We Need to Talk
Racial Ignorance has Some Students Speaking up at Quinnipiac
Written by Beverly Wakiaga, Nick Williams and Tatyana Youssef. Additional reporting and video production by Paul Caracciolo, Krystina Bernardinelli and Ayah Galal
Ruth Onyirimba, a Quinnipiac senior of Nigerian descent, was in a class of 25 students last spring when she was asked by her professor whether her father was still in the picture.
Bianca Solano, a 2016 graduate, was regularly asked by fellow students whether her family was connected to drug lords in Colombia, because she is of Colombian descent.
Don Sawyer, a sociology professor, stood with protesters on the library steps following the death of Michael Brown in 2014. Hours after, public safety came to his house to let him know that a letter containing a death threat had been found addressed to him.
These are some of the lesser-known incidents that happened to students and faculty at Quinnipiac well before the snap of a freshman in a dark face mask with the caption “black lives matter,” captured national headlines this September.
In the wake of that post, many students, alumni and faculty wondered aloud and on social media why something like this happens each year at Quinnipiac (think Yik Yak, Queso for Casa and safe spaces), and whether it was indicative of a larger problem. Interviews with more than a dozen students, alumni and staff show that subtle and behind-the-scenes acts of racism or racial insensitivity do occur on a regular basis at Quinnipiac. And while these experiences are the norm for many students and faculty of color on this campus, many members of the university may not see or understand the impact of these acts.
“It’s not all about killing someone or hitting somebody because they are black,” explained Ruth Onyirimba, the Quinnipiac senior. “It’s about the comments that we hear everyday. It’s about the fear that some of us feel walking into our classrooms or alone at night.”
To further understand student perspectives on racism, The Divide conducted an informal survey of students in October and November. Responses from 145 students showed that many see vastly different campuses when it comes to racism.
While some said they saw no racism on campus, others described repeated cultural insensitivities and microaggressions, often coming from students or faculty who don’t know about the history or experiences of people of color.
Microaggressions are day-to-day subtle comments or actions that may be well intentioned but can be offensive or reinforce certain stereotypes about marginalized people.
Don Sawyer, the sociology professor, illustrated this by likening microaggressions to mosquito bites:
“If you only get bitten by a mosquito once, everybody’s like what’s the big deal? It’s a mosquito,” explained Sawyer.
“But if everyday you’re dealing with microaggressions and different things like that, you’re repeatedly bit by a mosquito. You’re going to have a different relationship with the mosquito and you’re going to react differently when it’s the hundredth time you’ve been bitten versus someone who’s only been bitten once.”
A Decade of Change
Quinnipiac journalism professor, Margarita Diaz, says that she noticed racial tensions and incidents become more apparent around 2007, when she was the faculty advisor to the school newspaper, The Chronicle. The paper would get wind of incidents, such as black basketball players receiving racially charged comments and threats through their phone, and began reporting on them.
One of the stories involved an incident where a racial slur was painted on a student’s door in the residence halls, according to Diaz. The student reporters wanted to publish the article online since school was not going to be in session for a couple of weeks. However, the administration had put in place a rule that said the paper could not go online unless the paper had been published.
“I think over time, people became more aware that there were tensions. Especially among the students, that a lot of these tensions were happening in the dormitories and that we needed to be mindful of that,” said Diaz.
In 2010 Quinnipiac hired Dianne Ariza as the associate vice president and chief diversity officer. Her job entails planning and making diversity an integral part of the campus. The position was last held by Tyrone Black who was quoted in The Chronicle as saying the school needed to make certain changes in order to properly serve the community.
Since Ariza’s arrival, the school has developed a central structure around diversity and Title XI. This is evident in the “My Culture is not a Costume” campaign emails that Ariza sends out every year before Halloween. The curriculum has shifted slightly too — students will now have to take two diversity courses beginning in the fall semester.
“We have done more educating around diversity and inclusion, much more activity than we ever did before,” said Ariza.
But Work Remains
Despite the university’s efforts to increase diversity and offer programs about inclusion, some students and faculty say there is much more to be done.
Sade Jean-Jacques, the assistant director for multicultural education, holds events such as “A Place at the Table” and “Circle of Perspectives” for students to have conversations and interactions about issues of race, gender and other topics.
However, attendance is usually low.
“There are certain barriers that come into play when talking about these elective programmings,” said Jean-Jacques. “It’s not something that’s in their immediate reality. If it’s not a part of their truth, interests or passions, and if faculty aren’t saying go to this program, what incentive do they have to really go there?”
It’s not that all students do not want to talk, as there has been a great turnout at events such as the November 2015 “Mizzou to Yale” conversation following the student-led protests going on around the nation.
And even low-attended events have still given students the opportunity to have a voice in a safe environment. In the last year, students have bravely taken the stage to voice their opinions on race, marginalized groups, female empowerment and self esteem. And recent protests outside the library, have attracted dozens of students and faculty.
Yet many students say they either don’t know where to go or even how to begin talking about these issues on a regular basis. Others complain that the students who should be attending these programs, never come.
According to Ariza, that is a difference between students here at Quinnipiac and at other schools.
“I think there are good intentions in our student body. I don’t think our school is like other schools where they are going to take over a building,” explained Ariza. “We don’t have that social justice consciousness.”
Tom Conley-Wilson, a sophomore media studies major, has noticed that for some of the students this is the “the most diverse place they’ve ever been.” He has had instances where he has talked to students and realized that they did not know they were being racist or offensive.
“I feel, overall, a lot of kids either are ignorant or just don’t care and just do what they want,” he said.
This stands in contrast to schools like Yale where students took to the streets to protest incidents of racial insensitivity in 2015. And this fall, students with the Yale Muslim Student Association are taking matters into their own hands. The group recently created an incident report form to protect students in the community. They assure the students that they “belong here” and that they “are loved.”
The goal of this initiative is to allow marginalized students to report incidents or remarks targeted towards their identity. The perpetrator would then meet with someone trained on cultural insensitivity.
Beyond Diversity Efforts and Programming
Quinnipiac’s administration is certainly paying attention to initiatives at other institutions, according to Ariza. Quinnipiac plans to continue educating the community by further diversifying the curriculum and offering training for faculty and staff. There are also plans to create a bias team, which would act to direct students, faculty and staff to a place where they can report incidents, as well as have someone to simply talk to.
“There isn’t a law that tells us we have to educate around bias, we do it because we see it’s a good thing,” said Ariza. “A higher understanding of bias, we hope, reduces bias.”
Similar initiatives are also being undertaken by the Student Government Association. The group has programs such as “Student Speak” and “Ask Away” and are planning to launch a “That’s Not Okay” campaign. Ariza states that the aim of the campaign is to motivate students to report incidents if they do see them happening on campus.
These are positive steps, and a move toward the recommendations made this fall by U.S. education secretary, John B. King, Jr. In an 89-page report, King urged academic leaders to increase student and faculty training, to increase emotional and social support for students from underrepresented communities and to encourage open dialogue among all campus members.
For many university leaders, that dialogue is key, and must move beyond campus programming, into dorm rooms, classrooms and other campus spaces.
This is something that Jean-Jacques hopes to be able to do at Quinnipiac as she recognizes the need for students to simply speak to one another.
“Students need to talk. White students need to talk about their whiteness and racial identity development and what white identity means. Students of color need to talk about their identity development and when we talk about it, it’s not exclusionary of those that are privileged in that identity because they also have a role,” said Jean-Jacques.
“That role looks different and the educating may look a little bit different depending on their level of experiences but they all need to be a part of this conversation,” she said.
