“This fight is too important to lose,” said Aniyah Vines, founder of a coalition of HBCU students – many of whom have been living in tents on Howard University’s campus for weeks. But from contaminated water to mice infestations, people still didn’t expect students’ fight for better living conditions to result in this shocking reaction.
On Twitter, Howard blamed protesting students for its own decision to lay off Sodexo cafeteria workers – who the university has already been exploiting for years. And as horrible as this all is, there’s an even more sinister layer to the story.
Sodexo is a company that makes millions off of contracting over 100 prisons overseas, and previously had a huge stake in HALF the private prisons in the U.S. Conditions are so inhumane that it’s been criticized for torture – and students elsewhere have pressured their universities to completely divest!
Students struggling to live safely at Howard, the cafeteria workers cooking their meals, and the people incarcerated by Sodexo all deserve human rights. Unfortunately, sometimes challenging the system means challenging your own people. And in this case, it’s necessary. Why?
What good does upholding an institution of “Black excellence” do if it’s built on prison torture, student and worker exploitation, and lies? True Black liberation means ALL of us are free and fed – not just the Black one-percent.