As the Cornell University administration continues to threaten Black graduate student Momodou Taal with de-enrollment and deportation we, as organizations representing Black students, want to reiterate that Black students do not feel safe at Cornell.
On Monday, Black Students United met with Interim President Kotlikoff to discuss Taal’s case and the safety of Black students on campus.
BSU, which represents more than one thousand Cornell students, left feeling disillusioned and unconvinced by his reassurances.
“How can we feel safe when this University has the power to silence and criminalize a powerful Black voice without due process or just cause?” said a BSU representative.
Additionally, as Black students, we remain distressed by a pattern of racialized rhetoric on the part of Kotlikoff. His statements justifying Taal’s unfair and punitive treatment are infused with language that reflects the painful legacies of enslavement, Jim Crow and modern-day policing that continue to infect every inch of American society today.
In campus-wide emails sent on Monday, Sept. 23 and Monday, Sept. 30, Kotlikoff and Interim Provost Siliciano drew on a long lineage of white supremacist caricatures of Black people, referring to Taal’s actions as “aggressive,” “intimidat[ing],” “frightening,” “highly disruptive and intentionally menacing” and “harassing,” thus depicting a Black graduate student as a violent person who is a threat to campus security.
Let us be clear. There is no evidence that Taal has engaged in any violent activity. He has resorted to peaceful means to protest a violent genocide in which Cornell is complicit.
Yet the University has chosen to slander Taal using fear-mongering language and continue to deny him due process.
Even The Sun’s Editorial Board declared last week that “Cornell Unjustly Punished a Pro-Palestinian Activist,” and stridently disputed Kotlikoff’s claims, writing that Taal has been subjected to a “kangaroo court in which the provost serves as judge, jury and executioner.”
The University criminalizes Black existence — Taal’s suspension makes this clear.
Rather than hide behind hyperbole to manufacture consent for Taal’s punishment, we call on Kotlikoff and his administration to stay true to Cornell’s core value of “free and open inquiry and expression” by reversing Taal’s suspension, agreeing to comprehensive academic freedom protections with Cornell Graduate Students United-UE and creating an open forum to repair the administration’s relationship with Black students.
Four years following the 2020 slaying of George Floyd in Minnesota, Kotlikoff seems to have forgotten Cornell’s stated commitment to anti-racism.
Fortunately, we’ve compiled a beginner-friendly booklist to remind him of his obligation to “stand up for those who are oppressed or marginalized.” Many of these books are even available for purchase at our local bookstores:
- How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi (available for free on Cornell’s Canvas)
- White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
- Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
We hope that he will find these suggestions constructive and welcome additional invitations for discourse.
Signed,
Sophia Jahadhmy, President of Africana Graduate Student Association
Seth Vieira, Co-Political Action Chair for BSU
Jawuanna McAllister, Bargaining Committee Member for CGSU-UE
Talyia Griffin, Community Service Chair for BGPSA
representing the following organizations:
Africana Graduate Student Association
Black Graduate Professional and Student Association Executive Board
Black Students United
Cornell Graduate Students United
Industrial and Labor Relations Black Students Union