As early as 9 a.m. on Thursday, Harvard University students tweeted photos of black law professors whose faces had been crossed out with black tape.
A Harvard Law spokesperson told BuzzFeed News that the photos hang in Wasserstein Hall on campus. The incident is currently under investigation by campus police.
One Harvard Law student has called it a hate crime.
The defaced photos prompted a demonstration in a constitutional law class taught by the school's dean, Martha Minow, Harvard Law student Kendra Albert told BuzzFeed News.
An hour later, a last-minute community meeting took place, with around 350 students in attendance. Minow was also present.
Later in the afternoon, after the tape was removed, students attached Post Its to the black faculty's photos with heartfelt words of encouragement.
The incident came one day after Harvard students participated in a joint demonstration with Tufts University to raise awareness of unfair racial treatment on college campuses across the country.
According to Brianna Suslovic, an undergraduate senior at Harvard, students from both schools marched to Porter Square in Cambridge.
Suslovic told BuzzFeed News that news of the defacement was shocking.
"I’m quite honestly taken aback by how emotional my own response has been," she said. "It's rare that someone so blatantly and intentionally has said that people who look like me don’t belong on campus."
The 21-year-old anthropology major added that one of the professors whose photo had been taped over, Ronald Sullivan, serves as the housemaster of a dorm building she lived in.
Suslovic added that Thursday's incident at Harvard, as well as several others at university campuses across the U.S., have ignited conversations about the boundaries of free speech.
"What we’re missing in these conversations is a discussion of history," she said. "These aren’t places that were built for us."
from BuzzFeed - USNews http://ift.tt/1QwNbce
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