Thursday, the Union Activities Board screened the film “Dear White People” in the Witherspoon Student Cinema, followed by a panel discussion, as part of Diversity Education Week Revisited. The film was also screened on Stafford Commons from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., accompanied by a display of signs bearing quotes from the movie, such as “Dear White People, Your silence equals compliance,” “Dear White People, Have you read the 13th Amendment?” and “Dear White People, Stop dancing.” Nothing else appeared on the signs but the UAB logo.
Reactions were mixed, to say the least. Arguments erupted on Wolfpack Students over the definition of “racism,” outraged students were told to attend the panel discussion and voice their concerns and many explained that the signs are simply quotes from the movie, which is advertised as satirical. UAB President Amanda Cannon released a statement the next day, celebrating the “great success” of Diversity Education Week Revisited and addressing the controversy of the signs, explaining, “If you felt uncomfortable yesterday, you may have experienced a small glimpse at how our friends from underrepresented groups feel on a daily basis.”
This event was clearly not a success. Regardless of UAB’s intent and the content of the film and subsequent panel discussion, what the majority of students, parents and visitors saw on Thursday was out-of-context signs with negative statements about people based solely on their race. Even if the sign display was intended to accompany the screening and discussion, only a small portion of the students who passed through Stafford Commons would go to the discussion later that evening; the only message the majority of students received from UAB was what was presented on those signs.
Let me be clear: I do not feel attacked because of my race, but I am disappointed by this event. This is not because I think this is an example of “reverse racism,” nor is it because I am uncomfortable confronting my own privilege as a white person, but because this event completely failed to spark meaningful dialogue, and it left students more divided than united.
Although Cannon said “the messages conveyed yesterday were meant to make us think and evaluate the privileges each of us carries with us,” they didn’t actually highlight white privilege or leave students with anything to consider. The messages simply alienated students and made them uncomfortable for the sake of making them uncomfortable, without any opportunities for reflection. Some of the signs did mention microaggressions (like asking to touch someone’s hair), but by and large they simply derided white people for no clear reason.
How is “Dear White People, Have you read the 13th Amendment?” supposed to make anyone reconsider their own personal privileges or subconscious biases?
Nowhere was there a sign that explained that while 13 percent of the population of U.S. and 22 percent of the population of North Carolina is made up of black people, they comprise only 5.5 percent of NC State undergraduates. None of the signs explained that a white-sounding name like “Connor” is 50 percent more likely to get a callback for an interview than a name perceived as “black-sounding.” There was not a sign placed on Stafford Commons explaining that every chancellor in this university’s history has been white, and there was no part of the display informing students that the president of the United States is proposing an $85 million cut to the budgets of HBCUs across the country. All of these are real, clear advantages that white people in America and at NC State have, yet they were not brought up, in favor of saying “Dear White People, stop dancing.” Also left completely out of the conversation were the non-black minority students, who are more than one-fifth of our undergraduate population.
Thursday could have inspired productive dialogue about personal and institutional biases that divide us based on race. Instead, the Union Activities Board used its time, platform and resources to display unproductive, unnecessarily divisive messages that left students angry and even less receptive to the message that this event was supposed to send. Diversity does not have an easy solution, but this “Dear White People” display is clearly not the answer.