Students, Faculty March for Racial Justice
Almost 700 students and faculty met at Tenney Stadium in the rain to raise their voices against racial injustice. Members of the Black Student Union (BSU) and the Black Student-Athlete Alliance (BSAA) organized the march.
After hundreds of masked attendees funneled into the stadium, the crowd immediately took a moment of silence for all those who lost their lives to racial injustice. Members of both clubs gave speeches as well as coaches and athletic faculty.
“As I'm looking around now, the most beautiful thing I see is that not everybody here looks like me,” Arthur Pinckney ‘22, the co-president of Marist BSAA said in his speech. “What I need to say to everyone is that it can’t stop here. Be the change, continue the conversation, talk to your friends, talk to your family and educate yourself. We have to rebirth America, this generation right here has to be the change. We are going to march, we are going to protest, but it doesn’t stop here.”
The march took place in pods of about forty socially distanced people to follow the New York State Coronavirus Guidelines. After exiting the stadium, the protestors walked down route 9 from the south entrance to the north entrance before concluding at the campus green.
“As I look around as someone who has been on the board for three years, seeing people who don’t look like me and are allies to this movement gives me hope,” BSU President Aliyah Wilson ‘21 said. “During this pandemic, seeing the racial inequalities that exist in our system made me lose hope. I was fearful to come to an institution that did not speak on my behalf, but I will say that standing here and seeing you all today with masks on and standing with us means the world.”
At a college with a scattered history of political activism, a demonstration of this size and recognition drew attention. In addition to students, professors and coaches, top college administrators including President Dennis J. Murray, Vice President of Student Affairs Deborah DiCaprio and Director of Athletics Tim Murray attended the march.
All of the speakers emphasized the need for continued and lasting change, and the presidents of both BSU and BSAA expressed their intent to host more events and continue their work for racial justice.
“To be trapped in 400 years of oppression, systematic racism and brutal police murders leaves us waking up to the same question everyday: when does it stop?” said Trinasia Kennedy, co-president of BSAA. “Change will come, all we need is each other. Use your voice, use your platform, and let’s get right to it.”
Two speakers spoke about the statistical makeup of Marist and the underpreprentation of people of color on campus. Only four percent of the Marist campus is comprised of Black and African-American students. The club speakers focused on the challenges of feeling unwelcome on campus, but also credited the march’s power to bring so many people of different backgrounds together.
“People that look like me and those standing behind me constantly have their names turned into hashtags, and those people rarely get justice,” said Secretary for Marist BSAA Christopher Watkins ‘22.
As the speeches concluded, students and faculty took to route 9 in all black attire with homemade signs in hand and marched while chanting “no justice, no peace” and “say their names.”
Almost 700 attendees gathered for Wednesday’s march against racial injustice, finishing in front of the library. Source: Greta Stuckey