Students Walk Out To Protest Jena Six, Racist Graffiti

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s declaration that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere” served as the catchphrase of yesterday’s campus walkout protesting incidents of racial injustice, both nationally and at Columbia.

More than 120 students gathered on Low Steps before marching up Broadway and around the Morningside campus as part of a national student walkout to protest the prosecution of the Jena Six. Organizers tied Columbia’s demonstration to the racist graffiti discovered in an International Affairs Building bathroom last week.

Members from student organizations including the Muslim Student Association, Black Students Organization, and the Columbia Coalition Against the War united to express solidarity with the groups targeted by the graffiti and the six black Louisiana teenagers—who are charged with assaulting a white student—who some feel have been the victims of racial bias.

“The Jena Six is a more extreme example of what’s going on on campus,” Adil Ahmed, CC ’09 and president of the Muslim Student Association, said at the protest.

While the number of participants in the walkout was smaller than some expected, the energy swelled as the group marched across 116th Street, up Broadway, and back to Low Steps, chanting, “From Jena to SIPA, racism has got to go.”

“One of the most beautiful things is as we were walking up Broadway, we saw a whole bunch of people just join the crowd,” Destin Jenkins, CC ’10 and political chair of BSO, said. “People who were not students ... join the crowd and give up five minutes of their time, and that’s what it’s all about.”

As the protesters passed, many drivers honked their horns and raised their fists, while others stared with incredulity.

“This moment is a continuation of a struggle at Columbia that has yet to fulfill its mission,” Bryan Mercer, CC ’07, said. Mercer, who has been involved in activist efforts at Columbia, said he was pleased by the large number of first-year students who participated.

“Their [the class of 2011’s] involvement and work ethic as a class has really been unmatched,” Tiffany Dockery, CC ’09 and BSO president, said.

“To do something to fight against it [racial bias], well, it was more important than a Spanish class,” Phillip Dupree, SEAS ’11 and one of the protesters, said.

“It’s gone past the point where you can call one group a name and expect only that group to be affected by it,” Ali Shafei, CC ’10 and president of Turath, a North African and Middle Eastern club, said, adding that the number of non-Muslim protestors was inspiring. But he noted that the majority of the students who planned and participated in the event were neither Muslims nor of Middle Eastern descent, the graffiti’s primary targets. “Arabs and Muslims ... they’re in a current situation where they are maybe not able to take as vocal role as they should have,” Shafei said. “It really does demonstrate some underlying fears and intimidation among Arabs and Muslims, especially at Columbia,” he said, referring to Ahmadinejad’s appearance.

While Shafei said that he was impressed by how quickly the protest was organized, he added that the haste may have contributed to a more disorganized event. “For the common bystander it may be a little confusing about what we were protesting and whom it was done against,” Shafei said. “A lot of organization was compromised ... a lot of the precision you see in a lot of other protest, we didn’t see that same kind of precision.”

Some protesters also tied the SIPA incident to University President Lee Bollinger’s condemnation of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last Monday. “What happened last week on this campus was that an unsafe community was created,” Ahmed said.

Lawrence Morris, SEAS ’11 and a cousin of one of the Jena Six, said the walkout was very personally significant. “It [the walkout] kind of forces the issue,” Morris said. “It’s a catalyst to change. Little things like this lead to big things later, and it has to start somewhere.”

The reporters of this article can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.