Opinion
guest column
MIT Reflections: Does MIT fulfill the values it claims?
Black students entered the event to demonstrate that we will not be silenced and to ensure our experiences are not sanitized for the comfort of others. This effort was organized in response to malicious events that occurred during the first week of classes, but Black people on campus deal with nearly constant affronts that spur our organizing including daily racial aggressions, traumatizing encounters with MIT police, and years-long deferrals on meaningful action to address our needs. What happened the first week of classes, detailed below, is both symbolic and symptomatic of larger issues of anti-Blackness within the Institute.