Capitalizing the word “Black” is in many ways the lowest of low-hanging fruit for justice for oppressed people. It doesn’t require any new thinking; just add another little loop on top. Black is not a color, it is a people.

In some ways, University officials have demonstrated a laudable desire to seriously examine our own complicity in the institutional racism of St. Louis. When I say “our,” I mean all of us who study or work at Wash. U., not just the administrators who take most of the heat.