We at The Daily Tar Heel have a terrible track record when it comes to communities of color — specifically Black communities on campus. It was disheartening coming into The DTH as a Black first-year and hearing about the ways in which The DTH lost trust in these spaces. We misrepresented people's voices and opinions, approached sources in predatory and entitled ways, amplified the wrong voices in our coverage, exploited students' pain for sourcing purposes and were simply ignorant through columns and conversations that were meant to be a step forward.
This was never okay — and I am 100 percent committed to ensuring we will not continue to make the same careless mistakes.
We have a new Diversity, Equity and Inclusion approach this year, one that does not include an exclusionary Elevate section. Instead, our policy thinks about underrepresented voices from the very beginning of the writing process to the end, in every single story. We are training our editors and staffers to be critical and careful in how they approach sources for interviews, and reminding them that we are not entitled to anyone's time, attention or experience. We are considering what voices we too often ignore, and thinking intentionally about the news we publish and who choose to platform.
— Laney Crawley, 2024-25 editor-in-chief
In the past, the Black Student Movement has expressed concern with The Daily Tar Heel's handling of Black issues pertaining to our organization and other Black communities on campus. To protect the well-being of our people, BSM has previously chosen not to speak with or work in collaboration with The DTH. Recently, The Daily Tar Heel has reached out and made deliberate efforts to regain the trust of Black communities and report issues relating to our existence with respect and dignity.
Given The DTH’s actions to reconcile with The Black Student Movement, BSM has chosen to reopen communication with The Daily Tar Heel. With conversations of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion coming to the forefront, it is imperative that we maintain open dialogue to ensure the well-being of Black students at UNC. BSM believes that collective student voices hold power and it is our hope that this action will increase that voice ten-fold.
— BSM Executive Team
