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Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 4/9/07 Section: News
Groups divide on racial profiling claims
Black student umbrella group speaks out against UMC's handling of student detainment
Rebecca Kaplan
Campus minority groups are beginning to take sides on the two-week old controversy surrounding the alleged racial profiling of a black male College student.
Since the incident, UMOJA has spoken out against the way the issue was handled on campus by the United Minorities Council, whose alumni and past leaders have offered a mixed reaction to UMC Chairwoman and College sophomore Efe Johnson's efforts.
In a letter to the University community dated March 22, the UMC, Asian Pacific Student Coalition and Lambda Alliance cited the incident, in which the student was detained by police outside of Huntsman Hall, as a backdrop for the larger problem of bias-based profiling by campus police forces.
The letter further condemned the University for "insufficiently respond[ing] to the history of Penn Police using excessive force and bias-based profiling."
But UMOJA, the umbrella organization for black student groups on campus, has taken a different stance on the issue than the UMC and has openly criticized the UMC's handling of the situation.
Five days after the first letter was sent to the University community, UMOJA issued a statement "disagreeing" with that letter.
The organization called the groups' tactics "inappropriate and hasty," and UMOJA's statement asserted that all three groups should have attempted to communicate with the Division of Public Safety before taking the issue to the Provost's Office, the Undergraduate Assembly and the University Council.
UMOJA initially reacted more publicly to the incident, sending out an e-mail on March 22 with a separate statement written on behalf of the five minority coalitions: the UMC, the APSC, the Lambda Alliance, the Latino coalition and UMOJA. That statement criticized the University for the "institutional discrimination" that had persisted.
UMOJA retracted this statement a few hours later.
Both Johnson and UMOJA leaders refused to comment on the situation.
Since the incident, UMOJA has spoken out against the way the issue was handled on campus by the United Minorities Council, whose alumni and past leaders have offered a mixed reaction to UMC Chairwoman and College sophomore Efe Johnson's efforts.
In a letter to the University community dated March 22, the UMC, Asian Pacific Student Coalition and Lambda Alliance cited the incident, in which the student was detained by police outside of Huntsman Hall, as a backdrop for the larger problem of bias-based profiling by campus police forces.
The letter further condemned the University for "insufficiently respond[ing] to the history of Penn Police using excessive force and bias-based profiling."
But UMOJA, the umbrella organization for black student groups on campus, has taken a different stance on the issue than the UMC and has openly criticized the UMC's handling of the situation.
Five days after the first letter was sent to the University community, UMOJA issued a statement "disagreeing" with that letter.
The organization called the groups' tactics "inappropriate and hasty," and UMOJA's statement asserted that all three groups should have attempted to communicate with the Division of Public Safety before taking the issue to the Provost's Office, the Undergraduate Assembly and the University Council.
UMOJA initially reacted more publicly to the incident, sending out an e-mail on March 22 with a separate statement written on behalf of the five minority coalitions: the UMC, the APSC, the Lambda Alliance, the Latino coalition and UMOJA. That statement criticized the University for the "institutional discrimination" that had persisted.
UMOJA retracted this statement a few hours later.
Both Johnson and UMOJA leaders refused to comment on the situation.
Viewing Comments 1 - 6 of 7
C.
posted 4/09/07 @ 10:05 AM EST
It is obvious that the Division of Public Safety has failed to gain the support of minority students on campus over the years. Although many minority students claim there is bias based policing on campus there really is no proof of this. (Continued…)
Jonta
posted 4/09/07 @ 10:24 AM EST
[quote]"I think that UMOJA should refocus," said 2006 College alumna and 2004 UMC political chairwoman Fatimah Muhammad.
"I would like the entire campus to shed any particular annoyances or pet peeves they might have about this particular situation and move on and get to the bigger issue" of racial profiling at Penn, she said. (Continued…)
Michael J. Stevko-Penn Alum 06'
posted 4/09/07 @ 11:05 AM EST
Let's just take a look at the numbers and see who are involved in the crimes in and around campus. Now, who fits the "profile"? There is nothing wrong with educated, logical "soft" profiling. (Continued…)
Frank F
posted 4/09/07 @ 11:15 AM EST
I get the impression, from reading this article, that the writer, in her efforts to get support for "what's been done so far..." needed to speak to past leaders. (Continued…)
Jon
posted 4/09/07 @ 6:03 PM EST
That was some lazy journalism. If this writer really wanted a meaty story, they would look into the long problems that exist between UMC and the minority coalitions. (Continued…)
Student 2008
posted 4/09/07 @ 6:10 PM EST
I'm glad that Efe and her group handled this situation the way they did. It shows, once and for all, that they're a bunch of knee-jerk, opportunistic leftists who care more about getting their name in the DP than hearing the facts of the case. (Continued…)
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