Black Students Around US Complain of Casual, Everyday Racism | Afro: "Sheryce Holloway is tired of White people at Virginia Commonwealth University asking if they can touch her hair or if she knows the latest dance move. At Chicago’s Loyola University, Dominick Hall says groups of White guys stop talking when he walks by, and people grip their bags a little tighter. And Katiana Roc says a White student a few seats away from her at West Virginia University got up and moved to the other side of the classroom. As thousands of students took part in walkouts and rallies on college campuses across the country Thursday in a show of solidarity with protesters at the University of Missouri, many young Black people spoke of a subtle and pervasive brand of racism that doesn’t make headlines but can nevertheless have a corrosive effect. There’s even a word on campuses for that kind of low-grade insensitivity toward minorities: microaggression. “It’s more the daily microaggressions than the large situations,” said Akosua Opokua-Achampong, a sophomore at Boston College. “Those also hurt.” When Opokua-Achampong tells other students that she’s from New Jersey, some ask where she’s REALLY from. “When you’re not White, you can’t just be American,” she said. (She was born in the U.S. to parents from Ghana.) Janay Williams, a senior at the University of California Los Angeles, said she is the only Black person in her biology class and is routinely among the last picked for group assignments. “Students don’t want to be in the same group as you with a group project, because they’re afraid you’re not going to do your share,” she said." Clink link above for rest of article
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