Reprinted with permission from Drums!, a Black webspace, created by Black Students for Revolution.
A noose was found hanging within the Allen Hall dorms at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) Saturday night, continuing a long tradition of racist imagery at the midwestern campus. The noose was found by Black undergraduate students and spread on social media throughout the weekend, while the University administration has yet to inform the student body about the incident or its investigation.
This is not the first time a noose has been found on UIUC’s campus in recent years. In 2016, three swastikas were found and a noose was thrown at a Black employee within a communal work area, pictured below. These incidents and others amongst just the university staff members have led to an ongoing federal lawsuit against the university for fostering a campus culture where racial harassment is “standard operating procedure”.
The amount of white supremacist violence on this campus the past five years alone has been staggering. Physical assaults, torn-off hijabs, another swastikafound in 2018, death threats against student activists by alt-right UIUC student groups, student protestors rammed with a vehicle by white alumni and Chancellor Jones himself, hateful imagery posted publicly around campus, reporting of undocumented students to ICE, attempted invasions of private POC reading groups by white students, vandalizing of Black Lives Matter signs, and other actions have been carried out by white UIUC students and others committed to carrying out a white supremacist agenda.
As UIUC celebrates placing 20th in the World University Ranking, black students and POC on campus want real action to combat racist incidents like these from their administration. Black Students for Revolution, an organization that is part of the UIUC Black United Front coalition group, has called on Black students and the UIUC community to support the following three demands:
1. The immediate expulsion of student(s) responsible for a period of at least 2 years.
2. The regular public reporting of all racist incidents that are reported to administration and housing.
3. A review of policies related to the discipline of perpetrators of racial hatred, made in conjunction with affected student communities.
The noose found this Saturday night is a developing incident and story in which we will continue to cover. Check back at drums.black or on social media for updates, which will be coming throughout the week. Please forward any information about this incident or other racist incidents you have knowledge of to bsfruiuc@gmail.com.