It's natural that if a day comes to represent the start of a war, students will rally for a side. In the current climate, deaths will become politicized; that's an unfortunate truth. This argument is not meant to denounce the tragedy and unspeakable atrocities that occurred on Oct. 7, or deny any student the right to mourn.
After the protests in the past month, UNC has framed the actions of pro-Palestine organizations as disruptive and significantly damaging. That's probably why security was increased for the Israeli flags memorial on Polk Place, but walking through a fenced-off field swarming with officers felt more like a panopticon-esque statement, rather than an invitation to honor a loss. That level of preemptive police presence displays the amount of distrust and fear UNC holds toward the people it is meant to serve. The treatment of protest on campus is becoming concerningly biased.
Co-sponsored by Young America's Foundation, a group that worships Ben Shapiro and calls Black Lives Matter Marxist indoctrination, it's hard to say the organization that planted the flags wasn't making a political statement. The apparent extremism condemned on campus is no worse than the blatantly misogynistic, transphobic and racist views tied to other popular events — they're just hidden behind a polished veneer of traditional American decorum.
The memorial itself is not a problem. It's the way that UNC is scared of being remembered for loud, passionate protests or attracting national media attention. If students aren't allowed to stand for something, what is the point of attending a school with reach and influence? Would we rather be remembered for incredibly relevant, if somewhat disruptive, protests, or an era of silence?
You don't need to protest as strongly when your side is already strongly supported by your government. It's UNC's responsibility to make sure students who want to have a platform do. In a time when students have feared police violence as a repercussion for protest, having hoards of officers guard Polk Place is automatically intimidating and a barrier to protest. It's not a direct infringement on the First Amendment, but if students feel like they are being pushed into a corner, that produces the same effect as if they actually were.
There is a huge disparity in the amount of students who support Palestinians and the amount of visibility they have on campus. It's ironic that a topic that concerns cultural erasure is being erased. Is campus simply being protected, or is this proof of administration's desire to stop any student dissent?
If supporters of Palestine are called disruptive and extremist by UNC and the news, let's not pretend supporters of Israel aren't either. It's just displayed in a form easier to digest, sanctioned and fenced-in by administration. The government packs their violence into an easy-to-swallow pill, despite the fact that billions of dollars of guns and bombs are still disruptive and extremist. We pick and choose which lives matter more to us based on a political agenda.
If students wanted to display 42,000 flags for dead Palestinians, or 11,000 for the dead Palestinian children, it's no secret that they would not be guarded as securely. The point of college is not to live in a manicured bubble — it's to hear the voices of as many students as possible.
Think hard about why we attend a public institution before we have to reconcile being adamantly on the wrong side of history decades later. The actions we take now or are barred from taking are, as we speak, shaping American consciousness.
