This Week in the News-Midweek Edition

Here's what SPLC on Campus staff has been reading so far this week. Let us know what you've been reading by submitting articles to emily.mumford@splcenter.org.

Maryland fraternity member who wrote offensive email will not return to campus, official says by Colin Campbell, The Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-umd-fraternities-folo-20150326-story.html

White Millennials are products of a failed lesson in colorblindness by Mychal Denzel Smith, PBS: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/white-millennials-products-failed-lesson-colorblindness/#.VRc43m5zC18.facebook

 

This Week in the News: March 15-21

Here's what we've been reading this week:

The United States Is Getting More Tolerant Of Everyone (Except Racists) by Kay Steiger, Think Progress:  http://thinkprogress.org/election/2015/03/16/3634085/united-states-getting-tolerant-everyone-except-racists/

Uproar after black UVA student injured during arrest by Dana Ford, CNN:  http://www.cnn.com/2015/03/18/us/uva-police-brutality-allegations/

SAE Launches Plan to Target Racial Discrimination by Ian Smith, KAGS: http://www.kagstv.com/News/KAGSNews/ID/7953/SAE-Launches-Plan-to-Target-Racial-Discrimination

Swatiskas investigated at SUNY Purchase by Matt Spillane, Lohud: http://www.lohud.com/story/news/crime/2015/03/20/suny-purchase-swastikas/25119537/

SUNY Geneseo Speakers Seek Abolishment of 'Prison Industrial Complex' by Conrad Barker, Geneseesun.com: http://www.geneseesun.com/2015/03/20/suny-geneseo-speakers-seek-abolishment-prison-industrial-complex/

 

The March Continues: Join SPLC for the last leg of the Selma to Montgomery March

Join the Southern Poverty Law Center for the last leg of the Selma to Montgomery March on Wednesday, March 25th. The March will begin at 10am at the St.Jude campsite and a special program will follow at the Capitol featuring Rev. Bernice K…

Join the Southern Poverty Law Center for the last leg of the Selma to Montgomery March on Wednesday, March 25th. The March will begin at 10am at the St.Jude campsite and a special program will follow at the Capitol featuring Rev. Bernice King, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, Morris Dees, and Gov. Robert Bentley.

Please contact Emily Mumford @ emily.mumford@splcenter.org for more information on the March.

University of Alabama elects first African-American SGA president in four decades

By: Melissa Brown

The University of Alabama Tuesday elected their first black Student Government Association president in almost four decades. 

Elliot Spillers, a junior from Pelham, is also considered to be the first non-Machine candidate to win the election since John Merrill (now Alabama's Secretary of State) won in 1986.

This will be Spillers' first elected position within the SGA, where he has served appointed positions, most recently as deputy director of engagement.

He is studying business management with a political science minor, and is a member of the Honors College. 

Spillers said he was "shocked and thankful" after receiving the election results. 

““This is my third time at this, and each time I’ve grown tremendously as a leader and a person,” Spillers said when reached by phone Tuesday evening. “I’ve never lost hope, hope for this university and what we’ll accomplish in the next year. The real work begins tomorrow. To all the students who voted for me, thank you. It’s because of you we have the opportunity to bring sustainable change here to Alabama.” ”
— Elliot Spillers

Spillers defeated Stephen Keller for the position, who is currently vice president of student affairs in the SGA. 

In a statement Tuesday evening, Keller congratulated Spillers on an "excellent campaign" and thanked his supporters.

Student newspaper The Crimson White reported voter turnout was the highest it has been in at least six years. Spillers received 8,602 of the 14,931 votes cast. 

Read the full story at: http://www.al.com/news/tuscaloosa/index.ssf/2015/03/university_of_alabama_elects_f.html

 

Teaching The Movement: A Teacher's Perspective

Story by Michelle Higgins, Social Studies teacher at Walla Walla High School, photos by Matt Banderas

                Volunteers, students and teachers work together to bring Civil Rights’ Education into classrooms. It seems like a large task in the beginning, but when people work ahead of time, the finished product is successful. This program provides college student volunteers with the opportunity to work inside classrooms and present new ideas to younger students. It also provides children and youths with the opportunity to work with college students who are pursuing their post-high school education and serve as mentors and role models.

          In my high school classroom, students work together to share their thoughts and ideas after reading Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” In the beginning, they hesitate to read passages and share their ideas with others because they do not consider themselves to be great scholars or experts. However, after a few minutes, they dive deeper into each passage and begin to hear the voice King uses to describe inequality, segregation and hatred towards African-Americans. They wrestle with the challenging text—there are many words that are not a part of their daily or academic vocabulary. However, this does not prevent them from participating and developing a better understanding of King’s purpose and point of view.

“Does it take some work and effort to make this happen? Yes, it does. Can it be done by nearly any college or university? Absolutely! Is it worth stepping outside of our comfort zones as educators to invite a group of college students into our classrooms to share lessons with our students? Yes, yes, yes!!!”
— Michelle Higgins, Walla Walla High School

                Many students can relate to feeling like an “outsider” at some point in their lives. Dr. King addresses people in his “Letter” who give him this label, also. Teenagers hear this statement and often it catches their attention. How can a man like Dr. King who represents such a large part of the Civil Rights’ Movement in their minds be an “outsider?” They are curious, they read further into the text and begin to ask “why?”

Teach the Movement is expanding to other parts of Washington State now. We are excited to welcome Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington and Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington on board. Both universities have programs in place already that make it easier for them to organize classroom visits with college student volunteers. Does it take some work and effort to make this happen? Yes, it does. Can it be done by nearly any college or university? Absolutely! Is it worth stepping outside of our comfort zones as educators to invite a group of college students into our classrooms to share lessons with our students? Yes, yes, yes!!!

UA Chapter-SPLC on Campus Hosts Teaching Tolerance Film and Discussion

UA Chapter-SPLC on Campus hosted Teaching Tolerance's A Time For Justice (with popcorn and cookies) and seven people came. "People thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and we split into small groups afterward to share our thoughts and feelings in a quasi-sustained dialogue type conversation,"-UA SPLC on Campus President, Dwyer Freeman.

UA's SPLC on Campus chapter will be hosting their next meeting in three weeks where they will discuss Civil Rights at UA, from Bloody Tuesday to Sorority Segregation. 

Teaching The Movement: A Student's Perspective

Whitman College, Walla Walla Public Schools, and the Southern Poverty Law Center have partnered since 2011 to create Whitman Teaches The Movement. A program which utilizes free Teaching Tolerance materials to prepare students to go into local public school classrooms to creatively teach lessons on the modern American Civil Rights Movement. This year Whitman sent 42 students into 34 classrooms over a 2 week period. For more information on creating a Teach the Movement program on your campus visit the What You Can Do tab on our website.

Story by Whitman Teaches The Movement Volunteer, Katy Wills '16, photos by Matt Banderas

 

“They’re more scared of you than you are of them,” I kept repeating to myself as I walked down the hallway of my college town’s local high school, heart thumping. I was scared to go into a high school with students in the peak of a judgmental and self-conscious stage of life, but I was trained for the lesson and I felt ready. I was ready to walk into a classroom of engaged students ready to learn and be inspired by an amazing civil rights crusader, Cesar Chavez.

The lesson began with a 39 minute film giving a concise yet detailed overview of the origins of the farmworker rights movement and then transitioned into small group discussions facilitated by student leaders from Whitman College. My partner and I split the class in half and got to work. I settled down with my group of 10 and we went around the circle introducing ourselves and describing an aspect of the film that stood out to each of us. Students were most vocally horrified at the thought that there weren’t bathrooms in the field, but cited the prevalence of pesticide spray and the lack of water and fair pay as disturbing as well. The lesson provided a solid base to understand the gross inequality farm workers faced in the 60s. I was pleased with their ability to relate the racist and classist experiences from the film to what they see in the news today.

I can speak more to my experience than I can to theirs. I spent just over an hour with this group of 14 year olds but I’ve spent 20 years in my own head. While I was sitting in the classroom I made an important realization about my own reasoning for participating in Whitman Teaches the Movement. This opportunity was critical for me because it helped me understand that youth have incredible power. I was inspired by the idea of training a new generation of activists, but while standing in front of 20 awkward, confused, pubescent faces, I realized that I am an integral part of the current generation.

It took me until my third year at Whitman to engage in the important experience of “teaching the movement” because I assumed for two years that it wasn’t my place. As a white, middle-class student at a prestigious college, I found myself uncomfortable with my privilege. I felt it wasn’t okay for me to teach about civil rights to younger students because I’m part of a class of people who have committed monumental crimes of oppression. Teaching the movement was important because it gave me opportunity to stop my personal trend of privilege paralysis and come to terms with my potential as an agent of change.

Teaching the movement is an empowering experience for the teacher and allows the students a change of pace and insight into the passions of those to whom they may look up but I can’t say that their minds were blown. It would be insincere and presumptuous to rave about the 65 minutes I spent in the classroom as a groundbreaking experience for those wily and slightly scary high schoolers; but what I can say is that I planted a seed in their minds and poured a little water on my own.