Jesse Singal calls it a horrifying story in Wednesday’s New York Times, and he’s right. It investigates an alleged incident of racial profiling at Smith College and the aftermath. It sounds like the sort of thing that happens at Oberlin every day, so it’s nice to have a change of venue.
This is a horrifying story about some of the most privileged students and academic administrators in the country attacking vulnerable middle-class campus workers for… it's not clear what the point is, exactly, except the cruel, raw exercise of power.https://t.co/HCZ14r3Wh3
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) February 24, 2021
Michael Powell writes:
In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a Black student at Smith College, recounted a distressing American tale: She was eating lunch in a dorm lounge when a janitor and a campus police officer walked over and asked her what she was doing there.
The officer, who could have been carrying a “lethal weapon,” left her near “meltdown,” Ms. Kanoute wrote on Facebook, saying that this encounter continued a yearlong pattern of harassment at Smith.
…
The New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN picked up the story of a young female student harassed by white workers. The American Civil Liberties Union, which took the student’s case, said she was profiled for “eating while Black.”
Less attention was paid three months later when a law firm hired by Smith College to investigate the episode found no persuasive evidence of bias. Ms. Kanoute was determined to have eaten in a deserted dorm that had been closed for the summer; the janitor had been encouraged to notify security if he saw unauthorized people there. The officer, like all campus police, was unarmed.
Recommended
2/ Annnnnnnnyway these are just facilities workers who made like $45k a year and have health problems and probably can't work ever again because one jerk of a student tagged them racist and national media quickly agreed. But look it's important to fight for social justice.
— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) February 24, 2021
Salon and Media Matters alumnus Eric Boehlert was amused by Singal’s description of academic administrators being “privileged.”
“privileged academic administrators” is my new fav oxymoron https://t.co/6sJKoQzJdl
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 24, 2021
Bc honestly in the grand scheme of US culture , who’s dripping w/ more privilege than “administrators “ of small New England colleges?
they’re right up there w/ Fortune 500 CEO’s
— Eric Boehlert (@EricBoehlert) February 24, 2021
Actually …
Dear Eric,
I'm sorry I implied that the president of Smith college, a white woman who makes $515,461 per year and who opportunistically shit all over a janitor accused baselessly of wrongdoing, is privileged. I'll try to do better next time.
Sincerely,
Jesse https://t.co/DufXvd0t8H— Jesse Singal (@jessesingal) February 24, 2021
— Will (@LostEst1981) February 24, 2021
Centering yourself at the expense of marginalized academic administrators again, Jesse.
— William Earl Burns (@williameburns13) February 24, 2021
She got her PhD at Yale Community College. She knows what it’s like to pull herself up by her Gucci bootstraps. Has a nice little cottage on the cape that isn’t even worth $1M. Leave the extremely poor woman alone.
— Sjean Sjteele (@sjteele) February 24, 2021
Great example here of the utterly empty deflections these people deploy when confronted with the indefensible
— David Hudnall (@davidhudnall) February 24, 2021
Will he double down or take his L? Stay tuned!
— Karen Tumajz (@sigh_ontology) February 24, 2021
Dear Eric,
Please just hold the L and move on.
— BC Thomas (@bcthomas) February 24, 2021
This is proper twitter snark. 10/10.
— Robert (@Ruhroe) February 24, 2021
Boehlert is an insect.
— I got your #Unity right here (@jtLOL) February 24, 2021
Related:
Wow: Jury awards family business Oberlin students tried to destroy maximum damages totaling $33 million https://t.co/PbvqzqFlIf
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 13, 2019
Join the conversation as a VIP Member