We Live Here: Why wasn't race a priority before things unraveled at Mizzou?

This week’s show started with a simple question we could not get out of our heads as we followed the recent shakeups at Mizzou.

We’re referring to, of course, the wave of protests over racial incidents on MU’s campus and subsequent resignation of Tim Wolfe, who on Nov. 9 stepped down from his post as university system president following a student’s hunger strike and the threat of a boycott by the football team.

One of theflash pointsthis fall was a confrontation Wolfe had with black students outside a fundraiser in Kansas City.

The students asked Wolfe to define “systematic oppression.” He stumbled through the answer, and resigned three days later.

We couldn’t help wondering:

In this week’s show, we went in search of answers.

Listen to the podcast where we hunt for answers about the recent events at Mizzou

 The first thing we learned?

Wayne Goode, who was on the board of curators at the time, said officials assumed the businessman was attuned to race relations and would be adept at handling them.

Most recently, black students — including the student body president — reported being called racial slurs. Someone, using human feces, drew a swastika on a bathroom wall.   

Incidents like these are nothing new, according to several black alumni we interviewed.

Shawn Taylor, who went to Mizzou in the 1980s, said the recent events there unlocked painful memories of her own college experience.

She and other alums said their time at MU was smattered with instances of racism that often garnered an apathetic response from those in charge.

Saint Louis University history professor Stefan Bradley, who got his Ph.D from Mizzou, said it’s almost seems “unconscionable” that diversity issues weren’t a big part of the conversation given this history.

Raymond Cotton, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who negotiates contracts between college presidents and university boards, said officials are usually looking for someone who can raise money.

Issues like diversity and race aren’t normally top of mind in leadership searches, he said.

But that may be changing because of what happened at Mizzou, Bradley and Cotton said.

Since Wolfe’s resignation from the UM system, there’s been a wave of activism about race on college campuses around the country.

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This report includes sources from our Public Insight Network. Learn more about the network and how you can become a source  here.

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