Posts Tagged racism

Why does racism play a part in motivating some students to go on to college, while it seems to deter others? Winston Scott ’19 is spending his summer preparing a study into how children react when they begin to perceive racism.

The University’s anti-racism committee will host a series of discussions to coincide with the United Nations’ annual International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Members of the University community are encouraged to wear gray “We’re Better Than That” T-shirts on March 21.

An upcoming Humanities Project event reviews the experiences of the more than 120,000 people of Japanese ancestry who were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in remote relocation camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

A sophomore and freshman at the University of Rochester hope to encourage a new generation of their fellow Rwandans to remember the lessons of their country’s horrific genocide two decades ago.

The University’s anti-racism campaign, launched this January, was the focus of events across campus to mark United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racism. “It acknowledges that racism does exist, but we can overcome it by becoming more willing to talk about race,” said Meredith Crenca ’19. “It means we are better than racism, discrimination, stereotyping, and prejudice.” (University photo / Brandon Vick)

For Rochester students like Justin Delinois ’19 the sentiments captured in a University-wide effort to combat racism on campus are more than just four words that fit on a T-shirt.

Sir Sidney Poitier became a cultural icon in the 1950s as the first black actor to break racial barriers in film. But as art and art history professor Sharon Willis argues in her new book, his image on screen creates a false sense of equality that continues to appear in the popular media and remains damaging to race relations today.

The Humanities Project presents a symposium in which 16 distinguished scholars will discuss what it means to be black in the 21st century.