Response to the UNC Town Hall Meeting

By: Managing Editor Jackson Valentine

Yesterday, our school hosted what was supposed to be a balanced discussion of race relations at UNC. The meeting was dubbed a “town hall”, and was to be a place where people could express their opinions and ideas on race relations without name-calling, shouts of racism, or interruptions. But that was quickly tossed out the window when a group of students, comprised of the Black Student Movement and the Real Silent Sam Coalition, interrupted the meeting and proceeded to read a list of 50 demands called “A Collective Response to Anti-Blackness”. This list was addressed to not only UNC administration, but also to the Board of Trustees, Board of Governors, and the General Assembly.

One doesn’t even have to look past the first paragraph to see what’s really going on here; it has nothing to do with race relations, and everything to do with a small minority of students terrorizing this campus that like to cry and make a scene when they aren’t given what they want. Straight out of the gate, these students claim that our school is “unethical”, that we exploit black people in labor and in athletics, and that we treat “black and brown people as less than essential to the everyday running of UNC.” The first paragraph goes on to say that since 1968, little has changed among race relations on campus because we still operate under a system of “white supremacist, patriarchal capitalism.”

I’m not going to go through the entire list, because it’s torture on logic is likely too much for most rational human beings to handle, but I point out the quotes in the opening to show that every accusation made against the university by this particular group of students is a complete fallacy. Nothing that was said in the list made by the students of the Black Student Movement (BSM) or The Real Silent Sam Coalition (RSSC) has any truth in it. If you didn’t know anything about UNC and were reading the news stories and the list that was read last night, you would think that this school is full of nothing but a bunch of racists and a racist administration that could be likened to the Alabama school system during integration. However, we at The Carolina Review are here to tell you that nothing could be further from the truth. The race baiters who wrote this list are trying to convince you that massive racial injustices have been committed at UNC Chapel Hill, and that is simply false. There is absolutely NO evidence that black people have been exploited in the labor force at UNC, NO evidence that black people have been treated as less than essential on campus, and NO evidence that our school exists under a patriarchal, white supremacist system.

Given the fact that their claims are very clearly false, you might be asking yourself why would they even make such a big scene at this meeting and read this list. The answer is twofold. (1) The goal for these students is to cause as much chaos on campus as possible, because they are fueled by divide and hatred. Whether it be attempting to force pro-confederate protesters off campus, interrupting the university day ceremony with shouting, or interrupting a peaceful discussion on race, the satisfaction they get from rule by being louder than everyone else is nauseating to say the least. (2) These groups, and other groups like them are part of a larger effort across the country to kindle up racism where it doesn’t exist to force political correctness on college campuses. These groups have a common denominator that easily proves my point: any dissent is known as racism and hatred. This point will only be further proven when I too am called a racist for writing this article, and I can sit back, smile, and say “I told you so”. Led by the umbrella group NAACP (or more aptly named NAAPC, The National Association for the Advancement of Political Correctness) the push for silencing free speech on college campuses in the name of political correctness has reached an alarming point. Trigger warnings, micro-aggressions, and “unsafe spaces” have riddled our schools for some time now, and the notion that dissent equals racism has really brought the issue to a boiling point.

If you have the time to read the whole list, you can see that none of their demands can be met. They propose drastic changes that include not allowing SAT and ACT scores to be considered during the admission process, demanding UNC systems president Margaret Spellings be fired for referring to LGBT lives as “those lifestyles” (God forbid), and demanding that all of UNC’s facilities (including classes) be open to all North Carolina residents, regardless of age or income.

Most of these demands are not only impossible to implement, but they are out of the hands of UNC administration. Come on guys, do you really think demanding the SAT be done away with at a town hall meeting will really make that happen? Do you really think UNC administration has the power to fire Margaret Spelling? And do you REALLY think they’re going to open the doors of UNC to every single North Carolinian so we can insure that UNC becomes your everyday community college? No, of course you don’t, because you just want to make a scene. You want to annoy this campus to no end with your ridiculous demands. What are you going to say when Margaret Spellings looks at you as says, “Nah I think we’re good, but thanks for the input”?

Here’s the good news: last night’s town hall interruption finally exposed what BSM and RSSC stand for. Instead of UNC students and faculty viewing them as a group to prevent racism, they view them as a group of students who want to protest for the heck of it. These two groups completely lost any credibility they ever had once they published this list. These demands are SO absurd and SO outrageous that people now see them for what they really are: socialist race-baiters who want to create controversy and stay in the limelight because it’s the “hip” thing to do. If you hear people on campus talk about the events last night or read the latest Yik Yak feed, you will find that conversations normally applauding these groups for promoting equality have turned to conversations of disbelief at the views the groups hold. “Do they really want this school to be free and open to everyone?” “Do they really believe we should cut all ties to Nike (a $40 million contract)? “Is it really safe to decriminalize sleeping on campus after midnight for non students (homeless people)?”

These are the conversations I am hearing now, and after years of pointing out this fallacy, I could not be happier. People are beginning to understand the radical black liberation theology that is behind groups like the BSM and the RSSC.

So to the Black Student Movement and the Real Silent Sam Coalition, I believe that I can confidently say that your gig is up. You went too far, and you exposed yourself for what you really are: nothing more than a front for racial divide and promotion of hatred and intolerance on campus. The very things that you claim you want to stop, you are prolonging and exasperating. The wonderful and intelligent students at UNC are tired of you ruining every political event, every ceremony, and every discussion had on this campus with your false cries of racism and discrimination. Just like the boy in the childhood story, you cried wolf too many times, and people are done listening.