HOLY SHIT! YOU CANNOT SAY ‘FORGET BLACK LIVES MATTER, MORE LIKE ALL LIVES MATTER’ AT THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON

UH to sanction Student Body VP over anti-Black Lives Matter post

By Zach Despart

Houston Press
July 29, 2016

Rohini Sethi may not have realized the implications of publicly criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement as a student leader at a predominantly nonwhite university earlier this month.

But her classmates are ready to punish her either way.

The University of Houston student government Senate has passed a resolution calling for the suspension of Sethi, the student government vice president, after her criticism of Black Lives Matter sparked a controversy on campus.

In a 14-2 vote, senators empowered student body President Shane Smith to sanction Sethi as he sees fit.

"I think my responsibility is to do what the students ask and what the Senate believes is best while taking into consideration all the factors going into this," Smith said.

Hours after a gunman killed five Dallas police officers on July 7, Sethi posted on Facebook: "Forget #BlackLivesMatter; more like #AllLivesMatter."

The post spurred groups on campus to call for her resignation, including the Black Student Union and Alpha Phi Alpha, a predominantly black fraternity. In a statement posted on Twitter, the Black Student Union said Sethi's post was dismissive of the Black Lives Matter movement, a social movement seeking equal protection under the law for people of color, especially at the hands of the police.

Sethi has not stepped down. She did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Smith said he is deciding the appropriate sanction for Sethi, and said senators sought a punishment "between a slap on the wrist and a full-blown impeachment."

He said some senators had recommended suspending Rohini from all SGA duties for 45 days, without pay, and requiring her to attend sensitivity training. Sethi receives a roughly $700-per-month stipend, Smith said.

Smith cautioned that Sethi was speaking for herself, and not the SGA, when she wrote the post — but that nonetheless, it reflected on her SGA colleagues. Smith said he will announce his decision Friday.

According to a 2015 fact sheet published by UH, the largest racial backgrounds within the student body are Hispanic (29 percent), white (26 percent), Asian (20 percent) and African-American (12 percent).

Smith, an economics major, said the SGA held a successful town hall meeting on race relations earlier this week, but said he looks forward to listening more to to student concerns.

"I think there has been progress. It's unfortunate that it took a negative situation like this to get people ready to talk, ready to engage on bigger community-wide issues," Smith said. "We're making it a goal to work on those."

EDITOR’S NOTE: It’s a good thing Rohini did not say, “Forget Black Lives Matter, more like Blue Lives Matter.” Had she said that, there’s no telling what they would have done to the poor girl.

If the UH administration were the least bit concerned about free speech, they should step in and suspend the whole student senate!