BLM protesters disrupt Ohio University homecoming game
Black Lives Matter protesters interrupted Ohio University’s homecoming game Saturday, unfurling a banner over the bleachers that read “Make Racists Afraid Again.”
The Post Athens reports that fans erupted into cheers during Saturday’s football game as a group of about 45 demonstrators dressed in black held their fists in the air.
Sasha Estrella-Jones, one of the demonstrators, said her motivation for demonstrating was to “stand together and let it be known that hatred of any kind will not be tolerated at our institution by both students and administration.”
[RELATED: FIU urged students to attend pro-BLM ‘blackout’ event]
Later during the game, a group of protesters unfurled a banner from the bleachers saying “Make Racists Afraid Again,” and began chanting “Whose lives matter? Black Lives Matter.”
Other spectators, though, chanted over them with “All Lives Matter” while several BLM protestors were ushered out of the stands for disrupting the game.
The protests came shortly after an incident on campus where the school’s graffiti wall was defaced with racist imagery at least four times in the past few months, which BLM activist, Bakari Lumumba, explained to Campus Reform had created an “atmosphere of an unsafe learning environment.”
“The university is not concerned with the social, physical and physiological well-being” of racial-minority students, he added, expressing his disappointment with the administration for not responding to the racist imagery.
Additionally, Marcus Cole, a student who recently served on a campus panel discussion on racism, told Campus Reform that he believes that the administration has the responsibility to make “the overall climate of campus better” and to “prevent [more instances of racism] in the future.”
Notably, The football game at Ohio University wasn’t the only homecoming game to be interrupted by BLM protesters as the University of Akron, Minnesota State University, and Temple University were also disrupted by BLM activists.
Campus Reform reached out to Ohio University for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
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