[Video] Watch UC Berkeley Students School Their Professor About Institutional Racism

By Jamilah King Mar 05, 2015

When students at UC Berkeley’s School of Social Welfare grew tired of a professor’s racially charged remarks, they took a somewhat unconventional approach: a teach-in — for their teacher.

The action happened on February 24 and was aimed at Steven Segal, a tenured professor of social welfare and mental health who’s been with the university for more than 40 years. According to a report in The Bold Italic, Segal, who is white, recited a rap he’d written about "black-on-black crime" at a Black Lives Matter event on campus. Later, in class, he continued rapping, this time about scapegoating police.  Here’s more from The Bold Italic:

"We all experienced the emotional impact of your actions. We would not be here today if this did not really immensely impact pain on all of us," Erika O’Bannon, a student and protest organizer, said to Segal in a YouTube video of the action. "We cannot stand by this institution that supports your beliefs and the beliefs that you’re teaching to this class. We refuse to let this class continue as usual."

Read Julia Carrie Wong’s account at the Bold Italic