Opening the dialogue

We commend Brandon Locke, Trinity ’13, for his courage in raising the issue of minority recruitment weekends for campus debate, and for doing so in such a personal and public way.

Clearly race continues to be the subject of heated and passionate debate at Duke. Such conversations are controversial because they are important; they capture disagreements over our deepest beliefs. But it is only through engaging those differences without fear that students learn and grow.

Still, we are dismayed by how this debate unfolded on The Chronicle’s editorial page, and particularly The Chronicle’s online comment boards as we watched from afar as recent Duke alumni. Too often disagreements with Locke were couched in personal attacks, at times racially tinged. Students are certainly entitled to oppose Locke’s views, but to question his “personal identification” as a black student or to suggest that his experience as a black student is illegitimate, as some have done, should not be tolerated in the Duke community.

Although online Chronicle comments may fail to reflect popular discourse, these types of dismissive insults have long been a common experience for minority students on campus with differing views on certain volatile subjects. During our own past involvement calling for greater integration of minority recruitment weekends, several minority students on campus reached out to us to express support—but with the caveat that they could not speak out publicly for fear of being ostracized by minority peers. That Duke students hold those fears should lead us to reflect on whether the Duke community truly is a welcoming place for all voices to be heard.

As this valuable discussion over minority recruitment weekends continues on campus more broadly, we hope that it does so with a greater sensitivity to the diversity of opinion among minority students. While ethnic affinity groups certainly speak for a number of minority students, they do not speak for all of them. Let not those voices be ignored.

Vikram Srinivasan, Trinity ’10

Natalie Figuereo, Trinity ’10