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Michigan State University officials removed a display of felt ornaments resembling black historical figures hung on a “tree-like rack” from a gift shop in the Wharton Center for Performing Arts last week, after a student shared images of the display on Facebook.
Krystal Davis-Dunn, a black graduate student, noticed on Jan. 30 the figurines of prominent black leaders, including Michelle and Barack Obama, Martin Luther King Jr., and Harriet Tubman, hanging from strings, USA Today reported. The display “evoke[d] a visceral experience” and was a “culmination of all the culturally insensitive events” at Michigan State, Davis-Dunn wrote on Facebook.
In October, a professor in the communications college sent a survey to students with racial stereotypes and epithets for a study on the impact of racist speech online. A few days earlier, a black student reported that there was a noose made of toilet paper hanging on the door of her dorm room, the Lansing State Journal reported.
The university apologized for the Wharton Center display and said staff at the center will participate in racial bias training focused “on the impact and understanding of intentional and unintentional racial bias,” according to a statement from university spokesperson Emily Gerkin Guerrant.
“Regardless of the intent of the display, its impact cannot be ignored,” Guerrant said. “People were hurt and offended.”
