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(12/06/23 3:52am)
When Sajan Rhea Young ’24 recently opened up about his historical connection to the University through the institution of slavery, I was reminded of my own heritage. I am a direct descendant of an enslaved man who was recorded to have worked at the University of Virginia (UVA). My family learned of this connection through a program for descendants of enslaved people who labored at UVA, in which the group worked with the university to track down descendants and provide them with enrollment and scholarship opportunities. UVA’s acknowledgment of my ancestor’s previously unrecognized contributions gave me and my family a sense of pride. Families who have a similar relationship to Princeton deserve that same reconciliation.
(02/01/23 4:14am)
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion Section, click here.
(04/14/22 1:37am)
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit a letter to the editor to the Opinion Section, click here.
(02/26/21 4:25am)
This article is part of the Opinion section’s Black Futures at Princeton series. Click here to view the full project.
(11/09/20 11:28pm)
One Saturday in my sophomore year, I ventured all the way from my room in Whitman College to the Carl A. Fields Center for Equality and Cultural Understanding (CAF) to go study with some friends. I was inconvenienced, to say the least. Walking the more than half-mile in the famously-brisk New Jersey November weather was suboptimal. But I went all the way to CAF to study because I wanted to do something that I hadn’t done since I got on campus: study in their African American study space. Once I got there, snacks and water with me as I arrived, I had an underwhelming feeling of the space.
(10/06/20 10:21pm)
Last week, in a piece for the Washington Examiner, Matthew Wilson ’24 breathlessly opined, “Princeton can’t have it both ways on racism.” In short, Wilson maintains not only that President Christopher L. Eisgruber ’83 is hypocritical in characterizing Princeton as simultaneously racist and anti-racist, but he even declares in no uncertain terms that Princeton is not racist.
(10/04/20 10:36pm)
Over the past few months, the University’s long history of systemic racism has become increasingly more visible. Between the changing of the name of the Woodrow Wilson School and Wilson residential college and the Department of Education investigation on racism, the University’s history of racism has made a lot of national headlines.
(08/09/20 10:26pm)
What began as an email rant by Larry Giberson ’23 turned into a three-part exchange: Giberson’s publication in The Princeton Tory, a response here at the ‘Prince’ by Imani Mulrain ’23, and a final commentary on Mulrain’s response by Hillel Koslowe ’22. At the risk of contributing a poorly tacked-on epilogue to the trilogy, I’d like to point to something I feel has been missing from the conversation.
(08/02/20 10:22pm)
“The distinction between memory and memorialization is of cardinal importance. So is the relation between them.”
(07/28/20 11:13pm)
This summer has been tiring. It has been tiring for everyone, but it has been particularly tiring for people of color, and especially tiring for Black people. A mishandling of the pandemic by politicians more focused on elections than public health means we have spent the summer sheltered at home, bombarded every day with news of more coronavirus cases, more coronavirus deaths, and a growing indifference to a pandemic that is disproportionately killing people of color.
(07/19/20 10:43pm)
Following weeks of civil unrest demanding justice and reflecting on 401 years of anti-Black racism and violence across the nation, the graduate students — past and present — of the Princeton School of Architecture (PSoA) have discussed how best to support our Black peers. In the words of Kimberly Dowdell, President of the National Organization of Minority Architects (NOMA): “We must all leverage our positions of privilege to help our most vulnerable citizens, neighbors and colleagues strive for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” If we are to truly resist anti-Black racism in the architecture discipline, we must first recognize and address the ongoing anti-Black racism and inequality within our own PSoA community. We must not ignore the daily realities and traumas of our Black students, faculty, and staff. Our support cannot simply be a statement of detached sentiment or a pledge to “do better.” Those of us who are white and non-Black POC students, faculty, staff, and administration must stand with our Black colleagues and unequivocally condemn and resist the violence that affects them. We must examine the ways in which we actively marginalize Black voices. We must commit to taking concrete steps to build an anti-racist institution where Black students and colleagues, as vital members of our academic community, can thrive. Black lives matter.
(07/16/20 10:46pm)
In her recent piece for The Daily Princetonian, Imani Mulrain critiques Larry Giberson’s reasoned argument against removing Woodrow Wilson’s name from the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and First College, noting that “by his logic, the Berlin Institute of Technology should’ve kept its former title ‘Adolf Hitler University.’” Furthermore, Mulrain claims that those who “hold Wilson as the lesser of the two evils” are often “Caucasians who feel entitled to an opinion which they cannot defend.”
(07/13/20 10:39pm)
“The man who has no sense of history, is like a man who has no ears or eyes,” Adolf Hitler once said.
(07/09/20 10:20pm)
In his recent opinion piece, in the wake of years of discourse on the legacy of Woodrow Wilson Class of 1879 — discourse that has suffered from the charge, incessantly levied by those in positions of power, that it must justify over and over again its very existence — Akhil Rajasekar ’21 paints a picture of what he, on behalf of the Princeton Open Campus Coalition (POCC), believes to be the state of free speech on campus. From his perspective, the picture is bleak. He assures us, however, that with the aid of POCC’s efforts we can achieve what he says we need: a “thoughtful conversation … on significant, deeply personal issues like race, identity, and culture.”
(07/08/20 11:30pm)
Last month, University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 issued a charge to University leadership to “specify a set of actions that could be taken” to “identify, understand, and combat systemic racism within and beyond the University.” He asked University leaders to investigate “[w]hat should Princeton University do to more effectively stand against racism and for equality and justice?” In closing his call to action, President Eisgruber tasked the entire Princeton community — students, faculty, staff, and alumni — to confront the “realities and legacy of racism.” Already, the University has made progress toward confronting its own legacy of racism by removing Woodrow Wilson’s name from the public policy school and the residential college.
(07/02/20 11:50pm)
Five years ago, the Black Justice League (BJL) and Black Student Union organized a 33-hour sit-in of Nassau Hall to protest the University’s ongoing celebration of Woodrow Wilson. Last month, drawing upon the BJL’s efforts, Change WWS Now circulated a letter and list of demands. Later that week, Wilson’s name was finally stripped from the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) and the residential college now known as First College.
(07/02/20 12:47am)
Princeton University’s recent decision to drop the name of Woodrow Wilson, Class of 1879, from the designation of its public policy school garnered widespread attention and praise. Princeton widely advertised the name change as a sign of progress. While the change is certainly progressive, the decision should trigger a discussion on the name “Princeton” itself, which may have a far more sinister legacy than “Woodrow Wilson.”
(06/30/20 10:33pm)
Firstly, I wish to thank the Black Justice League (BJL) for its primary role in the renaming of the School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). Fail as he may to acknowledge the BJL by name in his June 27 letter to the University community, President Eisgruber cannot erase the collective memory of Black students’ impact on Princeton. As long as students, alumni and faculty continue to amplify the real history and material forces that brought us this far — namely, the BJL’s incredible direct action against the administration five years ago — whitewashing can never win.
(06/23/20 11:04pm)
This letter was submitted to administrators on Tuesday, June 23. The text appears verbatim below.
(06/22/20 6:39pm)
This letter was submitted to administrators at 12:00 p.m. EDT on Monday, June 22. The text appears verbatim below.