Minority students make up a small part of UNC. Many times these students are forgotten. More specifically, Latinx students are forgotten. Given they are such a small percentage of the undergraduate population, it is very easy to lose sight of their presence on this campus.
This past week, the Latinx Unity Council, a group of Latinx student leaders, staged a series of events leading up to the first meeting of the committee that will decide the fate of a possible Latinx Center for students, faculty and alumni. This week is just a small part of the over eight-year-long push for a center of this kind on UNC’s campus.
As a person of color on a predominantly white campus, where the institution, both physically and systemically, was not built with you in mind, spaces like this are essential. As it currently stands, the only space for Latinx students is the Carolina Latino/a Collaborative, which meets in the Seminar Wing of Craige North Residence Hall. With the Latinx student population at 1,400, the space is nowhere near large enough to accommodate that many students.
Many will question why Black, Latinx, and Native American students deserve a designated space on campus and not White students. Many may cry “racism” and “prejudice,” saying it's unfair for there to be “minority only” student spaces, or spaces dedicated to minority students, and not their white counterparts. But the thing is, there are white spaces on UNC’s campus — the entire campus.
This campus was designed for white students and continues to function for the survival and success of white students. Even when we have spaces for minority populations, white students still find ways to infiltrate and co-opt those spaces.
One thing UNC prides itself on is its diversity, multiculturalism and inclusionary practices. UNC uses minority students as a means of promulgating its diversity initiatives to the masses. As it relates to Latinx students, in actuality, there is not nearly as much support for their success as UNC likes to show.
During the protest, Chris Guevara, junior biology major and member of the Council, said “All of the Latinx programming that goes on here at the University — the University loves to publish it, and they love to claim diversity. But when it comes to voicing our concerns about the need for a space so that we can work as a community, we keep getting shut down.”
This sentiment is felt by many minority students on campus. By and large, this is how minorities are treated at this University.
We are lauded as the reason UNC is seen as progressive and modern, but when it comes to actually hearing our concerns and supporting us as a community, we fall on deaf ears.
