Racial flaps dog 'Bama despite progress
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Months after the University of Alabama dedicated a plaza and clock tower to its earliest black students, the school has been swamped with unwelcome attention over the past two weeks because of racial slurs used on campus.
First, a white student was disciplined for yelling epithets at a black student early this month. Days after that incident, insulting messages about several racial and ethnic groups were written on campus sidewalks in chalk.
The flaps fit a pattern that's dogged the state's flagship school since it was integrated: Missteps along the path to greater diversity and inclusion often make more of an impression than positive strides do.
School president Robert Witt has drawn praise for instituting programs to increase diversity. But it's student foibles that garner the national headlines, such as when a parade of white students in Confederate uniforms stopped in front of a black sorority house in 2009 and angered alumnae gathered for a party.
"Given the long history, stretching back to the days of slavery and running through the dark and difficult years of Jim Crow up through the integration of the university, racial insults are particularly poignant and powerful at the university," said Al Brophy, a University of North Carolina law professor who previously taught at Alabama....
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First, a white student was disciplined for yelling epithets at a black student early this month. Days after that incident, insulting messages about several racial and ethnic groups were written on campus sidewalks in chalk.
The flaps fit a pattern that's dogged the state's flagship school since it was integrated: Missteps along the path to greater diversity and inclusion often make more of an impression than positive strides do.
School president Robert Witt has drawn praise for instituting programs to increase diversity. But it's student foibles that garner the national headlines, such as when a parade of white students in Confederate uniforms stopped in front of a black sorority house in 2009 and angered alumnae gathered for a party.
"Given the long history, stretching back to the days of slavery and running through the dark and difficult years of Jim Crow up through the integration of the university, racial insults are particularly poignant and powerful at the university," said Al Brophy, a University of North Carolina law professor who previously taught at Alabama....