Students gathered in Speakers Circle to protest alleged instances of racial discrimination and inaction from MU administrators on Monday, weeks after posters supporting white supremacist ideology were found on campus.
Organizations such as Mizzou Fails and the MU chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America brought attention to these posters in the following days and demanded a response from MU administration . Christian Basi, director of the MU News Bureau, said posters were taken down before MU staff could get to them.
The protest, which was led and organized by MU students Alana Hayes and MarKeia “Nova” Kellogg, began with students repeating chants such as “protect your students, not your money” and “M-I-Z, Z-O-U, if students die, that’s on you.”
Hayes and Kellogg then gave the main demand. The main demand of the protesters: getting MU to formally condemn white supremacy. Protest leaders also expressed other goals aimed at addressing racial discrimination on campus including increasing resources dedicated to preventing acts of white supremacy on campus in the future, and for MU to reinstate the Ad Hoc joint committee, which gave recommendations regarding how public spaces can be utilized for protests.
“Some of our demands include not allowing white supremacists on campus to begin with,” Kellogg said. “We want an apology and a statement from Mun Choi … the email that he sent out talking about a better MU was very cookie cutter.”
On Nov. 10, MU Chancellor and UM System President Mun Choi sent out an email with the subject “towards a better Mizzou.” The message addressed concern on campus.
“Over the past week, I have heard from members of our community regarding campus culture and safety,” Choi wrote. “I would like to reiterate that I strongly condemn all forms of racism and discrimination. The safety of our community is of paramount importance.”
Speakers at the protest said they still don’t feel MU takes proper action against racial discrimination.
“Whether it’s being verbally assaulted on campus, physically assaulted on campus, microaggressions or even the neo-Nazi posters … and racial slurs that are posted around campus, the administration fails to do anything and condemn those students each and every time,” Kellog said.
Basi reiterated that the university condemns all speech that promotes racism and discrimination.
Basi pointed to a section of MU’s “Commitment to Free Expression,” which states: “The ideas of different members of the University community will often and quite naturally conflict. But it is not the proper role of the University to attempt to shield individuals from ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”
“Whenever we put those fliers up for Mizzou dining, to raise their wages, those were taken down,” Kaylyn Walker, a member of the Missouri Students Association Social Justice Committee, said. “But these white supremacist fliers weren’t taken down with haste.”
Basi said that the Campus Dining wages increase posters were removed because of where they were put.
Once everyone in the crowd had been offered the opportunity to speak, the protest ended with more chanting from students. Hayes and Kellog concluded by saying there may need to be future protests and thanked all in attendance.
“This is just the beginning,” Luke Stange, an MU law student, said. “Mizzou needs to hear about this direct from our mouths. And so do all the people who have walked past us.”
Edited by Emma Flannery | eflannery@themaneater.comCopy edited by Jacob Richey