Michigan State University pushes an extreme land acknowledgment. According to MSU, “Land Acknowledgements are especially important in contemporary nation-states, like the US and Canada, in which the political structures are based on settler-colonialism and the expropriation of Lands from Indigenous peoples.” MSU’s message is clear: students who are not of indigenous descent are thieves and colonizers, and all students of indigenous descent are victims. This land acknowledgment was created explicitly to disparage people of certain races/ethnicities and pander to others. MSU’s land acknowledgment is especially baffling because the school admits its land was “ceded.” (Notably, MSU never offers to cede its land to a group it claims was displaced.) MSU further institutionalizes this narrative by reading their land acknowledgment aloud regularly at school events. Additionally, many faculty include the acknowledgment in their email signatures. MSU berates students with this discriminatory ideology every day.
YAF therefore filed a civil rights complaint with the Department of Education to expose this and other wrongful programs at MSU. You are encouraged to read the full complaint.
Date: March 2025
Status: Ongoing
Complaint:
