Silent Sam, Charleston, Charlottesville and George Floyd Made the Headlines
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Silent Sam, Charleston, Charlottesville and George Floyd made the headlines. On a less visible but equally impassioned front, faculty of color at Chapel Hill believe this is the moment for action toward equity. by Barry Yeoman ISTOCK/JASON D. SMITH ’94 38 CAROLINA JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’21 39 ALUMNI REVIEW ia Caldwell woke up June 18 Veterans to maintain the Confederate Some faculty of color say they see with the news heavy on her memorial, Silent Sam, which protesters goodwill on the part of campus leaders. mind. had toppled in August 2018. “We had a meeting with the administra- For months it had been dom- That June morning, Caldwell also woke tion,” said Miguel La Serna, a professor of Kinated by a single headline: the COVID-19 up thinking about the University’s “Road- history. “They actually were saying that pandemic, which in the U.S. has blazed map for Fall 2020,” the plan for the return they felt like they can get on board with a most mercilessly through communities of most students, faculty and staff to cam- lot of these things and that they would be of color. Then, in late May, came George pus amid the pandemic. She worried that happy to work with us toward implement- Floyd’s asphyxiation under the knee of students and faculty of color, who faced ing them. So that was a really encouraging a Minneapolis police officer. The video outsized health risks, were excluded from sign.” of Floyd, calling out for his late mother, the formal decision-making process. But La Serna, Caldwell and others add pierced the na- For Caldwell, all these elements felt that intentions aren’t enough. It will take tional conscience In 2019, Kia connected. “A historic social uprising for an ambitious, well-funded, collaborative and highlighted Caldwell and racial justice was taking place,” she said. effort, they say — an effort central to Car- the ever-length- 13 colleagues “As an academic, I felt that my university olina’s mission — to craft an institution ening list of wrote a memo also needed to be part of the reckoning.” that reflects the diversity of 21st-century Black Americans describing “the So she sat down in her home office. She America. killed by white rapidly declining opened Google Docs. And she started COURTESY MIGUEL LA SERNA authorities and writing. An agonizing history racial climate at Miguel La Serna and others say it will take an civilians. Four days later, after her peers had ambitious, well-funded, collaborative effort Academia can be a rough place for Demonstra- the University.” offered edits and additions, Caldwell re- to craft an institution that reflects the diversi- what scholars call BIPOC faculty — Black, tors had gathered Morale, they wrote, leased the document. Called the Roadmap ty of 21st-century America. Indigenous and other people of color. U.S. in more than runs low among for Racial Equity, it proposed a three-year, campuses have been plagued by reports of 2,000 cities and Black and brown 13-part plan to diversify the faculty and staff and alumni. hostile work environments and lackluster towns. They faculty, who are administration and address racial bias. Carolina’s administrators say they diversity efforts. hoisted signs and underrepresented “We invite the University leadership and agree with the sentiments behind the “The widespread claims that higher blocked road- in proportion our faculty colleagues to stand and work Roadmap for Racial Equity and intend education is objective, meritocratic, and ways and dodged to the state’s with us,” said the preamble, “to make to dissect the University in search of the color blind, providing equity for all, do not tear gas and population. “We UNC-Chapel Hill a more equitable and causes of these disparities. “It’s not until hold up,” sociologist Ruth Enid Zambrana rubber bullets. inclusive campus, where all can succeed we actually get at the root [that] we can wrote in her 2018 book Toxic Ivory Towers. invite the University Their message and thrive.” really begin to reverse-engineer this insti- Underrepresented minorities are “expect- spread beyond leadership and our The 35 original signatories encouraged tution to eliminate all traces of structural ed to publish more, teach more, and serve the streets as faculty colleagues others to co-sign. And they did — more systemic racism,” said Blouin, who also is more to progress at the same pace” as their education, busi- to stand and work than 1,200 faculty members, students, executive vice chancellor. white peers. ness and political with us,” Caldwell The numbers at UNC mirror the na- leaders vowed said. tional trend. Blacks make up 22.2 percent to work against BLACK POPULATION 22.2% of the state’s population but 5.1 percent of racism in their own domains. the faculty, according to 2018 figures from For Caldwell, a professor of African, BLACK FACULTY 5.1% the University’s Office of Institutional Re- African American and diaspora studies, search and Assessment. Hispanics make the national news was inseparable from up 9.8 percent of the population and 4.5 HISPANIC POPULATION 9.8% events at Carolina. percent of the faculty. Indigenous people In 2019, she and 13 colleagues had MAY UNC/MEGAN make up 1.7 percent of the population and HISPANIC FACULTY 4.5% written a memo describing “the rapidly Kia Caldwell: “A historic social uprising for racial justice was taking place. As an academic, I 0.6 percent of the faculty. declining racial climate at the University.” felt that my university also needed to be part of the reckoning.” The overall student makeup, based on Morale, they wrote, runs low among Black INDIGENOUS POPULATION 1.7% spring 2020 numbers from the same office, and brown faculty, who are underrepre- suring diverse voices at a cascading series met regularly with Provost Robert Blouin is 8 percent Black, 7.8 percent Hispanic sented in proportion to the state’s popu- of tables. “Every committee they need a to offer advice on “Carolina Next: Inno- INDIGENOUS FACULTY 0.6% and 0.5 percent Indigenous. lation. Some have left for other schools in Black face on, you get contacted to be that vations for Public Good,” UNC’s compre- But Carolina has a distinct story, too, what Jennifer Ho, a former UNC professor person,” says James H. Johnson Jr., the hensive strategic plan that has as its first ASIAN POPULATION 3.2% which dates to its 18th-century founding. of English and comparative literature, William R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Pro- objective “Build Our Community Togeth- Enslaved people helped build the cam- described in an interview as “a kind of fessor of strategy and entrepreneurship at er,” focused on “creating a more diverse, ASIAN FACULTY 11.1% pus, and the University’s first Board of indictment and a statement.” Kenan-Flagler Business School. equitable and inclusive community.” Trustees consisted overwhelmingly of Many of those who remain say they face Several professors, including Caldwell, The advisory conversations broke WHITE POPULATION 62.6% slaveholders. Slavery funded the Uni- work demands related to race that their had met twice with administrators in 2019 down in December 2019, after the UNC versity, too. “Human beings were often white counterparts don’t — tending to to discuss the campus climate and develop System’s Board of Governors voted to give WHITE FACULTY 72.4% sold along with real estate by university the well-being of students of color and en- policy solutions. An overlapping group had $2.5 million to the Sons of Confederate attorneys, who received a commission on SOURCES: UNC OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH AND ASSESSMENT, 2019 U.S. CENSUS REPORT 40 CAROLINA JANUARY/FEBRUARY ’21 41 ALUMNI REVIEW was Silent Sam, erected when Confederate sition from many corners of our campus.” statues were designed to intimidate Blacks Faculty wanted to see more outrage. “We and reinforce segregation. During its 1913 were really hoping for a written condem- dedication, industrialist Julian Carr (class nation of the Sons of the Confederacy or of 1866) recalled having “horsewhipped [of] the settlement,” La Serna said. “And a negro wench until her skirts hung in we got neither.” shreds” because she “maligned a Southern lady.” Carr, who had leadership roles in the Tenure is tougher GAA and served as the association’s pres- La Serna, who is Peruvian American, ident from 1912 to 1917, added that “the grew up in a working-class neighborhood purest strain of the Anglo Saxon is to be in Sacramento “where police car chases found in the 13 Southern states — Praise ended up literally in my backyard, with God.” people jumping my fence and helicopters Members of the campus and Chapel overhead,” he said. Education was his Hill community had protested Silent “escape hatch.” After earning a history Sam since the 1960s, and in recent years doctorate in 2008, he came to Chapel clashed with monument defenders. Hill as part of the Carolina Postdoctoral “Campus is where students live,” said Program for Faculty Diversity. Caldwell. “So basically, this was their “It was a tremendous opportunity for UNC/DAN SEARS ’74 home environment that was being filled me to get my foot in the door,” he said. The Ronald Williams II suggests “decolonizing” with hate and danger.” program develops scholars in the hopes of the curriculum by requiring students to study African American, Asian American, Even after the statue’s toppling in 2018, preparing them for tenure-track appoint- Latinx and Native American history. Such the Silent Sam issue didn’t disappear. The ments at UNC and elsewhere. “And that a mandate would produce better-informed UNC System Board of Governors brokered ended up working out.” students and could draw more BIPOC faculty, a deal with Sons of Confederate Veter- In addition to his scholarship on Williams said.