Black student town hall addresses racism at Ohio U and future solutions

A Black student town hall was held Monday evening in response to racially motivated incidents on campus last week. Students addressed their worries with Ohio University’s handling of racist incidents and expressed that they are prepared to take action in order to make serious changes at Ohio U to rid the university of racial issues across all platforms. 

The town hall began with two statements. Gia Harper, the moderator of the town hall, read a statement from Naomi Hamner, the student from Sargent Hall who had a trash bag with racially motivated hate speech written on it placed in her hall, as previously reported by The New Political. The second came from Resident Assistant Christopher Brown, who had his dorm door urinated on by resident Brady Linkel, and spoke at Thursday’s #RacismatOU protest. 

Hamner wrote about how she kept to herself within her dorm building and didn’t have any issues with other residents. Despite the trash bag being placed in front of the wrong door, she was shocked and disheartened by the action. 

Rather than shying away, Hamner took a stand. 

“It was time to put the anxiety aside and speak the truth. The reality is that this campus continues to ask students to forgive and forget,” Hamner wrote. “It’s time to remove the students who continue to pose a threat.”

Christopher Brown appeared at the town hall speaking on the recent incident involving Linkel. Brown mentioned how Linkel had urinated on his door and then later changed clothes in order to avoid recognition and face consequences. Brown added that, as of late, a rumor has been spread which attributes Linkel’s actions to a sleep-walking condition. Overwhelmingly, the town hall crowd disagreed with the rumor, as did Brown. 

“Housing and Residence life never reached out to neither me nor Naomi. I had to remove myself from my hall before the University acted,” Brown said. 

The town hall focused on three main topics, including individual concerns, the lack of support from the OU community and steps to take towards a better future. Anyone in attendance was able to stand and voice their opinion. 

Chelsea Tano advocated the topic of change being at the forefront, but said no tangible actions have been taken by the university. 

“The multicultural space isn’t enough, we need a building for all minorities to feel welcome and safe. We need a building for all,” Tano said. 

Ben Hamilton, a music major, expressed his disapproval with the emails and statements issued by the university in response to the recent incidents on campus. 

“I read enough music sheets as it is, I don’t need to read anymore emails or statements. The time to make a change has been too long,” Hamilton said. “This has been generations worth of change. To the leadership of Ohio University: How do you see us?”

The issue of predominantly white classrooms was another popular topic throughout the night.

First year business student Jasmine Glass recalled a time when her professor was teaching a lesson on what was deemed professional and unprofessional in the professional world. Listed in the presentation as unprofessional was African American hair and Asian names that are hard to pronounce. Glass immediately felt uncomfortable and unsure of what to do, as she wanted to speak out against the professor but did not want her grades to suffer. 

Students also addressed the lack of support from both Ohio U and the student community in general. 

Ohio U student Charles Sanders spoke on the lack of support from the student population. 

“It is great to see lots of you brave young Black people and allies, but this doesn’t come close to all of the student body. We need to support our friends, obviously, but help should come from the top down not the bottom up,” Sanders said. 

Student Senate Treasurer Trinity Robinson focused on the lack of faculty support.

“There needs to be a mandate for micro-aggression racial bias training. I am proposing this idea despite the inevitable push back there will be based around faculty rights. Why not make the training part of their tenure? You can change if you teach here or not, (you) can’t change who we are,” Robinson said. 

Finally, students looked at what steps can be taken towards fixing racial injustice at Ohio U. Micaylah Nash proposed  creating African American only dorm halls or dorm hall floors. 

“Schools like NYU and Cornell have taken steps towards Black dorm halls or dorm hall floors already. I am creating a petition for the same thing here at OU and encourage others to help me write it or sign it once it is finished,” Nash said. 

Tia Jameson, Director of Basketball Operations for Ohio U’s women’s basketball team, spoke at the end of the meeting. 

Jameson was an undergraduate student at Ohio U ten years ago and faced struggles similar to the students of today. 

“I came back here knowing I would either be fired or see change happen and be part of that change. It is time to take action and be strategic about that action, there are too many wonderfully smart people in this room for us to make change the wrong way,” Jameson said.