’t want to go to this disaster of a war.” It appears to me that the young people today are dividing more than uniting.
I changed mine to “we are all right” because we need to be UNITED. Racists, non-racists, everyone! All lives matter!
I have to agree with marianne1, after reading Mejia’s demands, I’m still laughing. Please Mejia don’t end your hunger strike.
UVM is a public school, funded at least in part by taxpayer dollars. I’m not a big fan of this guy demanding hundreds of thousands of dollars be spent in a manner of his choosing, or he’ll do harm to himself. This guy should do what he feels he needs to do to raise awareness, but once he moved into “do what I say or I harm myself” territory, the school really has a responsibility to tell him no.
Sounds like Mr. Mejia has some mental issues that the Medical students should be observing before he hurts himself or others after he files into a fit or rage once his hunger pains drive him to the brink. I hope that when this is all over the university fires him as he is proving he is no fit to be around young developing minds.
Marianne1 anyone that is willing to hurt themselves because they are not getting their way has got some real problems so wake the fuck up this guy is crazy. What will he demand next? And what will he threaten if he does not get his way? People need to stop painting themselves as victims all the time. And what happens when another staffer at UVM wants a ISIS flag to fly on campus do we allow that just so he or she wont starve themselves or light themselves on fire. When are academic organizations going to start giving students real educations and stop mass producing liberal activists?
Marianne1 you seem to have no heart and are an enabler. Not looking out for someone that has issues and allowing them to put themselves in danger is heartless. Im glad we are not friends because with a friend like you who would need an enemy. Your ignorance towards mental heath issues is sickening.
This is so ridiculous.
Nothing says progress like a bunch of coddled, insulated, whiny white children trying to solve someone else’s problems. Most if not all have ever experienced racism or prejudice in their upper middle class lives. Do they even have any idea of what they’re talking about? Are they actually thinking for themselves?
They are sheep being shepherded by hashtags and self-promotion. This is so whiny and pathetic I’m ashamed to call them my peers.
My great grandfather lost his arm in the Civil War fighting against the South and against slavery. Growing up in the Northeast, I never heard a derogative word from my parents addressed toward people of color. Not one. My friend’s parents: same deal. No racism whatsoever. The legacy of that is I judge people individually, not as part of a group. But do I judge groups? I most certainly do. The other day while I was commuting home from work I had to detour to avoid the BLM demonstration blocking main street. It really pissed me off. Chances are they are receiving scholarships of one kind or another–scholarships from one white liberal organization or another. My best female friend is racist. She doesn’t believe any black person ever committed a crime that they were not forced into committing by our biased white society. She is a walking apologist for black behavior, criminal or otherwise. Personally I have had it with our coddling of these unoppressed, priviledged BLM people. A better translation for which is Big Loud Mouths.