Campus Commentary: Does UNC adequately support students of color?

The Daily Tar Heel’s editorial board posed the following question to several campus leaders who are also students of color: Does UNC adequately support students of color? If not, how can it facilitate their success? Below are the responses of four of those students, edited for length and clarity.

Kaori Sueyoshi

I do not have an answer to this question. I do not have an answer because there is no single answer. I do not have an answer because, as a student of color, I should not be and will not be responsible for bandaging the wounds cut by historical racial inequities under the heels of white privilege.

It was at Carolina that I found the safety to rescue the pieces of my identity I’d forced into shadows to rot for two decades. It was my sophomore year when I attended a guest lecture by Stevie Larson, a former teaching assistant, on Asian-American identities. Here, I first learned of the “Model Minority Myth” that resonated so strongly with my story. Though it took place in Saunders Hall, this lecture was the first step in my reconciling years of internalized racism.

This is one tale of triumph in a journey to accepting and growing in my identity, a journey paved with bricks formed by my UNC education. But, like the bricks we find ourselves tripping over on campus, there are pieces of this education that might hurt me — like the fact that I am Japanese-American, not a dichotomous ghost that floats between those two titles, but a whole person tied together by the hyphen. We have an Asia Center, but no Asian-American center. A great many of us on this campus live with this hyphen between nationalities. Let us recognize and celebrate this.

I am not your textbook readings on samurai and sushi. I am a biscuit and sweet tea fiend, too. I look forward to a Carolina that can one day embody this.

Marty Davidson and June Beshea

Where do we go from here? UNC has a lot to accomplish with regard to creating a sustainable environment for students of color. Various groups have already succeeded in creating this environment, but these efforts have largely been compartmentalized to specific portions of the campus community. There is little accompanying, centralized effort from the administration.

One particular discussion that has been missing from on-campus discussions is the creation of a space for women of color. UNC has made minimal effort to promote the stature of women of color on this campus. There have been gatherings to discuss issues that affect women of color, such as the Unique Heels symposium that took place last year. But symbolic gatherings do little to bolster the presence of women of color in underrepresented areas, like the natural and physical sciences and distinguished faculty positions.

UNC has vigorously pursued raising minority male retention and graduation rates. Their presence on this campus is crucial. But we are concerned that this intense focus on one portion of the student body will ignore issues related to other campus demographics. Instead of waiting for critical reports to appear and then acting upon the data, UNC needs to take a proactive approach. UNC should not use progress in one community as a shield to prevent progress from taking root in another.

Cecilia Polanco

Being a student of color at UNC means finding yourself in spaces that don’t value you, that question your worth and abilities and that sometimes don’t see you at all. Whether it’s flat-out discrimination or micro-aggressions, students of color can face a hostile environment at UNC.

What makes this university great is the students, but when some refuse to try to relate to the experience of students of color, UNC becomes an ugly, unwelcoming place. 

I’ve heard that I should go back to where I came from, and that I was given admittance to this university because I’m Latina. But I say: Yes, I did get to where I am today partly because I’m Latina. Being Latina meant growing up in the U.S. with opportunities that aren’t available in El Salvador, with parents that instilled in me the value of hard work and education. Being Latina sparked in me an interest to learn about the new and different. Being Latina, I was taught to honor and respect others, and to value family above all else.

Does this sound familiar? I’m sure we were all taught to respect others, work hard, to value our education, to set goals and achieve them. So why must the value, opinions and desires of people of color be constantly questioned and challenged?

The best way to build a community of understanding is through open dialogue, with open minds and hearts. Once you begin to understand someone else’s experience, difference is not so scary, the “other” not so foreign and their identity very much human.

Dylan Su-Chun Mott

I am a mixed-blood Korean Cherokee Mvskoke. I am a student of color at UNC. I do not feel like I have been given space to be my full self in this school.

One of my first semesters at UNC, I walked into an American Indian Studies class. I was eager to spend time learning more about my own people’s history. I left that class furious. Halfway through the lecture, the professor, a white woman, encouraged the students to voice stereotypes about Native folks. She went on to say that she was going to debunk them throughout the semester. But I had to sit there with my ears and eyes burning, glaring around as people yelled the most tired stereotypes about my people. 

I never returned to that lecture. It felt too painful to learn my history in a class with people who don’t respect me. This was not an isolated incident. Why are there not more teachers of color providing mentorship to people like me?

UNC is styled as a kind of post-racial utopia, but our curriculum is centered around the study of Western (colonial) culture. Why is this so valued? I am tired of not feeling supported, or even able to learn the history that led to our present conditions. I am tired of feeling like I’m here to provide “diversity.” 

There aren’t simple solutions for these things, which are connected to racial issues in our society at large, but as long as the University continues to resist making changes, I will continue to question why I am even here if not to fight for those changes.

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Correction: The name of the teaching assistant mentioned in Kaori Sueyoshi's commentary was misprinted. His name is Stevie Larson. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the error.