Sayantani Dasgupta, CSER faculty member

Reflections

 When I began this project, I expected to find something of the following: a revolutionary lineage of student activism culminating in a strike that was so impactful as to convince a dogmatic academic institution to change its long-set ways.

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What I got is something much different. I found out that by the end of the hunger strike and the occupation of Hamilton (“Liberation”) Hall at April 15th, student protestors were physically and mentally exhausted. While there was more support coming from the general student body than ever, the final proposal offered by Columbia was far less than what the ethnic studies activists had fought so hard for. Just by reading the final report and articles from then, it is hard not to question whether the administration really made any, if at all, sacrifices.

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But hearing the protestors of 1996 reminisce their experiences, digging up flyers that had been taped, drawn, and written upon, and looking at history of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race at Columbia, I realize that the outcome of the ethnic studies protests does not come from the administration. It comes through the individuals who have fought and are still fighting for ethnic studies. 

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Even through that small opening of faculty hires, approved courses, and the authorization of a few hundred-square-feet on the 4th floor of Hamilton Hall, there came scholars and students who would bring valuable discussions about racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. CSER majors and concentrators are a total of 63, tripled over the decade. The infamous Core Curriculum has added the Qur’an, Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon and Suzan-Lori Parks’s Father Comes Home from the Wars to its bastion of Western canons. In the fall of 2016, a single Korean girl walked into her first Intro to Ethnic Studies class and found a lifelong home.

This, in my opinion, is how ethnic studies survives and preserves - its students, as scholars and activists who sit down, notice, analyze, challenge, doubt, share, and struggle against the systems of oppression, altogether become part of this ongoing protest. For every crack that is made in the curriculums, spaces, and resources at Columbia University against white supremacy, we will continue to insert our voices. For each inspiring lecture, research, and community we come across, there will always be openings for more. A crack in a jar can only get bigger; hence we fight on, until liberation flows. 

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