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UNC Board Grants Nikole Hannah-Jones Tenure, University Community Members Against Slow Response - YouTube
Channel: BNC News
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welcome back to black news tonight as
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we've reported earlier in the show the
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board of trustees at the university of
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north carolina earlier today
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voted nine to four to grant nicole
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hannah jones tenure
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if she agrees to join the faculty her
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position is expected to begin
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in this upcoming fall semester to
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discuss
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what led to today's board meeting and
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the recent decisions around it i
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am now joined by erica wilson who is
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professor of law at the university of
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north carolina and i'm also
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joined by the president of this black
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student movement at unc to elijah van
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thank you both
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uh for joining me uh erica how did we
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get here today
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well i think it's been a long time
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coming
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uh i think this is uh the
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horrible events that have happened uh
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hannah nicole jones
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really the capstone of a long winding
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road at unc
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chapel hill in which um
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the governance systems have uh have
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have fallen apart uh and have been
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intertwined
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with politics in ways that are uh
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unforgivable and unacceptable
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uh for for any university and so i while
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i was happy
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uh to see the ultimate 9-4 vote today
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i would be remiss if i didn't honestly
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say that i'm tired i mean this has been
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a long winding road
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and i hope that we can take steps now to
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uh hold folks accountable uh and move
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away from the
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entirement of politics with our faculty
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government
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i think um part of why i asked the
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question uh to elijah about
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why how we got here is because i don't
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want people to ever think that this
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outcome would have happened
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without organizing without struggle
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without
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putting a spotlight on this and one of
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the main
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people who put a spotlight on this issue
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were students
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you and other students have been making
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as john lewis say good trouble
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since day one in your estimation how
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important was the constant
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protest uh that pushed the board
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i think that it was imperative to us
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having the decision that we do right now
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we hit the nail on the head in my
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opinion in saying the university the
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board of trustees they absolutely would
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not have taken further action if there
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had not been such insurmountable
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pressure
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coming from the black student movement
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coming from the carolina black caucus
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and seeing
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black undergrads grad students alumni
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all rallying together behind this issue
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and all of us standing in solidarity
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with the four-handed jones
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there's no way that you all would have
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ultimately called this session and held
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this vote
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because you were not interested in
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giving nicole hannah jones what she
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deserved
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i think that ultimately our board of
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trustees is interested in maintaining
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the structures of white supremacy on
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this campus
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and to do that you work hard to keep
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black women out of the classroom to keep
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black professors out of the classroom
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and to keep black professors on this
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campus from having tenure
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when you deny tenure to these people you
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end up in a situation where you have
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cycles of black students different
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classes being pushed out of the
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university as we graduate
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and as student leaders leave and
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graduate from the university
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the buck stops and you have new students
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coming in afterwards
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picking up the fight starting again from
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square one to talk about the issues that
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have been plaguing our community for
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decades
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and you guys as an administration are
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happy to see us not be able to finish
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getting whatever we tried to accomplish
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done because we don't even have the
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representation resources and tenured
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black faculty on this campus
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to continue to support us as we do these
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as we engage in these fights
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ultimately i think it's all cyclical and
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it's very deliberate
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professor wilson i forgive me for not
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lose using your title earlier
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uh talk to me about what tomorrow looks
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like nicole hannah jones now has
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tenure uh but some faculty of color have
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already left
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i've spoken to some of them who say
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they're still considering leaving
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and there are these climate issues these
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cultural issues these structural issues
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at the university are you optimistic at
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all that things will move in a better
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direction now
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well i want to be clear that the damage
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has already been done
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despite what happened today and it is
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absolutely accurate that without the
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organizing of students in particular
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this we
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wouldn't have come to this moment so you
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asked what tomorrow looks like i think
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that
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it's a wake-up call for faculty in
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particular i think
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that um my call has been for white
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faculty to step up
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and to voice their concerns about why
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this environment is unacceptable unless
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and until that happens
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tomorrow frankly looks like yesterday it
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can't be incumbent upon
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only faculty of color and students of
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color to try and rate the ship here it
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has to be
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a collective effort as i mentioned uh at
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the top of my comments this is the
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capstone of a long winding history
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of um interference with governance
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structures that that has to stop
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i mean whether or not uh nicole hannon
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jones decides to accept the offers
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another question but for the university
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tomorrow looks
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bleak unless we as a faculty and
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faculty in particular say faculty and
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not students because
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we're supposed to be there to educate
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the students it shouldn't be incumbent
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upon the students to be
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the change catalyst faculty need to step
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up um and and say no more this is not
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acceptable
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and try and right the ship
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and for people who hear that word
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faculty governance and ask questions i
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mean the point here
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is that faculty are typically
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responsible for hiring for doing
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searches and hiring faculty
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they vote on their colleagues they
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decide on tenure both within the
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university and with outside reviewers
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and such and once the faculty make an
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affirmative vote it goes
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up the chain from the from departments
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to colleges to university tenure
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committees to provosts to presidents
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it is rare that boards of trustees
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intervene in
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such matters and when they do
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unfortunately it's quite often for
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political reasons stephen celayta
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salaita
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was denied uh his tenure on appointment
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after being granted tenure on
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appointment he was effectively fired
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uh at university of illinois
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urbana-champaign for political reasons
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which happened with nicole hannah jones
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was for almost no one's even disputing
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that it was for political reasons and so
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when we talk about governance here it's
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not just a question
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of whether or not people can get hired
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or not it's whether or not faculty will
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be permitted to do the job
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that accompanies academic freedom this
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is a fundamental political question and
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at a moment
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where the right is screaming about
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political correctness
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and and cancel culture they're going
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around canceling everybody that they
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don't agree with it's just a
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it's a it's a fascinating contradiction
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here but elijah i want to turn to you
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before we go because
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you got to be there you got two more
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years at the university of north
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carolina your class of 2023 which makes
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me feel old
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uh how will you feel in the aftermath
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how will students feel
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in the aftermath uh
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do you feel like this is the place you
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want to be
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no it's absolutely not a place that i
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want to be i am proud to be on the
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ground organizing for my community every
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day
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i'm proud to be one of the people one of
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the many student leaders leading this
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fight
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and being at the helm again rallying for
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our community and making sure that our
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university and administration know
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we are here we are watching you we are
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holding your feet to the fire and this
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executive board of the black student
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movement is interested in one thing and
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that's
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action we want to see our community's
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needs met and we're
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committed and dedicated to doing all the
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work to make that happen but even
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outside of
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all the pride that i feel to be in the
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role that i have within my community
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i will never forget the way that my
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university treated me today
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for you to have black students standing
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peacefully
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in this board meeting in solidarity with
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nicole hannah jones
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and to have the police sticked on black
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students like we're dogs
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to kick us out of this space students
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being beaten my vice president
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being punched in her face by an adult
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man today an adult black officer
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officer holland that happened today as
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our board members and our chancellor
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sat in that room and did nothing hearing
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me and other students screaming get off
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her stop touching her we aren't pushing
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you guys
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we aren't hitting you we are standing in
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this space and you came and
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you met us with physical violence and
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the leaders of our community
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met that violence with silence and they
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did it in front of the media still
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standing in the closed session because
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they felt that the police were acting
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with impunity
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they feel they can do anything to us
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treat us any kind of way i want you all
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to ask yourselves honestly
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this is what we saw them do today on
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camera and they knew the world was
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watching
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how do you honestly think they treat us
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when you're not paying attention i will
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never
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ever ever forget the lesson that unc
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chapel hill taught me today and i will
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continue to bring this up when i'm
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talking to
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potential black students who are
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interested in coming here in the future
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talking to black parents
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anybody who is thinking about entering
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unc at chapel hill i'm going to give you
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the
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full understanding that i have of what
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it means to be black at this university
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that's not been a pleasant experience by
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any measure
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the way that we were treated today is
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absolutely inexcusable and when i tell
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you i will never forget i never will
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your words are so powerful and they're
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so compelling and
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i don't know if the university of north
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carolina will be responsive to them i
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suspect they won't be
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but i do know that universities are
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responsive when their reputations are on
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the line
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and more fundamentally when the money is
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on the line so we're going to keep the
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pressure on here at black news tonight i
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know the students are going to keep the
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pressure on
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uh professor i know the faculty are
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going to keep the pressure on
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and we're going to keep this in the
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spotlight we do not want people to think
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that nicole hannah jones
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uh that this victory this 10-year
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appointment is the end of the story no
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no no
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it is just the start of an ongoing
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entrenched battle
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for real freedom and real justice for
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everybody uh professor
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uh also talasha thank you so much for
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joining me and thank you for your
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powerful work
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to make this moment happen
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