By Marcus Ghee, Campus Carrier Contributing Columnist
I am in a very difficult spot right now. I’m torn between the place that I have chosen to call home for the last three years and what I know to simply be right. Berry College has a discrimination problem that it is effectively refusing to do anything about. It’s allowing racist and xenophobic messages to don our campus.
I don’t know how many of you have seen the new chalk writings in front of McAllister this week, but let me give you a quick update: they’re a part of something called #TheChalkening that is being largely perpetrated by a group known as Old Row. A quick look at their Twitter page showed me that it’s nothing more than a bunch of privileged frat boys and sorority girls (I haven’t seen a single person of color, or POC, on the page, but you can’t assume all of its supporters are white) who are fighting against what they feel is a nation that is becoming too PC, too much of a world filled with safe spaces and trigger warnings. I agree with the use of safe spaces as they are necessary for voices that would usually be drowned out by some of America’s favorite themes: heteronormativity, racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia. I also agree with the use of trigger warnings if someone feels they want to use them. There’s nothing wrong with letting someone know the content of what you’re putting out there. Some people have been through things they aren’t ready to delve into yet, and if they don’t want to view that material, that’s their right.
The new chalk writing is problematic. The writing by the townhouses condemns Hillary Clinton, calling her a rapist. It condemns the usage of safe spaces. It loudly proclaims “Build that wall” and “Mexico will pay.” The depiction of someone climbing over a border wall and “Grab her by the p***y” are emblazoned across the front entrance of one of our most popular academic buildings, McAllister. It tells Democrats to beware.
This isn’t the first time this has happened on Berry’s campus. It occurred about a month ago in front of Krannert and McAllister. I brought it up to our SGA body and to the administration by way of Dean Heida. Their answer was that the writings would stay, as it is considered free speech. I tried as hard as I could to get them to understand that to them it might be free speech, but a lot of the slogans and phrases written across the sidewalks are wrapped up in racism and xenophobia and that to minorities it creates a sense of fear. I warned that it would further alienate the minority students on campus. I, along with the SGA student body, was told that the chalk would stay and that’s it. As much as I did not agree with the decision, I tried to see it from the stance of it being important for political discourse.
At the SGA meeting this Tuesday, a young man stood up, poured his heart out and explained to us how this speech and the drawings are making him and other minority students feel, how it makes us uneasy and feel unsafe. I expressed the same sentiments about how it is not simply campaign slogans, how it is a call to make sure everyone who doesn’t fall in line with what Trump wants, which is basically any minority, is not worthy of being in this country. That it is insinuating that we do not deserve respect as human beings. We were still met with “the chalk will stay.” I have never been more disappointed in this school in my entire college career. What the administration and the people who want the chalk to stay do not understand is that this is not a matter of differing political opinions. This is a matter of discrimination. Over the last couple of months, myself and other minority students have been made to feel that we do not belong here on campus. That our feelings mean nothing in the face of what some white boys who want to flex their ignorance want to put across our campus, effectively trying to represent all of us. I don’t feel safe walking on campus anymore, knowing that at any moment someone who feels this way could approach me and engage me violently. Any minority will tell you what speech like that does: it encourages people to exclude us because of our race. It’s the passive stance the school is taking that the American government took while Jim Crow laws and a rigged justice system allowed slavery to essentially stay in effect for years after slavery “ended.” It’s the passiveness that the German people took as the SS rounded up millions of Jews, Gypsies, special needs citizens and other minorities. It’s the same passiveness that allows the women of this country to still be shamed and ostracized when they’re sexually assaulted. It’s the passiveness that minorities have seen for generations. That passiveness that says, “you do not matter.”
What Trump and his campaign have done is mobilize ignorance and intolerance. We have seen the type of people who wholeheartedly support this man attack and assault people in the name of his speech. It creates a sense of fear among students, myself included, when these messages are splattered across campus. The school and the people who write this mess are looking at free speech through a lens that most of us do not possess — white privilege. To you guys, it’s just some good fun. To the rest of us, it’s a clear message: you do not matter and we don’t care that you know we don’t think you matter. You’re normalizing racism by being passive about something like this. You’re ignoring your minority students in favor of a few people, despite all of us paying the same tuition.
Being a minority is a hard thing in America. Being a minority and going to a predominantly white institution is also a hard thing. But being a minority in America, while going to a predominantly white institution, while also having that institution effectively endorse discrimination from other students is unacceptable.