Civics 4/30

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

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(Photo by Gillian Goodman via Prism)Two weeks after Columbia University students set up tents outside the main library of the school to protest Israel's war on Gaza and its mounting death toll, Prism has chronicled the student-led movement that is now galvanizing student protests on college campuses nationwide. The encampments across the U.S., a symbol of the protestors’ dedication and a focal point in national media coverage, have also sparked protests at institutions internationally, and resulted in nearly a thousand arrests, including suspensions with students barred from their campuses (India Currents), congressional testimony, canceled graduation ceremonies, and walk-outs. (In case you didn’t know: The University of Southern California, citing safety concerns, canceled all graduation speeches, after already canceling a planned commencement speech by its valedictorian, who has been vocal about her views of the war on Gaza on social media, as AsAmNews reported last week.) 

In the latest escalation in the campus situation since the first few encampments cropped up at Columbia, Prism reports that just past 12:30 a.m. in New York on Tuesday, dozens of student protestors took over Hamilton Hall, with linked arms to form a human chain, barricading the academic building in a technique that was similarly used by students in 1968 to protest the Vietnam War. According to news reports, the protestors unfurled a Palestinian flag outside a window in the building. Meanwhile, Columbia administrators have threatened to expel students who have occupied the building.

(Credit: Unknown via El Tecolote)With the final days of this semester winding down and arrests continuing, it is important to pay attention to what student groups across the country are demanding: divestment from companies and institutions that profit from Israel, with many calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. As the president of the General Union for Palestinian Students chapter at San Francisco State University (SFSU), the third California state university to join the student-led movement, told El Tecolote: "[These protests are happening] to make sure that after six months of this genocide, we still aren’t silent." 

More than 500 students, faculty and community members participated in a "Solidarity with Gaza" rally at SFSU’s Malcolm X Plaza this week, setting up nearly twenty tents and several canopies, with protestors saying they do not plan to leave until their demands are met. "The students are fully restoring my faith in humanity and giving me so much hope," said Omar Zahzah, an assistant professor in the school's Ethnic Studies department. 

As emotions run high, this viral clip reshared by Luz Media of a proud Latino father’s message to his daughter, a student organizer at the University of Southern California, and other students protesting Israel's war on Gaza is moving, empowering and tear-jerking. "If she rather be arrested fighting for Palestine, I will be the happiest daddy. I will be the happiest daddy if she’s doing the right thing.”

For ongoing coverage of the U.S. student-led campus protests, visit url-media.com, where we curate independent journalism from our network of Black and Brown-owned-and-operated media outlets.  

COVID-19 learning losses will cost students billions in lost income: According to a 2023 report titled "The Economic Cost of the Pandemic" by economist Eric Hanushek, the pandemic will cost students billions in lost income over their lifetimes. However, it points out that Oklahoma students will be hit the hardest. (The Oklahoma Eagle)

Adama Bah builds safe spaces: At 16, Adama, an immigrant from Guinea in West Africa, was detained for six months, and her father was deported back to her family's native country. At the time, her apartment was also raided by the FBI and the NYPD. Why? “Basically, I was accused of being a potential suicide bomber. I wasn’t actually one, but ‘potentially’ I could be one one day,” she tells Documented's Rommel H. Ojeda as part of the news outlet's "Our City" interview series. Unbeknownst to her, Adama was undocumented, having entered the country at 2 years old. Years later, Adama's bewildering experience with law enforcement and immigration was front and center in a documentary named after her. Adama is now the founder of Afrikana, an organization she established last year to assist asylum seekers from African countries. (Documented)

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