Catherine Rogers
Editor-In-Chief
What started as Diversity Week, ended with campus-wide rumors about racism at Bryan. Students attending chapel on Jan. 25 heard the “racism announcement” and without specifics, questions and speculations began to spread. Students spoke of racial slurs being carved into trees and minority students leaving Bryan at the end of the semester.
When asked to help clarify some of the rumors, Dean of Student Life Bruce Morgan had no comment for Triangle.
The truth, according to Student Body President Vincent Smith, is that Diversity Week was not planned as a response to recent racist acts on campus, but rather was planned at the beginning of last semester as part of the year’s chapel themes.
The week’s theme did, however, raise questions amidst the student body as to whether the Bryan community actually needed a series of lectures on diversity. According to Smith, many students vocalized the feeling that racial or cultural insensitivity wasn’t a problem at Bryan and that caused the formation of the group that made the announcement in chapel last Wednesday.
In a way, the announcement was meant to validate the need for the diversity series, according to Smith. It was also meant to challenge the student body in several ways: to make students more aware of the problem of racial or cultural insensitivity at Bryan, to get students thinking about ways to overcome ignorance or unawareness to insensitivity, and to encourage students to respond to derogatory or insensitive language they may hear on campus as brothers and sisters in Christ.
“[The announcement] was meant to bring us together [in this effort],” said Smith.
In general, the majority of racial insensitivity at Bryan comes in the form of tactless stereotypical comments, according to Smith who has been one of the primary people these incidents have been reported to.
“Individual students are kind of dealing with it on our own because it’s a heart issue and I don’t know how much reporting it to the administration would help,” said Smith. “But ignorant comments happen all the time.”
Another example, according to Smith, occurred last semester when a sign was posted on a tree near the pathway in front of Long dorm containing racial slurs and other derogatory language (see picture). The context of the sign is unknown, but despite being offensive and talked about by many, the sign was left up for three days.
“People just left it there for three days and it was left up to one of the groups being discriminated against to take it down,” said Smith referring to Senior Ashton Alexander who tore down the sign.
Insensitivity has not just been limited to racial issues, but happens toward many minority groups on campus, according to Smith.
“If there’s just one black person or one democrat in a classroom, that’s often highlighted [in some way],” said Smith. “Someone may make a joke about poor people living off of welfare and people laugh, but there could be someone in the room that comes from a home that does.”
There have also been cases of students knowingly saying malicious and racially insensitive things, but of this category, Smith did not feel comfortable sharing specific examples with Triangle.
“Students are leaving [Bryan] more because they just don’t feel at home here,” said Smith. “It’s not really in response to a specific incident or a sudden decision, but more a cumulative effect of little things.”
For Sophomore Taylor Hutchinson, (one of the students who is considering leaving Bryan at the end of this semester) the biggest problem with racism at Bryan has been small, snide comments and generalizations, particularly on Twitter and Facebook.
Although racism is not Hutchinson’s reason for leaving Bryan, it has been an added “push to leave.” She feels like she’s been put in a box in a negative way and doesn’t want to be looked at based on the color of her skin, but rather her beliefs.
“As the body of Christ we need to understand that, yes, we are different, but we are the body of Christ,” she said. “Once we understand that, then we can start to see our differences as a positive instead of a negative.”
Smith said that the message and movement begin stressed right now is not to be oversensitive, but to fight insensitivity by working towards being more aware.
“Recognize and be aware that there are different cultures at Bryan and some things that are funny to you may be insensitive to others,” he said.
Hutchinson feels that now that the problem has been recognized at Bryan, action needs to be taken.
“We need to start seeking a more diverse campus,” she said. “Not just in students, but also with faculty and staff.”
Smith also emphasized that this issue is not one that we should limit to addressing just during the time we are at Bryan.
“This is something that we can take out of our experiences in this community to the world, because the world has this problem as well,” he said. “There is a bigger significance.”