Black Student Union Accuses Pomona Administration of Enabling Racist Environment

Students gather for BSU town hall at Pomona's Walker Hall.

Pomona College’s Black Student Union (BSU) held a town hall attended by hundreds of students last Wednesday night, alleging that black students had been “subjected to hateful experiences on this campus, experiences that range from microaggressions to explicit hate speech to moments that feel like racial violence” and “persecuted in and out of the classroom for simply existing.” The BSU accused Pomona’s administration of complicity in the creation of a hostile environment, and laid out demands for campus reform. Students focused their criticism on black Pomona administrators, including the President and Dean of Students. Many of the recent incidents fall under the protection of California’s Leonard Law, meaning the College cannot legally pursue disciplinary action.

The College’s Black Student Union published an Instagram video on March 13, a few days after Pomona Dean of Students Avis Hinkson sent a school-wide email with the subject line “Addressing Recent Anti-Black Bias Incidents in our Community,” listing a handful of recent incidents of anti-black racism at the college. The BSU post has received over 21,000 likes and 1,000 comments.

“Pomona College does not care about or protect their black students,” one BSU member says in the video, which called for greater accountability for students, staff, and faculty who engage in racist behavior, and ended with a call for students to attend a town hall after spring break. 

Both the video and a subsequent opinion piece in The Student Life titled “Pomona College has a Racism Problem” expanded on and added to the list of incidents Hinkson described in her email, including the use of the n-word by student-athletes and faculty, heated interactions between a staff member and black students at a party, and alleged vandalism in the First-Generation and Low-Income (FLI) student lounge by a group of students. Pomona administrators communicated to the Independent and Pomona’s student government that the FLI lounge incident was a misunderstanding; students left trash behind in the room, which was interpreted by FLI leadership as a targeted incident. According to ASPC meeting minutes, some of the students involved “have stepped forward in terms of accountability and repairing harm that was caused.”

Less than two weeks later, on Wednesday night, students gathered around the north side of Walker Hall, joined by a group of faculty and members of the local black community. BSU organizers handed out small orange flyers. “How do we make sure history doesn’t repeat?” read large text on one side, with bubbles below calling for community support, "structural accountability,” and “shared governance.” The back of the flyer featured an early 20th century picture of Pomona students in blackface, posing as a group before a minstrel show. A Pomona webpage dates the picture to around 1910. “Hold Pomona accountable,” read text below the picture.

One Claremont Colleges Campus Safety officer and 6 security guards from CSC, a crowd-management company frequently hired by the colleges, arrived ahead of the event, briefly speaking with BSU leadership before fanning out around the rapidly growing crowd. A Pomona administrator told the Independent the BSU had requested the security for the town hall. 

The event, attended by upwards of 400 people, was opened by BSU leadership, who emphasized that racism at Pomona College “is not a new issue” and that “what is currently happening here on campus is in fact a broader issue happening in America,” referring to the election of Donald Trump and actions by his administration. “What we are challenging here today, it's simple. It's white institutionalism,” said the introductory speaker. Minority racial groups currently constitute a majority of Pomona’s student body, with only 34% of students identifying as non-hispanic/latino white.

“We are here today because black students at the Claremont Colleges have endured an increasingly hostile racial environment, from microaggressions to overt racial harm,” continued the BSU’s co-president. “The goal of this town hall is for the Pomona College community to gain an understanding of the current racial climate here on campus as it pertains to black students and the administration's complicity in creating this harmful environment.”

Students speak at the town hall.

A Pomona sophomore spoke next, describing some of the incidents which prompted BSU’s campaign. She began by asking students who have experienced racism to raise their hands, with many doing so. “The fact that so many hands go up without hesitation tells us something important. It tells us that what we're dealing with is a pattern,” the speaker said. She continued by asking the audience to put themselves in the shoes of black students “who have been subjected to hateful experiences on this campus, experiences that range from microaggressions to explicit hate speech to moments that feel like racial violence.”

She then began to list a series of recent incidents, beginning with a professor’s recent use of the n-word in class. “This was not described as a one time slip or an isolated mention in an academic context, it was repeated use in front of students in a space, a space where authority and power are already clearly defined.” The professor, identified by the BSU as the chair of the sociology department, Hung Cam Thai, did not respond to a request for comment.

She then described an incident from earlier in the spring semester where a white member of the Pomona-Pitzer men’s basketball team repeatedly sang the n-word to the tune of “Bohemian Rhapsody” while playing the piano in his dorm suite. Unbeknownst to the basketball player, a black student was in a suitemate’s room and immediately confronted him. “Despite the incident being known, the player did not face suspension, the player was not removed from the team and continued to play the remainder of the season without missing a single game,” said the speaker. “Isn't that amazing?” 

The speaker also described a “YN” party hosted by an unspecified sports team “where athletes cosplayed as negative black stereotypes,” mentioned the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps men’s swim and dive team investigation for allegedly racist conduct, and the recent recall of Harvey Mudd College’s student body President-elect over racism and transphobia accusations. 

“This school has a racism problem, and if that sentence makes you uncomfortable—which I mean, it should—it's something to sit with,” continued another member of BSU’s leadership, before describing a Pomona staff member’s intervention during a BSU event at which unregistered alcohol was being served to students, a violation of the College’s policies. “At a recent party with well over maybe like 90 people, one staff member made the decision to lock and block entrances to try to control the space, even though there was no real threat,” the speaker recalled, “But I guess to some people, black joy is a threat.”

“We're being treated like we're criminals,” she continued, “like we're here to disrupt the community rather than be a part of it, and when reports are made about [the staff member], the result is a decision made without any real conversation, to ban BSU from social events. So now spaces that were already limited are being taken away from us.” A Pomona administrator told the Independent that the BSU had been suspended from hosting events for violating the college's alcohol policy, and that the suspension was ended two days after it was issued.

The co-president then spoke again, referring to Pomona’s “Lighting the Path to 2025” diversity initiative as unrealized: “We are now in 2026 and most of you guys have not heard of this… these commitments have not been realized with their strategies seemingly forgotten.” 

The next speaker, a Pomona junior, described the ineffectiveness of Pomona’s efforts to respond to the recent incidents, which he saw as lacking any meaningful sense of accountability. “These acknowledgements,” the student said, contained “no outcomes,” nor an outline to measure progress. Describing the existing outcomes, this student asserted: “When the accountability is invisible, it stops being accountability.” The speaker further criticized the lack of “awareness” around Pomona’s bias report system, rhetorically asking students how many were familiar with the mechanism.

The co-president then continued, describing “an increasingly hateful national political climate,” alleging that “black students at Claremont [were] chased by white folks in trucks screaming racial slurs, while at the same time being persecuted in and out of the classroom for simply existing.” 

Another Pomona junior spoke next, beginning with a “brief history of Pomona,” describing the 1910 minstrel show featured on the flyer handed out by the BSU. The speaker explained how the show was put on by Pomona students as “part of a broader tradition… designed to mock and dehumanize black people.” The student further explained that Pomona’s alma mater “Hail Pomona, Hail!” was created for one such minstrel show, criticizing the college for “[acknowledging] that this history makes the song uncomfortable for students of color,” while allowing it to "remain the official alma mater.” Though “Hail Pomona, Hail!” remains the college’s official alma mater, it has not been performed since the late 2000s. It was retired from use by Pomona’s then-President David Oxtoby after community members campaigned for its removal. 

The speaker then listed the BSU’s demands for Pomona, beginning with the establishment of an “independent bias response and accountability office, separate from existing administrative systems, because students should not have to report harm to the same structures that fail to address it.” The speaker then called for clearer and more transparent investigations, and mandatory bias training for staff and faculty “with real consequences for repeated violations.” The final demands were increased black student participation in institutional governance, “including the hiring process,” and increased funding for black affinity groups and the Office of Black Student Affairs. Referring to the college’s diversity initiatives, the speaker called on Pomona to “[fulfill] the commitments it has already made.” Addressing Pomona, he said: “you cannot celebrate diversity while ignoring the harm that makes it necessary.” 

The BSU speakers then opened the floor to the audience, encouraging them to come up from the crowd. Maya Douglas, the district director for California Assembly Member Mike Gibson, was first to speak, and promised attendees that “the entire California Legislative black caucus knows what's happening here.” Pledging support, she asserted that “the 12 black legislators in the Senate and Assembly are standing with you.” 

The president of Claremont McKenna College’s Black Student Union spoke next, describing a gathering at the beginning of the school year welcoming new black students: “we had a great time partying and dancing,” expressing sadness that the atmosphere no longer felt like celebrating. “It makes me sad [because] there's DJs here, there're people who want to have fun and just celebrate college…but we can’t do that because [of] the racism that we're experiencing.” 

The student recalled someone in a car yelling “Trump” at her after the 2024 presidential election. The student specified that the incident occurred as she was “walking on 6th street,” but did not attribute it to any student of the Claremont Colleges. “I knew what they really wanted to say,” she reflected, adding that looks from parents at school events made her feel she did not belong at Claremont McKenna. With regard to the ‘YN’ party, she stated “I’m insulted that a team felt comfortable enough to build community through racism.” 

Pomona’s senior class president stood up next and reflected on growing up in a district represented by former Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. The student recalled being happy to come to Pomona, which she “imagined…to be so vastly different,” until, at the end of her first semester, she saw “a video circling around about a student calling another student a slave…and [it was] captioned with a monkey emoji.” The speaker then added that the students who had made the video were not white.

A senior at Pitzer college who serves as a vice-president on Pitzer’s student senate spoke next, criticizing faculty members of color for “turn[ing] against students of color,” claiming that a black Pomona faculty member used the phrase “‘I’m tired’ to justify why she “was doing something deeply unfair to [the student].” She closed by offering support on behalf of the Pitzer College student senate, and adding that: “Pitzer is better about those things.”

Shonique Williams, a candidate for California Congressional District 41 came up next, holding a small dog in her arms. She began by promoting her campaign and explaining her motivations for running. “I’m pissed,” she said, referring to the events that prompted the town hall. “I do not play, OK,” expressing a desire to know which students had used the n-word: “Please understand it has taken everything in me for me not to ask [black students], who exactly are these students that have been using these racial slurs?”

“I guarantee they’re not going to say it to my face,” she said, bringing up her social media campaign for the second time. She then recalled beating up a “little boy” who called her the n-word when she was six. “I am enlightened to believe that there are not any of the racist students, the white supremacists in this audience today,” Williams continued, before daring any to come up to her face. Offering her support to Pomona students, she asserted “I’m the family member you do not call unless you want things to get real.” She then told the crowd that she would be giving her phone number to the BSU. 

Shonique Williams speaks at the town hall.

The next student speaker condemned black Pomona administrators, including President Gabi Starr, Dean of Students Avis Hinkson — who was present at the event, and Brandon Jackson, an Associate Dean who oversees the college’s bias-response team. “They still targeting students [sic],” she said, referring to the school’s disciplinary actions against student protesters, and emphasized “we have to mobilize every time a black student is unsafe. The campus police run around thinking that shit sweet. Be provocative, be invigorating, be challenging.”

“They don’t want us here, they don’t care about us being here, they will never care about us being here,” she said, expressing a disinterest in “fake support,” and calling out “zionists in the crowd right now.” The speaker also criticized the presence of campus safety, despite them having been requested by the BSU.

The town hall ended with the Black Student Union co-president offering closing remarks. Referring to the actions taken by Pomona, he expressed that they do not ensure the “black community as a whole feels safe here at Pomona College, because I don't.” He advised attendees to fill out a Google Form accessible through the Black Student Union Instagram page, adding that “we are going to be talking with the administration… on how to keep these people accountable.” The form gives students the opportunity to describe instances where they have experienced or witnessed racism on campus.

On Thursday afternoon, Dean of Students Avis Hinkson sent an update via email to all students, beginning by reiterating Pomona’s commitment to investigating allegations of racism, and noting that it was “meaningful and informative” to hear students’ experiences of discrimination. “In tandem with our ongoing investigations and dialogue with BSU representatives,” Hinkson wrote, “the College is also taking active steps to expand intercultural competence, bias reduction and cultural awareness trainings across campus.”

Hinkson highlighted an “intercultural competence refresher” student-athletes had received over spring break, which paid “particular attention to the harmful impact of the ‘n-word.’” She also wrote that the Athletics Department was working to identify “external facilitators who can engage teams on bias reduction and cultural awareness.” She added that leaders from across the Claremont Colleges were working to “develop additional intercultural competence and bias-reduction programing.”

“We understand the community’s desire for clarity about what has occurred and what steps are being taken to remedy the harm that these incidents have caused our community, particularly our Black students,” Hinkson wrote. “At the same time, we are legally required to protect the privacy of students and employees, which limits the specific information we can share publicly.”

Hinkson also clarified that the college could only pursue disciplinary sanctions against students for conduct rising “to the level of targeted harassment, threat or intimidation.” Under California’s Leonard Law, Pomona cannot punish any speech that would be otherwise protected by the First Amendment. Only when speech crosses into harassment or other limited, unprotected categories could the College take disciplinary action. Hinkson wrote that in situations where speech is protected, the college “relies on education and restorative processes.”

“Racism is antithetical to the College’s mission and core values. It has no place on our campus. We are grateful to the students who spoke up and continue to speak up about their concerns,” Hinkson concluded. The email was also signed by Dean of the College Brent Carbajal and Chief Operating Officer and Treasurer Jeff Roth. 

The co-president of the BSU did not respond to a request for comment regarding the email.

In a statement to the Independent, Lydia Middleton, Dean and Director of the Claremont Colleges Office of Black Student Affairs (OBSA), wrote: “OBSA has developed trust and confidence within the communities we serve, which allows us to participate in frank, earnest discussions of issues relevant to their experiences as Black students. We've explored with them the ways institutions often hold Black people responsible for dismantling oppressive systems (after experiences of antiblack racism are diminished and dismissed), a fact astutely explained at the town hall. OBSA stands with the students who shone a light on the incidents while noting the thread of antiblackness that connects them. We would like to see more nuanced efforts cross institutionally to identify and address antiblackness in all forms, including but not limited to harmful behaviors and rhetoric, and not only when people are paying attention.”

The coach of Pomona-Pitzer’s men’s basketball team did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Pomona College and the Interim Director of Pomona-Pitzer Athletics directed the Independent to Thursday’s email update and declined to comment further.