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Black UCLA Law Student Gets Racist Note After Criticizing University's Diversity Problem
Royce Hall at UCLA. (Photo by Zack Simone via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr)
Racially-charged acts against black law students at UCLA, including an ugly note put in a student's locker, are on the rise after a video was posted criticizing a lack of diversity.
In one particular incident on Monday, student Alexis Gardner reported an anonymously-written note in her locker that read "Stop being a sensitive nigger," The Huffington Post says.
The incident seems to be a response to a video, which Gardner appeared in, that highlights the lack of diversity at UCLA law. The emotional video offers up a distressing statistic: out of the roughly 1100 Bruins pursuing their law degree, only 33 of them are Black.
The hateful note is just one of a number of recent incidents against black law students at UCLA, including the tearing down of Black Law Student Association posters off communal walls and an incident where a black student was aggressively confronted in an elevator, according to Above the Law.
You can watch the video, which is part of a Change.org petition to create a more welcoming environment at UCLA law, below:
UCLA Dean of Law Rachel Moran has responded aggressively to the note found in Gardner's locker, saying that she, "want[s] to make very clear that this behavior is completely unacceptable and will not be tolerated at UCLA School of Law," according to Above the Law.
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Moran has said that a campus police investigation is underway and those responsible for the note would be "subject to University disciplinary proceedings." She met earlier this week with petition leaders, who want the university to create a Dean of Diversity and mandating sensitivity training to first-year students and faculty. The meeting got generally negative results from the students, with Gardner telling the Daily Bruin that she felt, "dissatisfied" with talking to Moran.
The video isn't the first to bring attention to lack of Black representation on the UCLA campus: in November, student Sy Stokes posted an excellent spoken-word video that focuses on a lack of diversity on the UCLA campus in general. arlier this month, another racially-charged letter was found on both UCLA and USC campuses, railing against Asian women.
Related:
Video: Black UCLA Students Highlight Lack Of Diversity On Campus
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