Universities Should Be At Forefront of Taking Down Racist Icons

In a previous post, I remarked on the cases in South Africa where some university students were clamoring for the removal of colonial and apartheid symbols off college campuses. This movement has apparently reached the United States, picking up steam especially after the recent slaying of nine black people in Charleston, South Carolina, by a white supremacist. The call for the removal of racist symbols can now be heard from South Carolina to Mississippi and Alabama, the racist heartlands of the United States. In all this, South African students should be seen as pioneers. They started this revolt without shedding a single drop of blood. Blood is being shed on this matter in the United States in part because there has been centuries of training in racism here. It is good that the movement is catching steam on university campuses here in the United States. Where else should such movements begin if not on university campuses? We are still waiting for the voices of students at universities in Mississippi, Alabama, the Carolinas, Georgia, etc. etc.