Here is the text of Kei Kurihara's statement last night to a student audience on the UVM campus which exceeded 250 people. Kei announced that he will begin a cyclical fast today, fasting for three days and resting on the fourth day, continuing until the end of the semester in May 1996.
I am Kei Kurihara, a senior ALANA student at the University of Vermont. Tonite I choose to share with my fellow students the words that will carry my committment out to the world, my committment to struggle against racism. My words are on paper so that the world will know what I have spoken, will know that another ALANA student is standing up against racism at this University, will know my message in order to carry it into their circles wherever they are.
Right now, today, there are thousands of ALANA students across the United States who are being sacrificed in colleges and universities, in the name of diversity, for the sake of maintaining appearances, that this nation somehow understands how to address ALANA students educational concerns.
ALANA students are being violated by the conscious and unconscious racism in colleges and universities daily.
We sacrifice much in struggling against the racism that holds us back.
We sacrifice our peace of mind if we stand up against racism. We sacrifice our safety and security if we stand up against racism. We sacrifice our free time. We sacrifice our leadership development options.
We sacrifice our money and time educating ourselves because the University has failed to change at an acceptable pace over the past seven years. So it is up to us to push and fight.
I am here tonite to stand up against racism at UVM. I must stand up because President Thomas Salmon will not stand up against racism. Provost Robert Low will not stand up against racism.
Vice Provost for Research Thomas Tritton will not stand up.
Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Andrew Bodman will not stand up.
Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Maura Saule will not stand up.
Assistant to the President Thomas Gustafson will not stand up against racism.
I must stand up against racism because Assistant to the President Leon Lawrence, will not stand up against racism as an African American in a position of leadership even when it impacts ALANA students. Assistant to the President Wendy Smith will not stand up against racism.
I must stand up against racism because Vice President for Student Affairs Dean Batt will not stand up against racism and refuses to educate himself in a manner that is befitting for a white person with so much power over ALANA students, for someone who is accountable to the students at this University for his employment, for someone who has lied in his official capacity to visiting ALANA students.
Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs David Nestor will not stand up against racism.
Assistant to the Vice President for Student Affairs Jenni Johnson will not stand up against racism, and will allow the White run administration to manipulate her, a proud African American woman, while it abuses its power over ALANA students.
I must stand up against racism because Interim Director of Multicultural Affairs Douglas Samuels will not stand up against racism because he is confused about what it is and how it works. Imagine and African American promoting the socially redeeming qualities of the racist fraternity tradition of the Kakewalk today in 1996.
I must stand up against racism because the Acting Dean of Arts and Sciences, Joan Smith will not stand up against racism and honor the University committment to support, expand and develop the ALANA Studies Program.
I must stand up against racism because the Director of Residential Life, Jill Carnaghi has refused to implement an anti-racist hate crime prevention and response protocol that is sensitive to the cultural concerns and statutory rights of ALANA students who are impacted by racist threats of death and violence every year in the campus residence halls.
I must stand up against racism because the Director of Financial Analysis and Budgeting Stephanie Woods will not stand up to the racism that affects the recordkeeping and financial affairs of this university at the expense of ALANA students.
I must stand up against racism because the Director of Institutional Research Fred Curran will not stand up against racism and produce the analysis and research information which prevents the truthful, reliable, and consistent reports on the enrollment of ALANA students at the University, or the funding and expenditures for ALANA centered programs from seeing the light of day.
I must stand against racism because the Director of Library Services will not stand up against racism that makes it possible for her to believe that dedicating a library museum to a prominent African American professor is enough, while allowing the Provost and the Provost's Council to engage in racist leadership practices and to remain silent.
I must stand against racism because the so-called Black and Third World Educators continue to sell out the ALANA student leadership at UVM, in the same way as they did during the 1991 Takeover, using the same people (Deep Ford and others....you know who you are!)
I must stand against racism because the Director of International Student Services Kathy Ford continues to work against the ALANA student leadership while giving the appearance that she is working for change but refuses to risk anything to help us.
I must stand against racism because Sister Shontae Praileau has stood now for 62 days without food in a protest hunger strike while these people mentioned above have done their utmost to dismiss her efforts, the efforts of the Commission on Racial Justice, and the past initiatives of ALANA students at UVM.
I must stand against racism because I refuse to allow people who are lying and co-opting the anti-racism struggle here at UVM to continue misleading the public that they are doing right by us.
I have learned what it means to be an ALANA student at UVM, and how to choose between being a white-washed euro-centric mascot with a diploma, and being a conscious, free-thinking anti-racist pro-justice, person of color who will stand for the truth and demand it of others who are in positions of power and political control.
I have learned to respect my true teachers and challenge the impostors who I have named, to come out from behind the President´s tough talk, and produce the results of the President´s Diversity Initiative which were scheduled for completion by the end of January 1996.
I challenge each of the impostors named to put the reports, the inventories, the assessments, the changed programs and policies, the recruitment plans, and the methodologies for completing all of these so-called inititiatives on the table tomorrow by 8 am.
I know that this is a challenge which they cannot meet. The President cannot deliver the goods because he and his people have failed to meet the challenge issued to them by the UVM community last year! THey can produce excuses and bad decisions which have hurt the growth and development of the ALANA student community initiated in 1991 by Rodney Patterson and continued under Anthony Chavez until last June 1995. Both men were gotten rid of because they were threats to the way in which the impostors do business.
I will not be silenced by threats of judicial prosecution by Vice President of Student Affairs Dean Batt for telling the truth to ALANA high school students about the anti-ALANA student climate on this campus, while he insists on lying and covering it up when they visit here. I will not be silent while I hear the President's Staff talk about the ALANA student leadership as being members of a cult or that they have been brainwashed.
I will not be silent while the President's Staff in their high paid positions of power and influence maintain their ignorance about institutionalized racism and their role in perpetuating it.
I will not be silent while the President tells the public that he is concerned about "fiscal responsibility" concerning OMA and ALANA student issues, while allowing the white university leadership to run up an estimated 4 million dollar deficit that is being hushed up like some big secret.
I will not be silent while the image of President Salmon is protected at the expense of ALANA students. I will not be silent while President Salmon disrespects what Shontae and other brave ALANA students stand up against the racism he tolerates to be maintained on this campus.
I will not be silent while the National Council of Black Studies has announced its intent to censure publically this University which it has named as one of the worst violators of ALANA students, faculty, and staff among US colleges and universities.
I will not be silent while the University begins hiring a chief executive officer for cultural pluralism and racial equality, a position that is badly designed and unaccountable to the ALANA community, so that President Salmon can push the entire responsibility for his failed vision and failed staff efforts onto this unsuspecting ALANA newcomer to campus.
Tonite, I am pledging to fast in solidarity with the National Pledge of Resistance against Racism in American Higher Education. I will begin a cyclical fast of 3 days without solid food followed by one day of rest, and will begin fasting again for three days following the day of rest. I will continue this fast in solidarity with the other fasting students and anti-racists around the country who are saying "Enough is Enough!&334;
I will continue until the end of the semester.
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