On Tuesday night, Feb. 28, Stacey Patton spoke at the Alumni Memorial Building in a lecture titled “How Killing Black Children is an American Tradition,” despite UT departments pulling funding due to its provocative title.

Patton is a writer and associate professor of multimedia journalism at Morgan State University. She is known for writing op-eds in major publications like the Washington Post and for her memoir, “That Mean Old Yesterday.”

Bertin Louis, vice chair and assistant professor of the African Studies program, introduced Patton and encouraged the audience to live tweet during her lecture using #killingblackchildren.

Three university entities, the School of Journalism and Electronic Media, the College of Communication and Information and the College of Child and Family Studies, removed funding from the speech on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

Catherine Luther, director of the College of Journalism and Electronic Media, said they removed funding because the title of the lecture, which was not announced until after funding was given, hurt the message.

“It did pain me to pull from sponsorship because the actual subject matter is one that we do need to discuss. Throughout the history of the United States, so many courageous American men, women, and children have risked their lives and have fought hard to eradicate racial hatred,” Luther said. “While we need to recognize their accomplishments, if we relegate killing Black children to the position of being ‘an American tradition,’ does that really help us to move toward change?”

The College of Communication and Information and the College of Child and Family Studies were reached out to for comment but The Daily Beacon received no response.

Patton began her presentation by discussing the choice of those UT colleges to remove funding from the event and referred to the departments as fragile.

“A few days before I arrived here in Knoxville, I got word that a few academic programs withdrew their support from my lecture this evening because they didn’t like the title or the content of my talk,” Patton said. “What does it say about African Culture if we can’t have uncomfortable discussions about some very ugly truths of American history?”

The remainder of the lecture focused on why physically punishing children is wrong and how black children are sexualized in the United States. Patton also discussed the direct murder of black children and how other societal issues result in the indirect murder of black children.

She claimed that black parents learned to physically discipline their children from caucasians, because Africans did not do so until they were brought to the United States. Patton said that blacks abuse and kill their children three times more than any other racial group.

“It (physical punishment) was not native to the cultures of our West African ancestors prior to their contact with Europeans,” she said. “If whupping children were a prerequisite for success, then black people should be ruling the world right now, but by all measurements, it’s simply not true.”

Patton claimed that white supremacists in the past believed that the best way to continue their supremacy was by killing other races’ children.

“The denial of innocence and protection to black children was central to maintaining racial hierarchy. Ladies and gentlemen, white supremacy is about destroying humanity, and the first logical step in that process, is to seize and destroy children early on,” Patton said. “One of the greatest tricks of white supremacy is that it has convinced black parents and caretakers to participate in the dehumanization process by hurting their bodies and calling it love and protection.”

Patton also discussed the sexualization of black children in stamps, art and the medical field. During this section, Patton’s slideshow included blurred pictures of undressed children, provocative art and medical reports from the late nineteenth century. She argued that this sort of sexualization is ongoing.

“There’s a lot of stuff like this: comparisons of genitalia of girls and boys, but you don’t actually see the examination of white girls … For what medical purpose?” Patton said.

Feb. 28 marked the last day of Black History Month, during which UT also hosted lectures from Bree Newsome, the South Carolinian who was arrested for removing the Confederate flag and Paul Rusesabagina, a Rwandan humanitarian who sheltered refugees during the Rwandan genocide.

Alex Phillips • The Daily Beacon

Morgan State University Associate Professor Stacey Patton speaks about "How Killing Black Children is an American Tradition." The lecture took place Feb. 28 at UT.