Beijing, 2 Feb (Xinhua) -- More than a dozen colleges and universities in the United States, which mainly recruit students of African descent, have recently received the threat of bombs and have immediately temporarily closed their schools, suspended classes, and called the police.
Briefly closed
The threatened schools were among the "black colleges of history." Such schools refer to colleges and universities established in the United States to enroll students of African descent prior to the enactment of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Before the Civil Rights Act, the United States was racially segregated, and the vast majority of colleges and universities admitted almost exclusively white students.
From January 31 to February 1, more than a dozen U.S. colleges and universities announced the threat of bombs. These schools are located in Maryland, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Delaware, Kentucky and Washington, D.C.
On November 11, 2021, the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, USA, evacuated some of the students in the building after receiving bomb threats. (Xinhua News Agency)
According to information released by several threatened universities on January 31, the schools briefly closed their campuses, stopped teaching, informed students and staff not to move around, and lifted the alarm after a police search of the campus confirmed there were no bombs.
The FBI issued a statement on Jan. 31 saying: "The FBI is aware of a range of bomb threats across the country and is working with law enforcement partners to address possible threats." ”
White House press secretary Jane Psaki, in response to questions about the threat of bombs received by colleges and universities on Feb. 1, said the White House "has no assessment results at this time" and will continue to be informed.
Racial issues
A reporter asked Psaki: Does the White House find it "ironic" that many political leaders in the United States today are graduates of "black colleges and universities in history", and such schools continue to receive bomb threats? Psaki said she might not call it "irony" but would say the threats the school received were "terrible."
In the United States, February is known as "Black History Month". Edward Waters College in Florida received a bomb threat on February 1, and Principal Zachary Feisson Jr. said: "At this point in time, our school believes that it is not a coincidence that such a threat was received. ”
Howard University in Washington received a bomb threat on Jan. 31. López Matthews Jr., the school's librarian, said in an interview with the media: "When issues such as race, civil rights and equality were exposed and became the focus of American society, institutions (serving) the black community became targets. ”
U.S. Vice President Camara Harris attends a press conference in Guatemala on June 7, 2021. Harbezia is a graduate of Howard University. (Xinhua News Agency)
In May 2020, George Floyd, an African-American man, died after being violently enforced by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. In the following months, anti-racial discrimination and anti-police violent law enforcement demonstrations continued in many parts of the United States, during which riots occurred frequently, and issues such as racial equality in the United States once again became a hot topic of public opinion.
Assistant Justice Department Secretary Matthew Olson told a congressional hearing last month that the threat posed by violent extremists in the U.S. country, often with racial malice or anti-government extremism, "has more than doubled the number of FBI investigations into suspected violent extremism in the country since the spring of 2020."
Several of America's "historically black colleges" received bomb threats in early January, and some of them were threatened this time. (End) (Wu Baoshu)