University of Michigan protests over the school’s handling of racist acts of vandalism turned violent leading to one arrest after a fight broke out Wednesday night
The protest started around 7:30pm with around 150 students who were marching at the steps of Union’s Rogel Ballroom and meeting with University administrators including President Mark Schlissel and Chief Diversity Officer Robert Sellers.
The meeting, which was scheduled to address students’ dissatisfaction at the administrations failure to find and punish the people that wrote racist slurs on capmus and on three black students doors, ended after about 30 minutes.
A fight breaks out while a group of demonstrators block an intersection in Ann Arbor, Mich., Wednesday at the University of Michigan campus. Protests were organized in response to the University’s handling of recent incidents of racism on campus
An unidentified man is detained by University of Michigan Police and Ann Arbor police after he and a black University of Michigan student fought during campus protests
Demonstrators stand outside of University of Michigan president Mark Schlissel’s house after a protest turned violent on Wednesday
According to MLive the white man was taken into custody in a UM police car. After that, Ann Arbor police and UM police blocked traffic where the students were protesting.
Two instances of racial vandalism were found just weeks apart as the fall semester was getting underway.
An anti-Hispanic message was scrawled on ‘the Rock’ a landmark which is often painted by students, on September 1.
The on September 17, three black students came back to their dorms to find racist messages on their name tags inlcuding one with the N-word.
The school administration officials addressed both occurrences, but students felt their online statements were enough.
Tyler Washington, a freshman and one of the protest leaders, said the campus culture needs to change, and that action needs to be taken to find those responsible. Online statements on social media don’t go far enough.
‘I understood that things were going to happen, but the fact that two things happened back-to-back and the first thing the president did was give a tweet, not to the African American community, but to his followers, what is that going to do for the community?’ said Washington to MLive.
Demonstrators walk inside the Michigan Union to meet President Mark Schlissel inside of the Rogel Ballroom
A man embraces a woman as she cries after a protest turned violent outside of the Michigan Union
During Wednesday night’s address to students, Schlissel asked for ideas on how to improve the way the school responds to racist incidents.
‘Racist comments and this kind of verbal violence and vandalism – there’s nobody who thinks this belongs here,’ Schlissel said. ‘There’s a person with a Sharpie who is trying to hurt us, and there’s probably more than one, but it’s not representative of who we are as a community.’
‘I apologize if you haven’t heard from me loudly enough or often enough – I don’t know what you expect to hear,’ he added according to MLive. ‘We are trying to catch the people doing this and tell them this doesn’t belong here, while protecting the students here.’
The Michigan branch of the NAACP also came to campus to help students of color to process the recent racist incidents.
UM Chief Diversity Officer Robert Sellers said the UM’s Department of Public Safety & Security was investigating the incident with the name tags, and that the university would be ‘making institutional changes that will result in the University of Michigan living up to its potential.’
‘My heart goes out to the affected students, as well as the impacted community on campus,’ Sellers wrote in his statement, according to MLive.
‘I find these incidents disgraceful, disappointing, and condemn both the ideas and actions of the perpetrator(s). These senseless and hateful activities are not representative of our institutional beliefs, and are counter to our effort in making the University of Michigan a more diverse, equitable and inclusive environment.’