By: Jacob Porwisz
A supposedly anti-racist student organization at UNC-Chapel Hill aims to divide the campus along racial lines.
The Black Student Movement at UNC, in partnership with a Twitter account running “anti-racist” alerts for students, has released a statement describing the groups’ various demands for the school’s chancellor. These include barring of police—even plainclothed officers— from assisting in residence hall move-in, sending automatic “White Supremacist” text alerts for students’ phones, and a relocating the Department of African, African American, & Diaspora Studies due to “controversy” related to the current building’s name.
The club is also calling for an “improved review process” to make it more difficult for conservative speakers and groups to host events on campus. The statement references an event featuring former Trump Campaign Manager Corey Lewandowski and a Pro-Life group, which are described—without rationale—as being “agent[s] of white supremacy.”
The document states that the permit process for speakers on campus needs to be revamped in order “to protect black students from hateful White Supremacist rhetoric and actions on our campus. The group also demands that campus police do not participate in residence hall move-in activities so they can “create a safer space for Black students in the UNC community and initiate a first step towards reducing the over-policing of South Campus.”
UNC-Chapel Hill has dominated recent headlines, as the university recently offered tenure to Nikole Hannah-Jones, the controversial author of the 1619 Project. Hannah-Jones rejected UNC’s offer in favor of a position with Howard University.
UNC’s Black Student Movement’s demands represent a dangerous and unhinged march towards total social justice at the university. Blindly labeling conservatives as “white supremacists,” banning police officers from certain areas of campus, and blocking conservatives from appearing on campus is dangerous and discriminatory. These demands are not advocating for equality or even equity. They are advocating for leftist domination over campus life, and the chancellor at UNC should not give into these outrageous demands.
“The demand from UNC Black Student Movement to discourage free discourse on campus is a dangerous one and should not be adhered to,” the executive board of the UNC College Republicans told YAF in a statement. “It is inappropriate and outrageous to say that Corey Lewandowski and President Trump are white supremacists and UNC College Republicans denounces that premise.”
Jacob Porwisz is the chapter chairman of College of Lake County YAF and serves as a William & Berniece Grewcock Intern Scholar at Young America’s Foundation this summer.
