Black students at the University of Michigan (UM) told The New York Times Magazine that the institution’s plethora of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives are a failure.
“D.E.I. at Michigan is rooted in a struggle for racial integration that began more than a half-century ago, but many Black students today regard the school’s expansive program as a well-meaning failure,” NYT Magazine columnist Nicholas Confessore wrote.
Confessore added that the university serves a larger population of Hispanic, Asian and first-generation students, and a “more racially diverse staff.” He added that while Blacks make up 14 percent of Michigan’s population, only 5 percent of students at UM are Black.
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One student called UM’s diversity efforts “superficial” and, despite the institution’s programs, they betrayed “a general discomfort with naming Blackness explicitly.”
Princess-J’Maria Mboup, the speaker of the university’s Black Student Union, told Confessore that “the students that are most affected by D.E.I. …