Antiblackness in the Ivies: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Public and Private Ivy League Presidential Responses to the Murder of George Floyd

• In Event: Campus Climate Studies and (In)Action

Abstract

The killing of George Floyd ignited the entire country. Colleges and universities were not absent within the array public statements released in response to Floyd’s murder. The purpose of this study is to critically interrogate the responses of Ivy League university presidents' to the murder of George Floyd. The guiding questions for this study are as follows: How do Ivy League college presidential statements articulate the significance of the state murder of George Floyd? What are the roles and responsibilities of colleges and universities? How do these statements implicate Black people and Blackness? A related aim of this paper is to luminate the ways in which antiBlackness is a constitutive element of higher education in general, and the ivies specifically.

Authors

• Christopher Wright, University of Pittsburgh
  Presenting Author

• T. Elon Dancy, University of Pittsburgh
  Non-Presenting Author