‘Whee want change’ WCU students call for policy changes following racially charged videos BY HOLLY KAYS STAFF WRITER ive Western Carolina University students are no longer enrolled at the school after appearing in a pair of videos that featured racial slurs and surfaced on social media the first weekend after classes began. The university community showed overwhelming support for the students’ departure from campus during a march held Wednesday, Aug. 26, drawing more than 800 people.
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CALLS FOR CHANGE
Western Carolina University athletes led a march through campus Aug. 26 calling for an end to racism and more clarity in university policies addressing it. Holly Kays photo
VIOLATION, APOLOGY AND DISCIPLINE The videos in question appeared on social media over the weekend of Aug. 22. The first featured three white female WCU students and began with one of them performing a rap that includes the ‘n’ word. It then cuts to a second person, who says that, ‘(if they can) call you a c____, you’re allowed to call them a n___.” The third woman states that it’s acceptable to use the word as long as you end it with an “a,” not with an “er.” The second video showed two white male students explaining that when they use the OK symbol, all they mean is “damn, that’s nice,” and that they’re not “being f*in racist” and using it as a symbol of white supremacy. However, they appear to do this while making ample use of the ‘n’ word and conclude by saying “if you do know some n__ gals who want to come over and f**k man, let me know.” However, the first speaker in the video — not the one who made degrading comments about Black females — said in a Twitter post that he was not saying the “n” word at all. Rather, he averred, he’d been saying “Negus,”
the name of the Snapchat user he was addressing. The post appeared on a newly created profile using the handle @johnsmith61224 along with a 95-second apology video. It came hours before the university announced that the students were no longer enrolled. “The video was my grossly inappropriate reaction and response to a fellow student about a post I made using a symbol that I genuinely did not know meant anything racist,” the man said. “It was absolutely wrong of me to laugh and smile when the other person in the video spoke inappropriately. I am not a racist nor do I support racist beliefs or actions whatsoever. This was a horrible mistake of mine that I will forever regret.” The videos that included the racist language appeared on the students’ personal accounts and were later shared by others who tagged WCU in those posts. Brown was quick to issue public statements condemning the contents. On Aug. 25, WCU Communications Director Bill Studenc said that the matter would be investigated and disciplined through the process outlined in the Code of Student Conduct.
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A sea of purple gathered around the fountain area on campus that day to participate in the Whee United March organized by the WCU Football Team, with participants marching in a column that took nearly 10 minutes to pass by as it moved east on Memorial Drive, down Killian and then looped around the Bardo Performing Arts Center via Centennial Drive on its return to the fountain, where student leaders and Chancellor Kelli R. Brown delivered comments during a brief speaking program. In addition to students, the marchers included faculty, staff, alumni, administrators and trustees. Students held signs bearing slogans such as “No room for racism,” “Silence is compliance,” “BLM” and “Expel racism,” and chanted two key slogans — “Whee want change” and “We’ve had enough.” Event organizer Donnavan Spencer is a senior criminal justice major and running back on the football team. He initiated the march after seeing how his teammates reacted to the contents of the social media videos. One particular teammate, he said, was reduced to tears by what he saw. “After I saw that it made me want to start something and be not just a reactive person but a proactive person,” said Spencer. So he talked to Head Coach Matt Spier,
and the team decided it would sit out of training and team meetings until change started happening on campus. The students who appeared in the videos “are no longer enrolled at WCU and will not return” — the university stopped short of specifically stating they had been expelled — and that’s a development that Spencer applauds. He envisioned the march as a way to forge unity on campus while also advocating for more permanent changes. “Now we want to start attacking policies,” said Spencer. In particular, Spencer wants to see changes to the university’s policy on unlawful discrimination and to sections of the student code of conduct that deal with hateful and harassing speech. The policies need to be a lot clearer, he said, both in terms of what is and is not allowed and in terms of what the consequences are for violation. “We know we have the Creed and we have the Student (Code of ) Conduct, but it’s very vague,” said Kourtnee Harris, chief of the Intercultural Affairs Council, during the speaking program. “It allows for people to have a lot of loopholes, and that’s not what we want. If we want our voices to be heard and we want justice to be served every single time, there needs to be something written.” A petition from ICA is now circulating online, asking supporters to sign on in agreement with the statement that, “The students of WCU NEED for Western Carolina University to implement a written policy that states clear and concise guidelines on what the consequences will be for any physical and/or mental harm due to racial actions. We also ask that students be notified that if harm is done, the student body will be informed that the participants of those actions will be going through a due process and will be punished.” In an interview earlier that day, Brown expressed support for that request. “We’re going to continue to look at everything on campus to make sure that this is a place where people feel safe, regardless of your race, the color of your skin,” she said. “And we’re going to continue to do that. This could be a catalyst for that, and we’ll continue on.”
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