One of the student organizations at the University of Chicago is hosting an event to discuss race that is “BIPOC-Only.”
UChicago United announced that it is hosting an event called “Race @ UChicago.”
It will be part of the organization’s “Dis-orientation” on Oct. 15 and is listed as a “BIPOC-Only space.”
A description of the event said it is “A BIPOC-ONLY space for honest discussion of navigating race at UChicago between new and old students.”
Fox News reported that the organization has held several events during the fall semester about “radical story hour, policing, gentrification, and abolition, anti-militarism 101, and activist open house.”
The “Dis-orientation” events serve to educate “first years about the ‘real’ University of Chicago.”
The organization’s website says they are “working to structurally transform the University of Chicago’s campus into a truly inclusive space that fits the needs of and empowers students of color.”
One of the organization’s campaigns is called “CareNotCops,” which was in response to the shooting of Charles Thomas by a University of Chicago Police Department officer in 2018.
In body camera footage of the shooting, Thomas was seen moving toward officers with what police say was a crowbar and shouting.
Thomas was told to drop the object but ran toward the police and was shot, reported Fox.
UChicago United demanded that the university “immediately defund the [University of Chicago Police Department] by reducing its budget by 50 percent” and “disband the UCPD by 2022.”
Another campaign from the organization focuses on establishing “a Critical Race and Ethnic Studies (CRES) Department or School” that “champions transformative, anti-oppressive, and community-centered education and administers the interdisciplinary study of Race and Ethnicity.”
The organization’s Instagram has several posts with information on events and programs that they are offering this semester.
In 2021, the “Dis-Orientation” program began on September 24 and ended on October 3.
They previously held a “Policing, Gentrification, & Abolition Workshop,” “Radical Campus Walking Tours,” and a “White Ally Workshop.”