TO THE EDITOR:
UNC heralds itself as a liberal, progressive university but fails to promote discourse that forces students to think beyond the comfort of these labels. Recently in a class I argued that banning the book “The Bluest Eye” by Toni Morrison perpetuated racism; dismissing the book, to me, seemed an erasure of voices that articulated the horrors of racism. I argued my point, and then another person spoke up and said she thought it had more to do with the group’s conservative values (the book discusses rape and incest) than anything racial. And the discussion stopped there. While certainly the district’s conservative nature could’ve influenced their choice to ban, we choose ignorance if we say that discomfort with the tangible impacts of racism Morrison describes had nothing to do with it. But we moved forward and patted ourselves on the back for recognizing some voices are valued more than others and did not recognize we were doing the very same thing. In my best classes at UNC, my professors have facilitated conversations that have been uncomfortable but not unsafe — an important discrepancy often misunderstood. But too often my professors have missed the mark, ending an opportunity for class discussion that could have pushed the boundaries of our comfort and forced us to think critically.This interaction felt, to me, another failure. Being uncomfortable is not being unsafe. We are cheapening our own educations by not knowing the difference.
Dory MacMillan
Junior
Political science and public policy
