Women’s & Gender Studies condemns any and all manifestations of hate, including white supremacy. We are posting the below statement from I-CAN in solidarity with all marginalized communities on campus and in the greater Charleston community.
To our campus and community,
We’ve been here. We’ve done this. This is a habit. A repeated occurrence. A shared History Made Here. So we are exasperated. We are tired. We are fed up. And this cannot continue.
Never will an organization seeking to eradicate “foreigners,” punish “sinners,” with proud declarations of ties to Naziism, mark our campus and expect that we will sit idly by. And yet on this Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, we will not be intimidated. We will stand with those who are frightened, on our campus and those across the United States.
Let us be clear: Tolerating white supremacy on our campus has become ritual. Let us not forget that we have seen white supremacist actions on or around our campus four times just within the past two years. Our campus has been claimed by Confederate flagging, by two accounts of minstrelsy, by jokingly enacting and recording racial slurs, all in recent memory. We have heard countless stories of identity-based violence waged against marginalized students. We live in a crisis. The Cougar Crisis. We are no longer satisfied with attempts to merely manage these occurrences: we call for sustained action and attention to institutional and systemic racism–beyond reaction, towards seeing this as so vast we might call it a shared reality. Because none of us can simply escape this pain without resounding trauma, trauma that will continue to echo through the time we spend here.
And in the midst of this Crisis, it confounds us that such hatred is possible. We seek radical love–which is a full time job, and should be for everyone reading this. And let us take this opportunity to act collectively, as though our very lives depend on it. Because they do. Addressing The Cougar Crisis is a matter of supporting black, brown, and queer student leaders, faculty, and staff who are dreaming up this radical love. Our dreams will be attained, too: we will keep shouting and singing our love and pain until we are heard. And until actions are taken. Let’s move beyond reactive, towards proactive, because these are not in any way isolated incidents. Looking ahead, Halloween is coming, and we will not tolerate or excuse racist costumes. More immediately, attempts to recruit CofC students to a terrorist organization deserve sustained attention and a thorough response.
In the coming weeks, members of the Intersectional Cougar Action Network (I-CAN) will continue to lead by example in addressing our shared Crisis. We look forward to working closely with upper-level administrators. So that radical love can prevail. We honor all of the tough emotional work black, brown, and queer student leaders, faculty, and staff have done in supporting members of our community throughout this Crisis. And we appreciate President Hsu’s note. But this problem is perennial and oceanic; directly confronting racism must continue as our defining struggle in the coming years. A Crisis state can be sustained for only so long. Please forward this call to action deep and wide. And let’s get moving, now.
In solidarity, we are
The Intersectional Cougar Action Network (I-CAN)
Makayla Cook, she/her, Biology (Planned Parenthood leader)
Katie Chea, she/her, Computer Information Systems (president of Asian Student Association)
Tanner Crunelle, he/him, English & WGST (Out Front Initiative director)
Brandy Del Rio, she/her, English (Honor Board)
Vanity Deterville, she/her, Political Science (Sustainability and Social Justice advocacy)
Jonathan Evans, he/him, Political Science (Outreach Liaison for Mental Health in Melanin)
Danya Firestone, she/her (alumnus and I-CAN member)
Kristen Graham, she/her, Public Health & WGST (I-CAN curriculum chair and town hall organizer)
Leah Martin, she/her, School of Business (student organizer)
Claire Natiez, she/her, Dance & Arts Management (student organizer)
Erin Jones, she/her, Middle Grades Education (student organizer)
Tie Jones, she/her, Accounting (student organizer)
Peterra McCarroll, she/her, Political Science (president of Human Rights Alliance)
Claire Natiez, she/her, Dance & Arts Management (student organizer)
Malayna Nesbitt, she/her, Public Health (vice president of Black Student Union)
Elizabeth Quarles, she/her, English (Peer Facilitator)
Akayla Sellers, she/her, Public Health (president of Black Student Union)
Tessa Torgovitsky, they/she, WGST (president of Prism)
Rachael Weidman, she/her, Psychology and ENVT (Vegan Club leader)
Jeff Williams, they/them, Classics & Computer Science (student organizer)
Reagan Williams, she/her, Psychology & WGST (president of Mental Health in Melanin)