​How to maturely move forward, together

Last week, Dartmouth College joined a growing list of universities in the news for student protests about race. Unlike other instances, however, it was not the actions of the administrators in response to unrest that made headlines but the actions of protesters themselves. According to student reports, a peaceful library protest at Dartmouth “turned ugly” when a small group of participants began to verbally and physically harass their peers. Similarly, protesters at the University of Missouri were criticized for crowding out a student ESPN photographer last week. While it is easy to condemn these groups and discount the national movement protesters stand for, we must remember to be charitable to the nuanced sub-groups and ideas of movements, especially in light of our own on-campus events.

At Duke, as we have noted previously, responses to acts of racism range from disgust to indifference. At worst, we see administrators and students label these events isolated incidents, yet the response to protester missteps are very different. Last Friday, when “Black Lives Matter” was spray-painted on the James B. Duke statue, students of all persuasions used this incident to point out the flaws and wrongheadedness of the larger movement. Incidents of graffiti at Duke or the alleged aggression at Dartmouth can easily frustrate supporters of the #BLM movement and provide extrapolated fodder for skeptics, but students should be primed against this sort of simplistic thinking. As students at Dartmouth note, we must pay attention to what has incited these more radical responses. Instead of focusing on outliers, we should emphasize the noble intentions and positive results of these movements.

Considering how stories are framed is only part of the process. Since the Allen Building Takeover in 1969, students have made dozens of demands to administrators to improve the Duke experience for black and other minority students, increase the diversity of students and faculty and implement policies that will give bias policies the teeth they lack. In a guest column published Monday, Black Student Alliance President Henry Washington rightly stated that students have been making the same demands again and again for years. The University still has a long way to go in addressing many of these demands, and last Friday’s forum highlighted that students and administrators are not on the same page about many responsibilities and concrete priorities. Although it sounds trite, as students we must continue to push the administration to do more and use examples of what they have done right as motivation moving forward.

In addition to reminding the University of what remains to be done, students must also be vigilant in staying informed about what has been done. We and others have already pointed out that only one of BSA’s four April demands has been met so far. But in an email sent after Friday’s forum, Dean Ashby shared specific examples of future plans, including a University Course on race and inequality, expanding the availability of implicit bias training and creating an advisory committee on diversity next semester. The progress on these and other action items will certainly be covered by The Chronicle, and though the paper and other news sources will be published, nobody can force students to read except students themselves. Staying up to date is the first step in keeping parties accountable.

After Friday’s Community Conversation was criticized for its timing, President Brodhead and other administrators agreed to address questions of institutional change this Friday at 5:00 p.m. at a student-run discussion in Page Auditorium. Administrative actions are a must, but students would be irresponsible to not do their part in staying vigilant and well-informed.