A professor at a top university in the United States declared that property is racist and looting is similar to emancipation from slavery according to a new video posted by the university.
Assistant Professor at Boston University Saida Grundy was taking part in a special video series honoring the death of George Floyd when she made the claims.
Immediately Grundy starts off by telling off President Joe Biden, who had previously called on Black Lives Matter protesters to stop destroying property during protests. According to Grundy, black people used to be property so the looting is justified.
Grundy says in the video, “We hear President Biden say, you know, I understand your frustrations but don’t destroy property. Well, when you say that to Black people who historically have been property, one of our greatest weapons against injustice was the looting of ourselves as property from the system of slavery.”
She then declared that property is racist in and of itself since it used to include human beings. Grundy added, “And what we see in communities is they’re reacting to the very racism of what we call property.”
According to Boston University, Grundy is a “feminist sociologist of race & ethnicity” who covers women’s and gender studies, sociology and African-American studies. Grundy’s research has included issues such as masculinity and “social justice capitalism” as well as “racialized rape culture.”
While the claims by Grundy are hardly new, the fact that the University intentionally pushed her claims online are certainly controversial. Justifying looting and destruction is unlikely to do much to promote the argument of ending excessive police violence against minority suspects. Do you think Grundy has a good point that property is inherently racist and looting is okay for Black Americans, or is her statement itself racist since it segregates crimes by race?
