The first student sit-in at Princeton in 20 years

RantWoman THOUGHT she was supposed to stay on a sort of linear path involving some basic "do this daily to function" tasks and some work RantWoman would characterize partly as #BlackLivesMatter. RantWoman thought this, but apparently God has other ideas or at least eccentric pre-holiday gifts arriving with  the next increment of #christmascactus



Christmas cactus 11 21 2015

RantWoman is interested to learn via eddies in her tweet stream that ever since the black students at Mizzou were able to force out the university president, there has been a wave of protests at a number of colleges: Towson State in MD, the University of North Carolina, a couple others. RantWoman finds it energizing to hear of these protests.



Tiger in front of Nassau Hall

#occupyNassau  #PrincetonProtest

Posted in a couple places on Facebook:
Last night when I was following events on a different hashtag, Twitter served me uup a couple items with the tag #OccupyNassau about Princeton students occupying Nassau Hall, at one time the nation's capitol asking Princeton to address Woodrow Wilson's racist legacy and calling for more student space specifically for the Black experience.
On Facebook, the hashtag has a wonderful video of students' statements about why they are participating, a great solidarity statement by Cornel West and several other items I did not interact with.
Other items appear under #PrincetonProtest
My facebook feed includes both other veterans of Nassau Hall sit-ins and lots of people who probably wonder, look you went to Princeton, why did you have to go and sit in too?
It was  senior year, an anti-apartheid protest related to divestment questions.  Also, my Freshman year anti-apartheid activists held an all-night study-in inside the section of Firestone library that houses government and UN documents. I thought of participating and supported it but did not join in.
So this time I want to show solidarity just by posting this to Facebook.

My freshman year I lived in 1901 hall. I lived in a 3-room suite with two other women. We were told that in the 1800's our suite would have housed one Princeton gentleman and his slave but the custom was to free slaves upon graduation. That legacy is a piece of what one acquires by enrolling in Princeton.

I would not have learned as much about the diversity of African American experience if I had, say, stayed in MT for college. I continue to learn. And I support students urging people to continue to learn, and I think it's probably about darn time people thought about Woodrow Wilson being what one commentator calls "a racist pig, even by the standards of his time."

Student statements, a sampling
Naimah Hakim '16 Black Justice League organizer
Cornel West "Justice is what love looks like in pulbic."

Why students are participating: iffy audio and interesting signs if you can read them

Rev William Barber


Daily Princetoninan: students walk out, occupy Nassau Hall, present demands

Daily Princetonian: Eisgruber and BJL come to agreement

One of the things RantWoman really likes about how this sit-in turned out is a commitment to continued conversation! RantWoman expects we are going to learn / relearn a lot more about Woodrow Wilson. Gotta love that continuing revelation!
Article: Woodrow Wilson was a racist pig even by the standards of his day.