JBHE: Latest News for 2/24/11

Race Relations on Campus Database

Periodically, JBHE Weekly Bulletin will publish a selection of racial incidents that have occurred on the campuses of colleges and universities. Here are the latest incidents:

• The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit alleging that an African-American groundskeeper at the Milledgeville campus of the Georgia Military College was subjected to a racially hostile work environment for a four-year period. The suit was later withdrawn.

There are about 1,400 undergraduate students on campus. Nearly one third of the student body is black.

• Three African Americans have filed a lawsuit against Feather River College in Quincy, California. The suit claims that the three plaintiffs and 15 other African Americans were cut from the football team due to racial discrimination. The discrimination occurred, according to the lawsuit, after a black assistant coach was passed over for promotion to head coach in favor of a less qualified white applicant. (Associated Press, 1-27-11)

• The Black Student Union at the University of California at Irvine lodged a formal complaint with the university after the official menu for the university’s dining hall on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday was changed to fried chicken. University officials apologized stating that the change was insensitive and not in “good taste.” (Los Angeles Times, 1-27-11)

• A racial slur was yelled at a black student on the campus of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. The words “Nigger, come here boy,” reportedly were uttered inside a traditionally white fraternity house on campus. (Associated Press, 2-7-11)

• The Boulder Faculty Assembly at the University of Colorado is considering a resolution condemning the use of blackface by university students. The resolution is in response to the frequent use of blackface costumes during Halloween celebrations on campus. (Boulder Daily Camera, 2-4-11)