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Smith College, Northampton: "I gave this student a quick greeting - and now I'm a racist?"
Photo: Christopher Capozzielo / The New York Times / Redux / laif
This report on current events at the renowned Smith College in Massachusetts first appeared in the New York Times. Because it gives impressive insights into the power struggles over identity politics, class and race, we are publishing a translation.
Northampton, Massachusetts.
In the summer of 2018, the black student Oumou Kanoute at Smith College experienced a harrowing American story: She was sitting in the lounge of a dormitory on campus and was eating lunch when suddenly a janitor and a security officer stood in front of her and wanted to know what she was doing there.
It would have been entirely possible that the campus policeman was carrying a "deadly weapon," Kanoute later wrote on Facebook.
She would have been close to a "nervous breakdown."
She added that the incident continued a longstanding pattern of harassment at the Smith.
"All I did was be black," the student posted.
"It's unbelievable that there are people who question my presence in college and my existence as a black woman in general."
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