Higher Education’s Complicity in the Travon Martin Tragedy - Higher Education

Higher Education’s Complicity in the Travon Martin Tragedy - Higher Education: The immediate response to the verdict in the George Zimmerman trial on my campus was a mixture of outrage and frustration. A reaction of this kind isn’t surprising at a historically Black university, especially here at North Carolina A&T State University.

I’m a dean at the institution of higher education that produced the Greensboro Four—the students who created the lunch counter sit-in tactic that provided impetus and momentum to the Civil Rights movement.

There’s no debate about whether the range of reactions to the Zimmerman acquittal underscores the need for a national conversation on race. Unfortunately, that conversation is unlikely to happen because the groundwork hasn’t been laid for such an emotionally charged discussion.

There are various constituencies that share some measure of blame for an environment that renders an honest and meaningful discussion on race an unlikely prospect. One of the culpable entities is the higher education community.