Boulder – University of Colorado junior Karen Shimamoto said a professor once mimicked an Asian language in class, drawing laughter from fellow students.
Pia Mickline Peter, a CU junior from Sudan, says her on-campus boss accused her of stealing food. Peter believes it was because she is black.
Sophomore Chanté Waters says that at a party on The Hill – a hot spot of clubs, fraternities and sororities near campus – she inadvertently stepped into a conversation between white students who were saying blacks are genetically predisposed to being stupid.
The students were among more than a dozen people who lined up behind a microphone at a town-hall meeting and described a climate of hate, disrespect and racism on the Boulder campus. About 150 people, many of them faculty, staff and community members, attended the forum.
Waters’ comment drew disgust from CU president Hank Brown, one of five panelists listening to student concerns.
“The kind of experience you described is hideous and one you should have never been subjected to,” he said. “We simply can’t have people spouting that kind of trash.”
The forum came in response to several racist incidents on campus this school year, including a life-threatening e-mail sent to a black student leader. The forum came four days after the first meeting of a blue-ribbon commission studying ways to improve diversity.
Students said it was frustrating that the same people show up at anti-racism events.
“How many students in here?” asked senior Curtis Love, prompting 20 or 30 students, mostly minorities, to raise their hands. “If you look at their faces, what do they look like?”
Besides Brown, the panelists included Boulder chancellor Phil DiStefano and three black community leaders who have been at the forefront of CU’s diversity issue – the Rev. Paul Burleson, president of the Greater Metropolitan Denver Ministerial Alliance, state Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb.
Junior Israel Garcia said too many of CU’s out-of-state students come from white, affluent, suburban families and “aren’t used to interacting with students of color.”
“When they do interact, it’s not pretty,” he said.
DiStefano said the university plans to start a pilot class next fall to sensitize freshmen to racial issues. The university spends about $21 million annually on 89 diversity programs, he said.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-820-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
