By Desia Johnson ’26
Contributing Writer
Content warning: This article discusses racism and racial slurs.
Following the discovery of an anti-black slur in Pearsons Hall, Black Mount Holyoke College students have continued the conversation about racism on campus.
Last week, a group of students posted a TikTok video discussing their experiences with racism and anti-Blackness as Black students at the College. The TikTok initiated a broader conversation surrounding anti-Blackness at academic institutions and how administrations and the federal government have lacked the appropriate responses to it.
The now-deleted TikTok, originally posted on Dec. 5 by Kyarah Altieri ’24 (@kyarah.alt), followed a recent trend where TikTokers describe an attribute about themselves and follow up with a joke about what they experience or do. In the video, the students made comments discussing being Black at Mount Holyoke and their experience with dating as a Black person on campus. Some of the jokes included, “I go to Mount Holyoke College, of course I’m moving out because I got hate-crimed,” and “I go to Mount Holyoke College, of course my [residential advisor] called me a ghetto Black bitch.”
Other TikTok users, such as Janice Acevedo ’09 (@janicea312), an alum and legacy of the College, stitched the original creator’s video a day after its posting to offer support to the students. The stitch, at the time of publication, has amassed over 143,300 views, 22,300 likes, and 316 comments. Commenters also shared their experiences and perspectives as Black students, allies and prospective students. Some commenters shared their hesitation to apply to Mount Holyoke after seeing the TikTok; others commented their class years and support of the original creator. One particular user commented that they had to replace a Black residential advisor in one of the living-learning communities due to racism.
The original TikTok followed the news of an anti-Black slur found in Pearsons Hall at the College over November Break. The message read “no [n-words].” The College has since been investigating the incident. This event has brought attention to the fact that as of fall 2023, only around 7.3% of the students reported by the College identify as Black or African-American. In fall 2021, it was reported by the Postsecondary National Policy Institute that Black students make up 12.5% of all postsecondary enrollment in the United States.
A working paper titled “Hate Crimes and Black College Student Enrollment,'' published by Stanford University, found that hate crimes on college campuses have seen a 25% increase since 2015. Co-author Tolani Britton, a professor of education policy at the University of California Berkeley, argues that the number may even be larger, considering that hate crimes tend to go unreported. The paper looks at previous qualitative research to argue a connection between the increase in reported hate crimes and the increasing HBCU enrollment by Black students.
While HBCUs provide an alternative to predominantly white institutions and their supposed systemic racism, since 2021, only 99 HBCUs remain in the United States. Of those 99, only two — Spelman College and Bennett College — are historically women’s colleges. Both Spelman and Bennett lack the promise of 100% need-met financial aid that tends to be the selling point of schools like Mount Holyoke.
The conversation on the safety of Black students and their places in PWIs is not a new one but a continued one. There are many factors, from income to geographical location, that influence where students apply to go to college. The amount of support and resources available to Black students can also influence whether or not they will report discrimination at their institutions. As the conversation continues and more students speak out and spread awareness, administrations will be forced to address the cries of their Black students.