Hokie Send-In: Allyson Dixon
Virginia tech has a problem.
Racism.
As a white woman, this is a prejudice I never have to experience. I do not speak for POC, nor do I claim to represent anyone but myself. That being said, the marginalized groups at Virginia Tech should not be responsible for the immense amount of labor it takes to confront acts of racism on our campus. This is not one group’s fight. This is a problem that non-black people need to talk about with their non-black friends. This is an ongoing conversation that needs to be had; not only when people of color are around, or when the women’s lacrosse team says the n-word in a video and gets away with it scot-free.
Virginia Tech is a predominately white institution, or a PWI. For the 2017-2018 school year, the university reported that only 4.3% of the student body identified as black. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the country’s average in 2015 for black enrollment in post-secondary institutions was 13.5%. I often assess the classrooms/campus spaces I frequent and notice an explicit lack of POC. You can attend this school in 2018 and go an entire day without interacting with a non-white person. Why? Why, at the same university that sent the first ever team to investigate lead-contaminated water in Flint, do we have such a striking issue with race?
The difficulty that students of color face at Virginia Tech is not my narrative to tell. I can only express allyship with minority groups and use my privilege to educate people in spaces that are available to me. Virginia Tech, it is NOT normal that our ENTIRELY WHITE (or at least entirely white-passing) women’s lacrosse team feels comfortable enough to be recorded screaming racial slurs over and over on a Virginia Tech bus. It is NOT normal to leave people who perpetuate intolerance in our community vindicated. It is NOT even close to normal to excuse actions like this while allowing people like Steven Crowder and Charlie Kirk to come speak at our university.
Times like these are when I am embarrassed to claim Virginia Tech as my school. I feel complicit by giving money to an institution that seems to rationalize intolerant behavior. I am reminded that this leadership has a trend of defending its actions (or lack thereof) interchangeably under the guise of free speech or the Principles of Community, depending only on which platform suits them. I want to be proud to be a Hokie. Even more so; I want POC to feel safe, respected, and welcome on our campus. Do better.
As for the 95.7% of the student body that is not black, simply do not use racial slurs that alienate the black community, or any other community of color that is not specifically your own. If your non-black friends use racial slurs around you, it is your obligation start a conversation. Together, we can create a more inclusive climate and promote the diversity Virginia Tech so desperately needs.