Chancellor Randy Woodson made an unexpected appearance at Thursday’s Racial Climate Town Hall, nearly all of which was focused on the racist GroupMe conversations that were screenshotted and posted to social media on Sept. 27.
Woodson, along with key members of his legal staff, quickly became the focus of the open forum section of the town hall. Students demanded that some form of disciplinary action be taken against the students involved in the group chat, often equating the comments made in the group chats with hate speech.
However, Woodson maintained that the language used was protected under the First Amendment.
The screenshots showed frequent use of the N-word by two NC State freshmen, Connor Jackson and Brennen Smith, as well as references to the Charlotte protests as “the monkey exhibit being let out.” Jackson at one point sarcastically declared “what racists” in reference to those who “aren’t fans of dumb black n——.”
Another key point of focus at the town hall were comments by NC State freshman Raiford Garrabrant Jr. who said in a separate chat that he wouldn’t attend a Black Lives Matter protest until he got his concealed carry license (which would be in three years) and that, “Honestly I would feel better going with a gun, I can’t lie about that.”
NC State is a public university, so its policies on racial discrimination and harassment must be in line with federal, state and UNC System law. These laws do not justify punishing individuals for using the N-word or other racial epithets in private, as these conversations initially were, according to Woodson.
“The law defines what racial harassment means and it’s not individual conversations,” Woodson said. “If you’re harassing someone personally and using race as the mode of harassment, that’s a student conduct issue — it may even be a legal issue — but if you’re saying things in private email chat rooms it’s not harassment unfortunately. That’s the way the law is written.”
Section 2.1 of NC State’s Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy defines racial harassment as “unfavorable treatment with regard to a term or condition of employment, or participation in an academic program or activity.”
Section 2.2 of the policy defines racial harassment as “any unwelcome conduct” that creates a situation in which “submission to, or rejection of, unwelcome conduct by an individual is used as the basis for an education decision” and also “when an individual believes that he or she must submit to the unwelcome conduct in order to participate in school program or activity.”
The policy further defines what constitutes a hostile environment that is “when unwelcome conduct … is sufficiently severe or pervasive to deny or limit a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from NC State’s programs or activities or create an intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment.”
A hostile environment is determined, according to the Section 2.2.2 of the Equal Opportunity and Non-Discrimination Policy by whether “a reasonable person” would find the conduct in question offensive and whether the person to whom the conduct is directed at finds it offensive.
None of the students involved in the group chat conversations have been charged with any student conduct violation as a result of the chats being made public.
The lack of action by the university, along with what many considered an insufficient apology from Jackson and Smith, led the students to question what use racial discrimination and harassment policy was if it wasn’t going to be used to punish these kinds of incidents.
Achaia Dent, public relations manager for the Black Student Board and one of the most vocal at the forum, said the university was misguided in its treatment of these students.
“You’re protecting First Amendment rights instead of human rights,” Dent said. “That’s how I feel.”
Dent, a sophomore studying animal science, also claimed that there was an inconsistency between the federal laws and NC State policy. “I think that if they want us to follow the law then the policy should match up with the law because it doesn’t,” Dent said. “The policy says there’s going to be repercussions for actions like these and hate speech is not welcome here, but [Woodson] is going by the law.”
With regard to Garrabrant’s comments, Paul Cousins, director of the Office of Student Conduct, said that “there is no direct threat or intent to commit a crime” and that his statements are “neither severe nor pervasive.”
“Regardless of how offensive we may personally find these posts, and regardless of how these statements are in direct contrast to our university’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, as in all speech incidents, we must consider the context of the speech, the nature of the words, the severity or pervasiveness of the speech and whether this language constitutes a true threat where action is imminent,” Cousins said.
Cousins said that charging these students with a student conduct violation would require the implementation of a “civility code,” but that the lack of one does not mean that the university does nothing in response to these kinds of incidents.
“There’s no chance that a student is just cut loose,” Cousins said. “The response always is to get the student connected with somebody that can be that guide.”
An estimated 160 people were in attendance at the Racial Climate Town Hall in Stewart Theater on Thursday afternoon. The event was hosted by NC State Student Government with the intention to open the discussion on race relations on campus.
