A statement from the Diversity Affairs Council
The Diversity Affairs Council (DAC) recognizes the events of Tuesday night because we are students and representatives of the Washington University in St. Louis community. Our purpose is to foster a more inclusive campus environment and provide a connection between the student body and administration.
We are responding to the events that occurred on Tuesday night at Bear’s Den. On campus, the goal of the DAC is to ensure that every student at Washington University feels welcome and safe. This incident is a breach of that mission. It is our role to recognize that these occurrences negatively impact our entire community.
Although the official investigation is still underway, the fact remains that members of our community feel marginalized and hurt. While there are certain aspects of the incident that are still contested, what we must focus on is that this discriminatory act dehumanized and objectified our fellow students. This should not be tolerated at Washington University.
This is not an isolated event and cannot be solved by harsh disciplinary action alone. It is part of a reality that we face each day. Ignoring comments and actions that make people feel alienated has somehow become normalized. While everyone has a right to respond in his or her own way, attacking any member of our community, either in response to this event or in any other situation, is destructive.
Moving forward, we hope to use this strong hold on the community’s attention to work toward implementing measures and facilitating conversations that will address and rectify this situation. The responsibility does not fall on any one community to act, but rather, there must be a collective response on the part of the Washington University community as a whole. Thus, the Diversity Affairs Council is working to create an open space to discuss the campus climate and to form an action plan to begin improving the structure of our community.
If you would like to contact us regarding the steps we are taking to move forward, please contact the DAC chair, David Yang, at [email protected]
The Diversity Affairs Council Cabinet
David Yang – Chair
Amee Azad – Director of Resources
Gabrielle Dinkin – Director of Diversity Training
Jacqui Germain – Director of Administrative Affairs
Tony Wang – Director of Public Relations
Glad that the DAC does not support the permanent disciplinary action of suspension of a group of students for their ignorance.
” . . . by harsh disciplinary action alone.”
Soooo, I don’t know about that.
Which is ridiculous, mind you — any kind of school-imposed disciplinary action solves nothing here and only creates a bigger divide between white versus black on campus (not to mention throws many innocent students under the bus even more than the University and this newspaper already have).
Opening a dialogue is the right move; suspending a student for singing the lyrics to a popular song is not — let alone suspending those who were simply standing around him — especially given the apology right afterwards and the now-surfaced evidence that there was no intended racial element to this task at all.
More than anything, though these two statements do have some well thought out and cogent portions, they also reek of self-important “campus leaders” trying to make a name for themselves through harsh and, frankly, completely irrational positions. The University choosing to heed to their disciplinary recommendations — or even consider them as serious and legitimate, really — would be shameful and laughable.