Content warning: This story contains references to racial slurs that readers may find disturbing. Reader discretion is advised.
Black students reported receiving anonymous racist text messages last week with language referencing slavery; for some, however, this is not the first encounter with racism at the University, which has not publicly addressed the texts.
While those text messages were part of a larger nationwide trend, Black UA students have encountered racism both before and after the general election last Tuesday.
When freshman marketing major Alyse McCall received these text messages, part of her felt like the messages could be legitimate threats from someone local.
“A lot of the kids here are kind of crazy sometimes when it comes to politics or [when they’re] just out on the street talking about people that are another race or what they represent,” McCall said.
One experience that McCall shared with other Black students on campus was being called racial slurs in public. For McCall, it was at the football game against Georgia.
Shortly after McCall and her friends sat down next to the student section, a white couple yelled at the group that the seats belonged to them and that McCall and her friends needed to move, McCall said. Her friends tried explaining that security had told them to sit there because the student section was full.
“They got really angry, and they just kept yelling,” McCall said of the couple, adding that her friends began arguing back. “Then they turned away from us, but I was sitting the closest to the couple, and they called us the N-word multiple times.”
McCall said that after being called racial slurs, she and her friends got emotional.
“No one’s ever done that to our faces. Maybe they’ve done it behind our backs, maybe they’ve done it online, but not that we’ve known to happen straight to our faces,” she said.
The group then notified the security staff about what had happened, only for the event to be “brushed off,” McCall said, and as such, her friends went home because they were “so distraught.”
McCall’s encounter at the football game comes after UA students shouted slurs and racist insults at people of color at the home football game against Texas last year.
The Georgia game was not the only time McCall has heard slurs in public. The next time she heard it was several weeks later.
“Me and my friends were walking back to the dorms, and a group of drunk white boys said that they would like to hang all the N-words, just like right in front of us,” McCall said.
Other students had similar experiences with being called slurs in public.
Six McPherson, a junior marketing major who also received the racist texts, was with a friend outside of Twelve25, a sports bar on the Strip, when his friend was called a slur.
A white woman, who appeared to be drunk and over college age, had bumped into the friend while walking past. The friend apologized, but the woman called him a slur before the woman’s boyfriend pulled her away and apologized “profusely,” McPherson said.
As previously reported by The Crimson White, freshman biology major Hailey Welch was also called racial slurs last Wednesday by what appeared to be two male students wearing “Make America Great Again” hats, shortly after she also received the racist texts.
Not all experiences with racism have been so overt, however.
While Black Student Union President Jordan Stokes said she has heard from many Black students who were called racial slurs, she said she has never experienced that on campus. Instead, she has experienced what she referred to as “microaggressions” — a subtle, unintentional or “everyday” type of racism — and offensive comments about people of color.
Following the text messages being sent last Wednesday, Black students like McCall and McPherson called upon the University to publish a public statement condemning the messages.
As of the date of publication, statements had only been provided to the media and not published on official UA social media accounts or sent out in a campus-wide email, as the University does for statements from UA President Stuart Bell; however, at least one college, the Honors College, sent an email statement to its students. Clemson University, which also had students receive the messages, posted a public statement last Wednesday.
McPherson said that a public statement from the University would demonstrate the value it has for all Black students
“As a Black man, if I’m not a football player or a basketball player, or if I’m not one of the students generating millions of dollars to this school, I feel like I don’t matter,” McPherson said. “With all these racial things going on, I see how hard they go for our football players and basketball players, who I’m also very proud of as young, successful Black men. However, what about a regular student like me?”
Stokes said it “wouldn’t hurt” for the University to issue such a statement, but that she was already pleased with what she saw as the school’s quick response to the matter.
After hearing reports from BSU members about the text messages, Stokes reached out to the Dean of Students office. She said the response was quick, as the University began investigating the matter and offering students support options, such as contacting the Counseling Center, Student Care and Well-Being, and UAPD.
“The University remains disgusted by these racist messages,” Monica Watts, UA associate vice president for communications, said in an email statement. “We continue to encourage anyone with information to report it to authorities and for those impacted to utilize support measures. UAPD immediately began investigating reports and is supporting national law enforcement.”
Watts urged anyone who receives threats or harassment to contact UAPD, noting that “all reports are taken seriously and thoroughly investigated.” The Dean of Students office, Student Care and Well-Being, and other UA staff are actively supporting students, she added.
“The safety and well-being of every member of the UA community is our absolute priority,” Watts said.
Skyler Parker, a sophomore construction engineering major, said it is too late for the University to make a public statement about the texts.
Though he said that he doesn’t believe racism to be a pervasive problem on campus and that his experience as a Black student has been very positive, he claimed the University’s lack of a public statement was “shady.” He said it made him wonder if there were other racial conflicts that come up that the institution says nothing about publicly.
In the face of students receiving the messages, Stokes emphasized that the BSU wants to remain positive and supportive of its members, with events like a study hall where students can have serious — and lighthearted — discussions.
“We’re focused on being more unified than ever,” Stokes said. “There’s always something to be thankful for, regardless of a situation.”
