A ‘sense of fear’ about condemning hateful acts?
Earlier this year, Alabama Governor Kay Ivey signed into law Senate Bill 129 which defunds college DEI offices, forbids biological men from using women’s bathrooms, and restricts the teaching of “divisive concepts” in state K-12 schools and colleges.
The law defines “divisive concepts” as arguments “that individuals should be discriminated against or adversely treated because of their race, color, religion or sex” or that “the moral character of an individual is determined by his or her race, ethnicity or national origin.”
But some faculty at the University of Alabama contend it limits how school officials can respond to incidents of racism, The Crimson White reports.
These professors partly base this belief on the fact UA did not issue a campus-wide statement regarding racist text messages sent to black students nationwide the day after Election Day. (UA did make a statement to the media, however.)
Education professor Nirmala Erevelles, whose “areas of expertise” include critical race theory, postcolonial studies, and transnational feminism, said that before October 1 the university would have been able to make a statement and “also create programming to educate people not to reproduce these kinds of actions.”
But “[n]ow we can’t, or we are interpreting it as if we can’t,” Erevelles (pictured) said.
She believes SB 129 has a “purposeful ‘chilling effect'” which makes UA unable to issue statements regarding matters like the text messages.
Erevelles’ colleague Sara McDaniel, director of the Center for Interconnected Behavioral and Mental Health Systems which advocates for K-12 school “discipline reform,” claimed this alleged “chilling” has “created a sense of fear” among staff about criticizing incidents of bigotry and hate.
MORE: U. Alabama system campuses shut down DEI offices to comply with new law
McDaniel noted although she signed on to a department letter blasting the racist texts, some of her colleagues were reluctant — especially untenured faculty who think signing such a statement could cost them tenure in the future.
The [SB 129] law’s effects have been wide-reaching, prompting the shuttering of the UA division of DEI, the Black Student Union’s dedicated office, and the Safe Zone Resource Center for the LGBTQ+ community and allies.
This trend is “troubling,” Erevelles said, as Black students must face the fear stoked by the text messages without the “safe spaces” they normally would have, specifically the BSU office and Safe Zone Resource Center.
We are assuring students, “You are safe,” Erevelles said of the UA community’s response to the texts. “It’s kind of contradictory that we took away the two safe zones that we have on campus.” …
Erevelles urged the UA community to reinstate “safe spaces” for minority students that are open to all students and comply with SB 129.
She said it was troubling that the University administration had not yet issued a positive statement directly to students explaining what the institution stands for.
“I’m not asking for radicality,” Erevelles said. “I’m just asking for reassurance.”
Business professor Matthew Hudnall, who issued a condemnation of the texts on behalf of the Faculty Senate (of which he is president) and believes UA should be more “consistent” with anti-hate messaging, said he didn’t think SB 129 necessarily prevented UA from making a campus-wide statement.
University officials, he said, may have been hesitant to send one “out of a potential fear of sparking further incidents of hate.”
MORE: Outrage erupts after Alabama Senate OKs bill to ban DEI, and men from women’s bathrooms
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