What Y'all About To Do With All That Space You Reclaimed: UVA And Selective White Guilt
Wednesday night, thousands of UVA students, faculty and staff held a vigil in front of the Rotunda in an effort to āreclaim their spaceā following a chaotic and deadly weekend in Charlottesville that included a march through grounds by members of neo-nazis and alt-right groups. This vigil included the singing of Freedom Songs from the Civil Rights Movement such as, āWe Shall Overcomeā and āThis Little Light of Mine,ā followed by constant singing of āThe Good Ole Songā (which is problematic, but I wonāt go into that today). āStill I Riseā was recited, photos were taken, videos recorded and shared, and many felt as if this moment atoned for the horrors that they felt from seeing racism in such a large and horrific capacity. But Ā now that social media, and news sources have watched UVA reclaim its space, my question is, what exactly is being reclaimed?
Are you reclaiming the administrationās ability to ignore the experiences of its minority students until they need to talk about diversity? Are you reclaiming the longstanding denial of black students into Rugby Road parties? Perhaps youāre reclaiming the feeling that black students have been handed their admission because of affirmative action? Or the ability of whiteness to take over an African American Studies course because theyāve been told that these are the easy courses. Or the complacency of having small numbers of black students in your classes, and the expectation for them to speak on behalf of an entire race.
As someone who has earned two degrees from the university, Iāve noticed that there is only a need for the university to gather and speak out when it is something that has managed to impact whitenessā¦in addition to everyone else. For Charlottesville, this past weekend, which featured large amounts of white people sporting swastikas, carrying rifles, waving confederate flags and tiki torches made it nearly impossible (emphasis on nearly) for white oblivion to remain. So now in this week following this incident, many white uva faculty, staff and students have taken to social media to proclaim that #thisisnotus and itās #notourUVA, but the sad reality of it is that this IS you and your UVA. Ā
The death of Hannah Graham, the Rolling Stone Article, the election of Trump, and the arrest and death of Otto Warmbier were all moments that led the university to (rightfully) come together, paint beta bridge, provide space to share in the classrooms, Ā designate safe spaces in places on grounds like Alderman Library to process and cope, send out countless emails of support, in addition to protest and think pieces from faculty university-wide. Meanwhile black and brown students of UVA have been speaking out against racist acts and attitudes both on grounds and nationally since they arrived at the university, only to be ignored, or constantly told by white peers that they were āplaying the race card.ā Ā These students have had to push forward as they continuously hear the names of unarmed minority men and women being murdered ājustifiablyā by police, with limited class discussion. Black students witnessed one of their own get his head smacked on the ground by ABC agents, and then had to beg for the university to respond. We dealt with the rise of Yik Yak being used to cowardly express hatred; there was no painting of beta bridge. Black students have seen āniggerā written on grounds several times; Muslim students had āterroristā written on their doors; and a member of StudCo openly celebrated the denial of CIO status for the group DREAMers, an organization who advocates for the rights, inclusion and safety of undocumented students, yet there was no marching or protesting from UVAās administration.
While a vigil is a space to cope, it is also a place to reflect on what was. As sad as it is to say, in a few months, last weekend will be in the past, being spoken of less often. Some of those students that stood on the lawn āreclaiming their spaceā on Wednesday August 16th will be the same ones insisting that, āif they had just complied theyād be aliveā the next time someone is murdered by a cop. Most will continue the tradition of positioning āMr. Jeffersonā as a demigod, and the majority will most likely seep back into a place of white oblivion and thus white safety, with racism no longer being thrown at them. UVA is not an innocent university that was merely caught in the crossfire of unexpected racism in Charlottesville. An examination of the schoolās history, beginning with the laying of the first brick, shows us this. This past weekend allowed those more privileged than others to be āshocked, confused and outragedā because the issue that was hiding in plain sight was thrust directly in their face. Ā But now that itās been placed in front of you so forcefully, what will you do about it? Tears, shock and letters denouncing hate are no longer enough. The reclaiming of your space can only move past empty symbolism if the reclaiming becomes a reinvention.
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