U of Chicago student coalition advocates CRT, organizes boycott against graduation at its 'racist and imperialist' university

UChicago United, a group of “students of color committed to racial justice at The University of Chicago” is boycotting the school’s convocation, a graduation ceremony, on June 9. 

The group called the University of Chicago a “racist and imperialist university” in its tweet announcing the boycott. The same tweet also provides information for UChicago United’s on-campus rally on July 13.

Instead of celebrating this racist and imperialist university, #BoycottConvocation on June 9th and stand with us on June 13th. Let’s #ResistandRemember and celebrate what we’ve accomplished in spite of this university, not because of it.
‼️https://t.co/ja8SnHD8B1 ‼️ pic.twitter.com/dnfamo524I

— UChicago United (@UChiUnited) June 7, 2021

Among the organization’s priorities is to “abolish the University as we know it.” Recommendations to achieve abolition include anti-gentrification policies and a ban on “all academic penalties.” 

Additionally, the UChicago United is demanding on its website a new academic department that “must teach and uplift movement-based knowledges [sic], the revolutionary theory and practice of successful and unsuccessful, past and present social movements worldwide.”

UChicago United also maintains three main hashtag campaigns. These are #CareNotCops, #EthnicStudiesNow, and #CommunityCentersNow. Among the organization’s demands are defunding the University of Chicago Police Department, establish a Critical Race and Ethnic Studies program steeped in leftist theory and activism, and create spaces to honor radicals such as Assata Shakur.

Tomorrow’s convocation will feature speaker Deborah Nelson, a professor and the former director of the  Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at the university. 

Campus Reform reached out to UChicago United for comment; the article will be updated accordingly.