University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill graduates toss their mortar boards into the air during commencement exercises on May 9, 2010. (Takaaki Iwabu, AP)
(USA Today) – Yesterday, more than one hundred students rallied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to “speak back” to the Wainstein report.
The rally was co-hosted by the Real Silent Sam Coalition, a student group committed to raising awareness about the racialized history of physical spaces on campus, and the UNC Black Student Movement, or BSM.
The rally featured speeches by coalition organizers and BSM leaders, performances by BSM subgroups and an open mic forum, which included a message from the Progressive Faculty Network at UNC, a faculty-led advocacy group.
The stated mission of the rally was to challenge the media’s vilification of the African, African American and Diaspora Studies, or AAAD department, and to complicate the findings of the Wainstein report, which organizers said failed to acknowledge the merit of the department and the systemic exploitation of student-athletes.
