{"id":11722,"date":"2021-02-27T07:54:39","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T15:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11722"},"modified":"2021-02-27T07:54:39","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T15:54:39","slug":"inside-a-battle-over-race-class-and-power-at-smith-college-the-new-york-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=11722","title":{"rendered":"“Inside a Battle Over Race, Class and Power at Smith College”, The New York Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/span>Michael Powell, front page cover story, Feb 25, 2021<\/span><\/p>\n

A student said she was racially profiled while eating in a college dorm. An investigation found no evidence of bias. But the incident will not fade away.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. \u2014 In midsummer of 2018, Oumou Kanoute, a Black student at Smith College, recounted a distressing American tale: She was eating lunch in a dorm lounge when a janitor and a campus police officer walked over and asked her what she was doing there.<\/p>\n

The officer, who could have been carrying a \u201clethal weapon,\u201d left her near \u201cmeltdown,\u201d Ms. Kanoute wrote on Facebook, saying that this encounter continued a yearlong pattern of harassment at Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I did was be Black,\u201d Ms. Kanoute wrote. \u201cIt\u2019s outrageous that some people question my being at Smith College, and my existence overall as a woman of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

The college\u2019s president, Kathleen McCartney, offered profuse apologies and put the janitor on paid leave. \u201cThis painful incident reminds us of the ongoing legacy of racism and bias,\u201d the president wrote, \u201cin which people of color are targeted while simply going about the business of their ordinary lives.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n