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SU students show solidarity for Mizzou

Ellen Abbott
/
WRVO News
Syracuse University student Zya Houston joined the "stand in solidarity" protest

Students, faculty and staff at Syracuse University are standing by students at other colleges and universities that have been plagued by racial tensions.   

Many of the protesting students wore black, the color of the University of Missouri, and they held fists high in the shadow of the Hall of Languages Thursday. They chanted “we do it for Mizzou” and “black lives matter.”

It was all to support the students at the University of Missoui -- and also those at Ithaca College and Yale. Those schools have been in the news recently, accused of not doing enough to tamp down what students of color are calling institutional racism on campus. 

And many of the demonstrators say SU might as well be on that list.

Credit Ellen Abbott / WRVO News
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WRVO News

"I have to sit in classrooms, where most of the time I’m the only black student, and experience consistent micro-aggressions, not only from other peers, but professors, where you have to walk through campus as a black student and see the disparities," said graduate student Montinique McEachern.

SU employee and graduate student Ernest Daily says he’s supporting students who many times aren’t taken seriously about their concerns.

"When it’s explicit or implicit they’re being questioned over whether or not it’s really happening, or they’re not addressing it at all. That’s one of the biggest things in Syracuse is they’re not addressing it,” said Daily.

All agreed more needs to be done to address these small signs of racism, ending the protest with their hope for the future, chanting “we’re going to be all right….”

Ellen produces news reports and features related to events that occur in the greater Syracuse area and throughout Onondaga County. Her reports are heard regularly in regional updates in Morning Edition and All Things Considered.