University of Maryland Students Protest “...Bring Black Back...”

Last Updated Nov 2009

By AFRO Staff

Students from the University of Maryland ended their march with a rally on the steps of the administration building on Nov. 5. (Courtesy Photo)

(November 8, 2009) - More than 600 students staged a protest Nov. 5 at the University of Maryland, College Park over the firing of a diversity administrator.

Students protested the removal of Dr. Cordell Black, assistant provost of equity and diversity, believing his removal will negatively affect many departments dedicated to diversity.

Dr. Black, a tenured professor who has been with the university for more than 30 years, was removed from his position due to budget cutbacks and a redistribution of funds and programs. Black will be replaced by a part-time administrator at the end of the university’s fiscal year on June 30, 2010, but will remain on the faculty.

Chanting “This is what diversity looks like,” “Bring Black back,” and “No justice, no peace,” students of many ethnic backgrounds, religions, and sexual orientations marched from the Nyumburu Cultural Center to the steps of the main administration building.

In staging the largest demonstration on campus since the Vietnam conflict, students also came with a list of demands to ensure that diversity is maintained in university culture and curricula. Their demands included the reinstatement of Dr. Black to his position, the release of budget and diversity records and a moratorium on further firings until students are given seats at the table. 

“At this point in the University’s history we have seen that diversity is in a fragile place due to economic constraints,” said Kameahle Christopher, a senior Government and Politics major who participated in the protest. “It is important we remind the University of it’s promise it has committed to its students.”

University of Maryland spokesperson Milree Williams said the school has no intention to alter its diversity goals. Student leaders met with Provost Nariman Farvardin, who said the removal of Dr. Black was final but that he would meet students’ other demands of sharing budget records and including students in future cost-cutting decisions.

Students say the fight is not over and have already planned a follow-up meeting to decide on their next steps, according to the campus newspaper, The Diamondback. Students plan to form a new organization called Students Taking Action to Reclaim our Education (S.T.A.R.E.), a coalition of student groups that will focus on acting against the university’s attempts to cut student services.

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Recent Comments

The U of Md. has a long track record of subtle and overt hostility to those of Moorish ancestry. I know from personal experience about how they treat you as a number-a piece of property there...the residual effect of the old slave mentality lives in College Park, Md. I would recommend any Moor to consider attending another institution.

Posted By: Kris K on Nov 2009

My name is Kathleen Rand Reed and I am an alumna of the University of Maryland, College Park. I am African American and was a returning student – over 40 when I was there. My experience there was horrible and filled with racism and sexism. Had I not been strong-willed from my former Chicago urban encounters, my Department Chairman, who was a first generation educated Italian and who was as pompous and “White” as he could muster, would have debilitated my spirit. He once told me how “lucky” I was that the University LET ME attend the campus. I told him, “I’m bringing more “real world experience” to the educational table than I’ll ever take away.” As a mature student who lived in the Midwest and the West Coast, I have seen and experienced the ways in which large, behemoth institutions hire people of color, gays, and women, to satisfy the “movement of the moment.” However, the underlying belief is when the tide turns, we’ll (White males) dismantle this insanity and turn things back to the WAY THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE. The problem with this latest move by UMCP is that they’re on the wrong side of demographic reality and the wrong side of what is of VALUE to its White students. Today, astute and smart White students have read the US demographic tea leaves. They know in their bones that in a global economy, with North Atlantic Europeans less than 6% of the world’s populations, they’d better have some people of color on their Rolodex and learn something about them. Already Whites who used to be the “norm and invisible” are now being named: “Gabachos” in Mexico, “Haoles” in Hawaii, “Anglos” in the Southwest and West Coast. Europe has so many Muslims; it is often referred to as “Eurabia.” In short, UMCP administration: “Ozzie and Harriet and the 1950s are dead.” The old, White UMCP administration thinks the best way to compete for the suburban, White, wealthy parents’ business is to ethnically cleanse the campus and assure that, “We don’t have THOSE Afro-programs, anymore!” How dumb. Driving and speeding backwards, looking through the rear view mirror, thinking the “future” is just a bit up ahead. The UMCP students are spot on in demanding, (1) Black’s reinstatement, (2) release of budget and diversity records, and a halt to all personnel and department shuffles and layoffs until students and faculty can provide more input. President Mote and Provost Farvardin need to take some of that UM rebranding money and put it into the budget of the Nyumburu Cultural Center and Prof. Black’s salary. To do otherwise is to have brought back the OLD brand of UMaryland – the University that excluded Thurgood Marshall in 1930 and excluded Cordell Black eighty years later.

Posted By: Kathleen Rand R on Nov 2009

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