SHHHH....That's Private!

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

     The First Amendment is one of the greatest things to happen to Americans. It allows us freedom in our writing or spoken word, as well as the freedom to assemble in groups, criticize the government and practice any religion we would like-or no religion at all. Having all of these freedoms come at no cost to us, except that they're not really as "free" as we want, but maybe sometimes that's a good thing? The First Amendment was put in place to assure that the government could not interfere with the aforementioned freedoms of individuals which is impressive, but also allows people to say hateful, slanderous things to other people face to face or online. It is only through private institutions that people can be punished for these actions. So what happens if private institutions choose to do nothing in these situations?

     There was recently an incident that allegedly happened at my school, High Point University, where a black student was targeted by white members of a fraternity on campus for "coming in and dancing with all the white women" along with many racist slurs.

     Now let's break this down because there are a number of things that come in to play here, not just racism but also classism and sexism.

     These men that allegedly sent the texts, let us call them PWM (privileged white men), have the upper hand in this situation regardless of the outcome because: 1. They're white, which systematically comes with an abundance of privilege. I don't have time to list all of these privileges here, but Peggy McIntosh does a great job naming them in her writing entitled Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack.

     And 2. High Point University in itself runs off of the donations of others, creating an issue of classism. If you are a VIF (Very Important Family; no I'm not kidding, they're real) here at HPU, you already get an abundance of things other students don't because you pay full tuition or your parents have donated to the school. These things are more than just a free t-shirt and meal card for the cafe. They are allowed to register for classes before anyone else, showing that if you have more money you can claim your education, while the masses have to wait and receive an education. VIF's get the first choice in housing on campus (to assure that the children are happy in their living situation so the parents will continue to donate more money). 

     Oh and if on campus security catches them doing something the officers are told to do nothing at all, while the same things being done by "average" students could result in a multitude of repercussions.

     So, sending these racist text messages was probably assumed to be something that could be fixed and hidden under the warm fur coat of ~Daddy's Money~, and because this is a private institution, they're probably right.

     The administration can make sure that these boys are not penalized in any way, and can create new "initiative programs" to create a more inclusive campus that no one ever attends because they don't see what needs to be changed due to the lack of gravity put on situations like this in private universities. Our school holds its Communication program higher than most programs but also isn't accredited due to "not being allowed to a have freely run school newspaper" that allows students to write about these matters, or any other issues they feel are essential. This private institution, High Point University, can protect the freedom of speech of these PWM's and VIF's while limiting the freedom of speech of every other student on campus.

     If I was to want to publish this blog post to the school newspaper would they allow me to or would it speak too ill of the school? When will private institutions like this one take control over situations of discrimination and assure the safety and inclusivity of all people? Why is this even still a question today?