Smith College Employee Called Police On Black Student Eating Lunch

[riversedge]

Source: HUFF POST

good grief. when will this crap stop?? what the heck is the matter with people?? damn


08/02/2018 11:52 am ET

“All I did was be black,” Oumou Kanoute said.

By Michelle Lou

A Smith College employee called the police on a black student who was eating lunch in a common area because she “seemed to be out of place,” the school said.

The student, Oumou Kanoute, is working at Smith College as a teaching assistant and residential adviser over the summer. She said she was taking a break from work on Tuesday when a police officer approached her and asked why she was there.

“I did nothing wrong, I wasn’t making any noise or bothering anyone,” Kanoute wrote in a Tuesday Facebook post. “All I did was be black.”

Kanoute said the incident made her “nervous” and caused emotional distress to her.


....................................................

Read more: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/smith-college-student-police_us_5b630b98e4b0fd5c73d6ee6d

---

Link to tweet

Patricia Arquette Verified account @PattyArquette
2h2 hours ago
Replying to @HuffPost

This goes to Every school and workplace- Damn it train your damn students , employees and all your staff on racial profiling and not being racist creeps. Enough
6 replies 24 retweets 134 likes



Jim Morrione ? @jim_morrione
2h2 hours ago

Replying to @HuffPost @PattyArquette

They need to start prosecuting these callers as calling in a false report.
0 replies 2 retweets 10 likes

Makafui Yao Manyo ? @Calousy
2h2 hours ago

Replying to @HuffPost

When Trump said "Make America great again", what he actually meant was "Make America WHITE again"

[saidsimplesimon]

1. "All I did was be black," Oumou Kanoute said.

Anyone who opposes the dictator is in the same boat, regardless of color.

[mpcamb]

93. I like her response.

[LandOfHopeAndDreams]

2. Name The Employee Who Phoned Police

It should be a crime to take up the police's time on such garbage.

Is this "employee" living in the right century? Black students attending college? Who would have thought it possible!

[Mosby]

3. she should have handed him her DL

And said "nothing personal, but I don't talk to cops".

Then let the cop escalate the nothingburger into a big deal.

[Lucky Luciano]

20. They kill black people for less than that. nt

[Mosby]

21. I do that all the time.

You have to let cops know that you know your rights. Then they don't fuck with you as much.

The worst thing you can do is play their stupid games, then they got you.

[apnu]

23. Yup. Never talk to a cop.

You do have to ID yourself, and you can't leave until they let you. Beyond that, say nothing, do nothing.

Pity its come to that. We, as citizens, cannot trust our police anymore. Doesn't matter what color a person is, that trust is long broken and the police don't seem to care.

[kag]

24. FWIW, The young woman said the cop was very polite.

I don't necessarily disagree with you about not talking to the cops, but if they approach politely I don't see the problem in returning the politeness.

I'm a white woman and I've had both kinds of interactions with LEO's (kind and polite vs. rude as fuck). These days I tend to respond in kind. If the cop is polite I try to cooperate politely, if the cop is rude or (the worst) condescending I don't speak, not a word.

[apnu]

33. Politeness is good in every situation

No argument there. But the less said to a cop the better.

The police see themselves as evidence collectors, anything said, no matte how innocent, can lead to a problem if the cop is in a bad mood.

Its sad but that's the truth. Say as little as possible, ask if you can leave, leave. I wish the police were trusted members of our communities, but they broke that trust a long time ago.

I'm white, male and have kids too. When they're interested in LEOs, I tell them they're working and to let them be.

There are lots of nice cops, I've known quite a few in my time, I've also seen them use that niceness to get people to slip up and then nail them on some small thing, comes out of the blue. I used to work 3rd shift at a gas station, we had food and coffee so the cops came around a lot. They were real friendly and would hang out at the store all the time chatting with me and others. One time, this K9 officer, real nice guy, friendly fellow, got me talking about stuff, then told me all the crimes I'd just admitted to. Then he laughed it off as a joke and told me he liked me so he wasn't going to write me up. That creeped me out.

[JI7]

53. the problem in this case and probably most cases are the racists who are calling cops

[heaven05]

88. That's my point

with all these apologists for the racists contorting themselves into pretzels to try and protect a goddamn racist. I am beginning to understand white privilege and entitlement so much better in watching the apologists in EVERY situation like this. Thank you for the education DU!

[pnwmom]

4. More here:

https://www.gazettenet.com/Smith-College-employee-calls-police-on-black-student-who-seemed-to-be-out-of-place-19223131

“This incident has raised concerns in our community about bias and equity,” Amy Hunter, Smith’s Institutional Equity Officer and Title IV Coordinator, wrote in an email to students, staff and faculty. “Smith College does not tolerate race- or gender-based discrimination in any form. Such behavior can contribute to a climate of fear, hostility and exclusion that has no place in our community.”

Oumou Kanoute, a teaching assistant and residential adviser for Smith, was on her lunch break in a Smith dining area when a police officer arrived and asked what she was doing.

“It's outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a women of color,” Kanoute wrote in the July 31 Facebook post, which includes video of her exchange with the officer. “I did nothing wrong, I wasn't making any noise or bothering anyone. All I did was be black.”

Kanoute, who could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday morning, said in her post that the incident made her nervous, and while the responding officer apologized, she had a “meltdown” after the incident. Now she is calling on the Smith administration to identify the employee who called police so the person can “confront and acknowledge the harm done to me as (a) student.”

[catrose]

19. They're so good at protecting the accuser n/t

[demigoddess]

5. the British have a charge called 'wasting police time'. We should have it too.

Also when someone calls the cops in a case like this, they should be required to take an IQ test. A few of those and the calls should stop!

[mpcamb]

95. I like that as a legal charge. There's easily been a similar incident a week this summer

in which a person has to explain why they, a person of color, are there- swimming pool, cafeteria, neighborhood, home. A few instances have been lethal. There needs to be a legal reply and penalty for misuse of public time (including court) and exposure to harassment charges.

[treestar]

116. The cops should not even have gone

Tell them there is no charge "being out of place."

[marble falls]

6. Sometimes I cringe at the thought of being part of a white culture. I think what gets me is that ...

all this crap is undeniably stupid even pretending it isn't racist.

[cstanleytech]

7. "They need to start prosecuting these callers as calling in a false report." I believe they can do

that already but they rarely bring charges because they have a huge hurdle of having to prove to a jury that it was done with malicious intent.

[appalachiablue]

9. Something has to be done to stop this, it's wasting police time

and public funds. Not to mention enabling menacing and validation of racism.

[cstanleytech]

13. I am not disagreeing with you but there are Constitutional as well as practical limits

on what they can do.

[bucolic_frolic]

8. It's New England

lots of rural values

[2naSalit]

10. I grew up in NE...

and as a brown skinned person, though my BC says "white", I don't recall a time when racism was not openly expressed, sometimes violently as I can personally attest.

[heaven05]

12. "rural values"?

what does that entail precisely?

[obamanut2012]

16. That was at Smith College, in Northampton, MA

A very, very liberal, very blue, very diverse college town.

There is never an excuse, but this blanket regional statements on DU are so ignorant of facts. Like saying "Southern values" if this happened in very diverse, vey blue Chapel Hill or Charlottesville.

[bucolic_frolic]

18. To think a college is a monolith of very very liberal very blue people is to ignore reality

People are a mix wherever you go. People commute, sometimes an hour or more to a job. People grew up in other areas of the state or nation, with other cultures, with other values. Rural folks can be very independent, even survivalist, very competitive as they struggle to support family and self in an area of high heating bills, wood-burning economy, and fault lines of race, culture, religion. Just because they's Yankees doesn't mean some of them don't share values with the Alabama's of Pennsylvania, or deep rural south.

But who knows what occurred in this instance. Just because one is steeped in liberal culture doesn't mean all agree with it, live it, go home with it, or grew up with it. No one's posted "Check your redneck values at the door".

I see "hate has no home here" signs in many places in Pennsylvania. People feel a need to express this opinion for some reason. It's not because they're not needed. Massachusetts is no different. They just make more noise about it when something adverse happens, and it's a shock because it's not supposed to happen there.

[oberliner]

27. Do you know anything about Smith College?

[heaven05]

11. these actions

show the ignorance and stupidity of a lot of Amerikkkans that trump let out of the zoo when elected potus of this sick and hatefully infested land populated by wypipo.

[oberliner]

28. Smith College, Northampton MA is literally the most liberal place in the United States

[heaven05]

37. not anymore it seems nt

[oberliner]

41. No it definitely still is

Look at the statements from the school, from the students, from the alumni.

[kwassa]

59. I thought Oberlin was.

[yardwork]

96. Well played. /nt

[kwassa]

102. Tee hee.

[Blazesweetie]

110. Yes

Don't know about now but I went to Oberlin in the '80s and you can't find a more liberal place. Even there though hateful incidents happen, although rarely. What distinguishes them is how quickly the majority will come out to strongly condemn it and support the victim of target of the attack.

[kwassa]

112. I went to high school there, and much of my family are alumni of Oberlin College.

I went to art school, instead.

[BumRushDaShow]

14. Fire the employee.

No more. Only way to stop it is to have consequences.

I went to UMASS almost 40 years ago and Smith is part of the "5-college Consortium". It's pretty liberal among those schools (UMASS, Amherst, Smith, Mt. Holyoke, Hampshire College). There is no reason for that in this day and time.

[oberliner]

29. Does it matter that the employee thought this person was male?

And that Smith is a women's college?

[BumRushDaShow]

34. There's a serious problem

that needs to be addressed and it is a cultural problem. Here is a portion of the transcript and the FIRST remark by the employee was the use of the term "her"-

“I was just walking through here in the front foyer of [REDACTED] and we have a person sitting there laying down in the living room area over here,” the caller said. “I didn’t approach her or anything but um he seems to be out of place … umm … I don’t see anybody in the building at this point and uh I don’t know what he’s doing in there just laying on the couch.”

So the whole call was a complete fabrication and the lie was enhanced by switching genders mid-lie (which they might have felt would have been enough to escalate the fictitious scenario and ensure that the campus police would come).

According to the article, the employee was put on leave.

Since I went to school up there (UMASS/Amherst), I have been to all of the other colleges in the consortium many times, and had even considered attending Mt. Holyoke (which had accepted me and which is also an all-woman's college like Smith).... but having come from an all-girls high school, I decided to go with "co-ed" learning at UMASS. As a sidenote, Amherst College used to be all-male and itself went co-ed a few years before I started UMASS. And only the very wealthy could afford Hampshire College (but then every student had their own single dorm room, sparse as it was)!

[oberliner]

35. Could there maybe be an error in the transcript?

Is there audio of the call posted somewhere?

Also, the transcript of the call says the person is laying on the couch, but this OP says she was eating lunch.

[BumRushDaShow]

36. Here is the problem again...

The 5-college consortium allows students to take courses at ALL of the 5 schools in the area - including men taking courses at Smith and Mt. Holyoke.

https://www.smith.edu/academics/five-colleges

And like I said, there is a serious cultural problem in this country.

Are these men or women?



The above warriors from Dahomey (now Benin) were who the Dora Milaje shown below from the film "Black Panther", were based on -



This is what this student -Oumou Kanoute- looks like -



To quote Joe Madison -

"In America, we are culturally conditioned to believe that white is superior, black is inferior, and the manifestation of that cultural conditioning is that black people are undervalued, underestimated and marginalized."

[oberliner]

42. Your point is taken

It is certainly possible, even probable, that the employee was racist and called campus security because the person they saw was black.

But it is possible that this person would have called campus security if the person they saw on the couch had been white.

[BumRushDaShow]

43. Unfortunately

that's not the way it usually worked up there - and especially when there were parties going on, when all sorts of drunks were in and out of the dorms.... And don't go anywhere around the 5 colleges during Halloween.

Cops? For drunk white boys trashing the place? Nope.

And as a note, there are very few blacks there in the area and in those schools. When I was at UMASS, there were only 400 of us out of 25,000 students (half of those blacks being grad students) and there were even fewer at the smaller colleges.

[oberliner]

44. I went to a very liberal college called Oberlin

Campus security was definitely called on white people who were in places that someone thought they were not supposed to be from time to time.

[BumRushDaShow]

45. I know about Oberlin

Have an uncle who went there.

Once more - what I am saying is that when blacks are doing nothing that should warrant anything that requires calling the cops, and the cops are called anyway, yet when drunk whites think it is funny to turn on the fire hose in a dorm and not only flood the floor, but flood and damage the elevator too, yet the cops are nowhere to be seen, then there is a problem.

It's just like all the "conversations" I used to have in college with some of my white friends when they would ask while in the dining hall - "Why do blacks always sit together?"... And I look around at dozens and dozens of tables filled with nothing but whites "sitting together" and wonder why they can't "see" that.

It's a cultural problem.

[oberliner]

47. I agree with your fundamental point

[BumRushDaShow]

51. When there are so few blacks in a place

they "stand out" as "not normal" to some. And in fact the reverse situation is true as well. I.e., a single white in an all-black setting. The difference being how one reacts.

And I think some of this is also due to the "See something, say something" mantra. The problem is, what one often "sees" can be culturally biased regarding whether something or someone should be considered a "threat".

[treestar]

121. such as?

I went to a college at a time and place where it was very liberal; it was too big for anyone to notice People OUt of Place.

[yardwork]

97. Are you serious? You actually believe that that makes this ok?

[treestar]

117. Surely there are male teachers and employees

and there is nothing strange about a male being in a common area. Do they call the cops whenever any man appears on that campus?

[left-of-center2012]

15. additional info at this link ...

Smith College employee calls cops on black student who looked ‘out of place’ eating lunch in cafeteria

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210953653

[oberliner]

26. That article notes the the employee who made the call thought this person was male, not female

Smith is a women's college.

[heaven05]

38. so that excuses the call? right? nt

[oberliner]

40. The race of the person may not have been the reason the call was made

Could have been that the employee would have called campus security if it was a white person on the couch.

[heaven05]

49. yeah, sure nt

[oberliner]

52. It would help to know more about the employee who made the call

How long have they been working for Smith? Any other similar incidents in the past?

[BumRushDaShow]

58. There have always been "similar incidents" in the past

the difference being that thanks to the "internet", these incidents are being recorded, broadcast, and go "viral". Before then, the poor black student would sometimes even be arrested and have to go through all sorts of hassles getting a lawyer and whatnot - and then suing, etc.

I know I personally participated in "Diversity" marches through downtown Amherst almost 40 years ago because of these types of "incidents" at all of the schools in the area. These marches were multicultural too as there was an awareness that there seemed to always be a certain "element" among some of the school employees that would do this type of thing, whether the employee was black or white (they were often attention-getters as a characteristic or doing this gave them a sense of "power" while being in a position of low status).

[LisaL]

68. The call doesn't mention race.

Employee who called apparently thought a male was laying on the couch.

[heaven05]

76. please stop

the employee should have checked. then. Just some brown person was the threat. All these apologists.

[LisaL]

80. It's a message board, in case you didn't notice.

As such people are expressing their opinion. So what makes you think you can tell me to stop? Do not tell me what I can and can not post.

[heaven05]

83. I can't and won't try

you can please proceed. This seeing a black face trying to eat, sleep, get out the rain, barbecue, sell water, breath, walk, listen to yoga music SWIM WHILE not being able to change the colour of one's skin to please all the colour cops of BLACK SKIN IS my point. You are entitled and privileged to come to any conclusion you please even if you are wrong, free country...

[LisaL]

84. Yes, it's free country.

So far.

[heaven05]

86. always has been for some

and for the less entitled and privileged, you are right when you say, "so far"......

[Danascot]

17. Smith is bringing in a third party to conduct an investigation

Seriously? I only know what I've read but this case seems pretty straightforward and uncomplicated. If Smith doesn't know what it should do based on the available facts it has bigger problems than just this incident. Smith is demonstrating what not to do to avoid further embarrassment.

I'm an independent third party. Here's the conclusion of my investigation: A person who calls police on a black person minding their own business has no place at Smith in any role.

[LisaM]

56. That just may be because of whomever this employee is.

If it's someone who works in the administration, it's probably best to get an outsider so there's no conflict of interest (like they're doing at Ohio State with Urban Meyer).

[TNNurse]

22. Every news story that includes some racist calling in a false problem with a black person,

should include the name and a photo of the person who called. They should be known and recognized by everyone who encounters them. They should be publicly shamed.

[oberliner]

25. "I will be unable to move forward from this incident without the following personal demands"

1. The name of the employee (confidentially or publicly)

2. A private conversation between me, that employee, and the administration focused on reconciliation and acknowledgement of this wrongdoing from the employee and the college

3. An apology from the school and the employee during that meeting

This process must precede any type of decision for or against punishment for this outrageous and racist act.

This process must also be accompanied by beginning a mandatory campus-wide conversation and new school policy concerning racism, gender, and policing that centers the voices of students and faculty of color when we return from summer vacation in Fall 2018.

That is from Oumou Kanoute's FB page.

[kwassa]

60. Quite reasonable.

[lunasun]

30. There needs to be a fine $$$$$ will make them think twice before calling

[oberliner]

31. Employee has been placed on leave

pending legal investigation.

[Judi Lynn]

32. Massachusetts college employee who called police on black student placed on leave

BY JUSTIN WISE - 08/03/18 04:17 PM EDT

A Smith College employee has been placed on leave after calling campus security on a black student because she "seemed to be out of place," according to MassLive.

Amy Hunter, the Massachusetts college's interim director of Inclusion, Diversity and Equity, told the news site on Friday that the employee will be placed on leave until its external investigation into the incident concludes.

The development stems from an incident that occurred this week on Smith's campus.

Oumou Kanoute, a sophomore who is working as a teaching assistant and residential adviser, said in a Facebook post that she was taking a work break on Tuesday when she was approached by a police officer asking her why she was on the campus.

More:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/400320-massachusetts-college-employee-who-called-police-on-black

[heaven05]

39. SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last edited Fri Aug 3, 2018, 07:04 PM - Edit history (1)

It started this way in 1933....SHOW ME YOUR PAPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! although the crime here was just being black in the wrong place. A white place, I presume.

[BumRushDaShow]

46. Yes Smith College in Northampton, MA is predominately white

as are most of the schools in what they call the "5-college Consortium" in the Amherst-Holyoke-Northampton-Hadley area (I went to UMASS/Amherst which was part of that group of schools).

However the area goes through cycles. There have been quite a few preeminent blacks who have attended and/or taught at all of those schools, so it can be hit or miss.

[heaven05]

48. From looking at alumni

there have been a few since 1900

[BumRushDaShow]

54. Dr. Martin Luther King's daughter Yolanda graduated from there

...her father had gone to Boston University (other side of the state) for his doctorate.

She graduated a few years before ('76) I started at UMASS (which was '79).

[heaven05]

55. I know

I attended BU--71-75

[BumRushDaShow]

57. Ya'll were the "older kids"!

[CTyankee]

108. My daughter was a legacy at nearby Mount Holyoke College and I fondly remember going to see

her at her college celebratory weekends in South Hadley. I remember some guy I worked with asking why she went to MHC since she was "so pretty." Like women went to a Seven Sisters College because they couldn't get a date or were lesbians.

Shameful.

[BumRushDaShow]

109. I think many don't realize

Last edited Wed Aug 8, 2018, 05:51 AM - Edit history (1)

how much a single sex school environment and notably, all women, can have a major positive impact on the student when it comes to learning how to excel despite the societal headwinds that tend to marginalize women. So whether they go to a Mt. Holyoke or a Wellesley, many young women can really flourish at those schools and translate that experience into successful leadership roles in the work world.

I am sure your daughter enjoyed her time there!!!

As a sidenote - I used to head into Northampton all the time too because they had a great little record shop where I could pick up the latest albums and 12" singles. Plus their "downtown" was the biggest in the area. No need to go down to Swingfield...errrr Springfield.

[CTyankee]

113. My daughter has had 3 daughters of her own and 2 of the 3 wouldn't even consider going to

Mt. Holyoke. They only wanted to go to a coed school.

Hoping the 3rd might consider MHC...

[heaven05]

50. this "crap" will never stop

this is amerika, always has been amerika and more to the point these days trumps white supremacy amerika.

[braddy]

61. This turned out to be another non-story "At Smith College, the racist incident that wasn't"

https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2018/08/06/smith-college-racist-incident-that-wasn/DqB70T11oFZ4LHm6j5z6IM/story.html?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter

[Stuart G]

62. In order to understand this: THE ABOVE POST, 61...MUST BE LINK, & READ....READ POST 61...important!

I read the article that 61 refers to...to understand why it wasn't racist...YOU MUST LINK TO POST 61..

I read that story at the link, and it does seem clear,,,it was not racist..read it yourself, please..

[LisaL]

66. Yep, no race was mentioned in a call. Apparently employee mistook her for a man, and it's a

college for females.

[kwassa]

63. this article is behing a paywall, and can't be read without subscription.

[braddy]

64. It works for me, try blocking JavaScript.

[kwassa]

65. why don't you quote four paragraphs from the piece?

That is what is allowable here.

I have no idea how to block Java script.

[braddy]

67. She thought the woman was a man where he shouldn't be and race was never mentioned.

A college employee saw her “laying on the couch” alone, mistook her for an unfamiliar male who “seem[ed] to be out of place,” and phoned the campus police. An unarmed officer was sent to check things out. He spoke politely to Kanoute, saw nothing was amiss, and left her in peace.


Kanoute, “had a complete meltdown after this incident.” -- “racist punk who called the police on me.” “to put pressure on the administration” "name the employee", By day three, she was demanding that Smith address “this racist incident,” and raising the issue of “punishment for this outrageous and racist act.”

[kwassa]

69. She was mistaken for a black man.

Oh my, that makes this call so non-racist.

Why would this person be out-of-place, other than for being black in public? That is the judgment going on in the caller's head.

[LisaL]

70. There is no race mentioned in the call.

[kwassa]

72. So?

What about this woman made her seem out of place, even if mistaken for a man? What physical quality caused the caller to call the police?

What do you think it was?

[LisaL]

75. It's a college for females.

[kwassa]

79. They have male visitors.

Ever been to a women's college?

[LisaL]

85. Actually, no.

Never been to a college exclusively for females.

[kwassa]

87. My wife is a graduate of one.

They had a whole interchange with a nearby men's college.

I have also visited another. Visitors are common.

[RhodeIslandOne]

107. Visitors aren't generally left alone

Or aren't supposed to be.

At my college if you signed a visitor in, the student was expected to be with them at all times.

[heaven05]

90. there are male graduate students

at Smith College. Boston Globe confirms it with some conservative writer contorting himself into a pretzel to prove this wasn't an incident based on race. Misdirection by the writer is the employee said she then he in the call, which was it? "Out of place". What could that mean? Out of place among the privileged and entitled? Must such contortions hurt? Or is it just such a habit it doesn't anymore? She was called upon JUST because she was black of skin. Period. In this era of the chumps for trump racist, I'd believe that first.

[BumRushDaShow]

111. Smith is part of the 5 college consortium as I noted in post #36

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142124797#post36

I went to UMASS/Amherst and any student (undergrad or grad) that attended any school in the consortium of UMASS/Amherst, Amherst College, Smith College, Mt. Holyoke College, or Hampshire College, could take classes at any other school within the consortium. This was particularly great value for those who went to UMASS (a state school) to sign up for classes at the way way more expensive other schools, which would have smaller class sizes... and was also beneficial to attendees of the smaller schools to have access to a much larger variety of subjects taught at a large state University. And there was a great shuttle system in place to get you to each and every one of the campuses.

[braddy]

71. A male was out of place, look up pictures of her and you can see that many of them resemble a man.

[kwassa]

73. Why was a black male out of place?

Black men are not allowed at Smith? I did not know that. I thought that Smith was a place for everyone.

This story isn't getting any better.

By the way, the transcript of the phone call in the Washington post of the phone call has the caller describing the person as a female.

The person, an employee of the school, thought Kanoute looked suspicious and called police on Tuesday, saying the student and teacher’s assistant, who is black, “seems to be out of place.”

“I was just walking through here in the front foyer … and we have a person sitting there laying down in the living room area over here,” the caller told a police dispatcher, according to a transcript released by the school. “I didn’t approach her or anything but um (she) seems to be out of place … umm … I don’t see anybody in the building at this point and uh I don’t know what (she’s) doing in there just laying on the couch.”

An officer responded to the campus dorm, quickly determined that it “was a student relaxing in the living room,” the transcript said, and no charges were filed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/08/05/all-i-did-was-be-black-someone-called-the-police-on-a-student-lying-on-a-dorm-couch/?utm_term=.9fb3246f83d6

See? This is how you quote an article.

[braddy]

74. Male, not black male, in a college that is 55% non-white and 100% of undergrads are female.

From the article. "At Smith, where all undergraduates are women, the sight of what appeared to be an unfamiliar young man sprawled on a couch in a room where men normally aren’t present might well make a staff member uneasy."

[kwassa]

77. That's a stretch.

Smith has male visitors all the time. Why would this caller expect to be familiar with all of them?

The staff member was uneasy because this person was black.

[braddy]

78. I'm tired of wasting my time, have fun.

[kwassa]

81. You worked so hard ...

to provide such little information.

I take that back. You didn't work hard. You might consider some reading on white fragility.

[heaven05]

103. plus the article writer

is a conservative Boston Globe writer. He has an agenda that is ignored by the contortionists here. Always the case.

[kwassa]

104. The key question is ...

why did this person look out of place to the caller? What exactly was out of place?

The transcript shows that the caller describes the woman as both "her" and "he", which makes no sense.

https://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/08/smith_college_releases_transcr.html

[heaven05]

105. Exactly

it's all contortion by apologists. I have learned here at DU about those sort of things. I just watch them twist and turn and I end up Have a good one.

[kwassa]

106. It sounds very similar to the incident from Yale last May

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/05/10/a-black-yale-student-fell-asleep-in-her-dorms-common-room-a-white-student-called-police/?utm_term=.1eb708725d2e


A black Yale student fell asleep in her dorm’s common room. A white student called police.

Lolade Siyonbola’s exasperated message to the campus police officers — and to the Yale University graduate student who’d summoned them to her dorm — was simple and consistent:

She didn’t have to do anything to prove that she was justified in being there, just because she happened to be black.

“I deserve to be here. I pay tuition like everybody else,” an annoyed Siyonbola told responding officers after they repeatedly asked her to hand over identification. “I’m not going to justify my existence here.”

It was part of a tense, racially tinged exchange that the African Studies student had this week with four police officers and the graduate student who called 911 after she found Siyonbola napping in the Hall of Graduate Studies’ 12th-floor common room.

[kwassa]

82. She doesn't look like a man in any of the photos I looked at, by the way.

Many black women have short natural hairstyles.

[yardwork]

100. OMG. This is incredible.

[janterry]

89. People also make mistakes

It's what makes us human.

I live pretty close to this area (well, in VT) and we head down to western mass at least once a month. It's very liberal and works hard to be inclusive.

[yardwork]

99. Smith College is making their institution look worse with this behavior.

We can't go around excusing and covering up racism anymore. We just can't.

The excuses being offered are so asinine and ludicrous it hurts to read them.

[treestar]

118. Still why was she so suspicious of this "male?"

Would she have been so suspicious of a white supposed male? I bet not.

[heaven05]

91. of course conservative

Last edited Tue Aug 7, 2018, 10:00 PM - Edit history (1)

writers would make this a non-story. That's their charge these days. The writer is a very conservative, picture RW trump voter writer with an agenda to protect all racists. Anything you say

[braddy]

92. There is transcript of the security call at the link.

[heaven05]

94. yeah, yeah, yeah

I heard it. When this had just hit the fan. The call is not definitive and it does not confirm or deny motive. Ms Kanoute, a sophomore, a chemistry tutor to high school students studying on campus for the summer, which in itself says a lot about her academics was extremely upset at being said to be "out of place". My point stands about the writer of the article. He is a trump conservative that's all I need to know in reading his spin on the story and I read the whole thing. He, she? Doesn't matter. Males go to Smith College in graduate studies. No contortion by this writer OR ANYONE ELSE will change the fact that this was an incident BASED ON RACE. She deserves to see her accuser. She deserves an apology from her accuser. She needs to seek legal counsel. buh bye......

[braddy]

98. See what you want, disregard the rest.

[kwassa]

101. The WaPo quote of the transcript describer her as a "her".

I quoted it above.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

114. White liberal arts? - Smith College, LOL.

Only for white folks' liberal arts?

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_College
(snip)

Smith College is a private, independent women's liberal arts college with coed graduate and certificate programs in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is the largest member of the Seven Sisters. In its 2018 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked it tied for 12th among the best National Liberal Arts Colleges. Smith is also a member of the Five Colleges consortium, which allows its students to attend classes at four other Pioneer Valley institutions: Mount Holyoke College, Amherst College, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

..................

[treestar]

115. What is "seeming out of place?"

That is not a thing - there is no probable cause for any actual criminal charge.

[oberliner]

119. This is a college campus

Many college campuses encourage students and employees to call campus security if anything seems out of place (calling campus security is not the equivalent of charging someone with a crime). They will often advise to "be proactive" and call campus security rather than not even if you just see an unfamiliar person somewhere.

[treestar]

120. the article says called "police" rather than "campus security"