By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
About 200 people gathered on the Bowling Green State University campus for a vigil and march in response to a racist comment posted by a groundskeeper on his Facebook account Friday.
The employee using a racist slur said it was “c*** hunt day” under a post about Thursday’s March on Washington.
On Friday, BGSU issued a statement condemning “the racist and violent comments,” and said the Office of Human Resources was looking into the matter.
Today (Aug. 31, 2020), the university issued a further statement saying the employee, Kevin Paridon, had been placed on paid administrative leave as required by Ohio classified civil service rules, pending the outcome of the investigation.
Rebecca Skinner Green, director of Africana Studies, said she learned about the incident on Sunday from a post on the faculty discussion group by Terence Pitre, chair of the Department of Accounting. He forwarded a link to a BG Falcon Media story about the comment. She was disturbed, and over the course of the day decided that the “racist, vile and violent” comment demanded a response.
“I didn’t want to come into school today and face my students and have done nothing,” Skinner Green said.
She wrote a letter to President Rodney Rogers and Provost Joe Whitehead, and posted it to the faculty discussion group.
Her colleagues “were equally concerned and wanted to do something.”
They decided to take immediate action, even though some people would not be able to participate because of the short notice.
“We wanted to do something immediate to show support for our Black student staff and faculty, so something like this would not go unanswered,” she said.
“This is not a one and done,” Skinner Green added. “We’d like to have more events moving forward, and get the conversation going, so we can change the dynamics, change as best we can the conversation, and get more black faculty on campus teaching.”
Jennifer McCary, chief diversity and belonging officer, said: “We do need to be more aggressive about making sure there are faculty and staff that are representative student body.”
It goes beyond recruiting, she continued. The university has “to make sure they’re in a work environment that’s supportive of them without identity being a barrier. …
We might be able to recruit the best folks here, but if we don’t have a campus climate that supports them staying, we will never have success. So, we do need to take an honest look to make sure our faculty and staff is representative of our student body.”
An incident like the racist Facebook comment are a setback to those efforts. “We can’t tolerate things like this. We have to actively take a stance against it.”
That someone would hold such racist views, is unfortunately not surprising. “I can tell you that’s why we are where we are because there have always been people who feel that way.”
The response by the administration and the rally are heartening. That a couple hundred people gathered at a moment’s notice “shows you this community is overwhelming in support of our students of color and our faculty and staff of color,” McCary said. “It’s important for people to see that we stand up and that there are a number of folks in the community who care about these issues, so they don’t feel like they’re alone. This helps to counter the negative feelings you see.”
Jaylynn Murphy, an African American senior majoring in graphic arts and design, said he wasn’t surprised at the comment.
He’s encountered such attitudes in the past, though not in Bowling Green. The university overall seems “like a nice place,” but then he wonders about what may be underneath that.
That kind of racist attack is to be expected because “some people don’t like to see an actual movement get so much traction so fast.”
He continued: “It is a breath of fresh air to see so many people who are all for Black Lives Matter. It makes me feel people actually care about my life. … Hopefully this conversation of Black Lives Matter can keep going on.”
