UMD Drops Support for Controversial Anti-Racism Campaign

A week after University of Minnesota Duluth’s chancellor said the school wouldn’t pull out of the controversial Un-Fair Campaign, UMD has done just that.

A news release from the University’s main campus late Tuesday afternoon said UMD had “indefinitely suspended” its membership in the campaign “pending a change in the campaign’s emphasis and creative approach.”

On June 25, UMD Chancellor Lynn Black objected to a new video released as part of the 6-month old campaign, which is aimed at promoting racial equality by calling attention to white privilege. The video, shown at www.unfaircampaign.org, depicted white people with phrases such as “We’re privileged: People see us, not a color.”

Black said several people complained to UMD and the University of Minnesota after seeing inaccurate reports that UMD paid for the campaign and produced the video. But at the time he said UMD wasn’t withdrawing from the partnership.

“We’re still very much committed to the goals of the campaign and to the foundation the campaign is built on,” he said then.

But the news release on Tuesday said the focus of the public service announcement was divisive and had “alienated some UMD alumni, supporters and others in the broader community.”

It also said the video had been pulled from the campaign’s website at Black’s request.

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Representatives ofall 18 partners in the Un-Fair Campaign met on Monday. “They reaffirmed the group’s fundamental goals to promote racial equality and create a constructive dialogue about eliminating racism,” the news release said. But they also recognized “the messaging and creative emphasis has been divisive.”

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Although this is the first time an organization has suspended involvement in the Un-Fair Campaign, it has been controversial virtually since Jan. 24, when it was launched with the slogan, “It’s hard to see racism when you’re white.”

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