This past week on Western Carolina's Campus, mainly last Thursday and Friday the 10th and 11th, there have been many chalk drawings endorsing and opposing the Black Lives Matter movement. This has caused a lot of tension on certain social media sites like Yik Yak and Facebook, and while that isn't necessarily surprising, it's important to note that just because there is conflict, it doesn't mean that it is bad. Students in a University environment need to be shown challenging, possibly offensive, issues so that they can begin to understand both sides of the issue and develop a more well-rounded opinion on these divisive problems that our country faces today. This article is not about endorsing or opposing the Black Lives Matter movement, but rather an endorsement of free speech and the freedom to debate on college campuses.
After talking with some people around campus about what they thought of the chalk writings, I got the sense that there were three main sides. One side was not in opposition of what the chalk was saying, but rather the fact that there is so much chalk and the timing of this influx of chalk is inappropriate because Open House was the 12th. Arguably this kind of conflict on campus would send the wrong message to incoming freshman, and possibly dissuade them from attending WCU. While I understand this side's argument, it is impossible to control the emotions around these divisive issues. If someone feels like they have been oppressed and they want to be heard, and then you tell them that now isn't the right time to do that, it sends the message that their problems aren't important enough to those in power or to those with the ability to help their cause; which often means they will go to more drastic measures to have their voices be heard. And so it becomes counter-productive to push it back to deal with the issue later, because the emotions around the issue become stronger the longer you refuse to hear them.
The other two sides are those in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement and those against it. I would argue that the reason this issue is so divisive in the US today is because no one has offered to sit down and discuss, the issues that each side has with the other. In everyday life, it can be difficult to do that, but on a college campus there are many ways to hold meetings and debates with one another; that is what makes the college atmosphere so special. The only way that a conflict can be effectively resolved is with a treaty, and the only way that treaties work is when both sides will calmly sit down and speak their mind about the issues that each side has with the other. Once a compromise is reached, then the conflict will die down, because the change that each side wants has been achieved.
In everyday life, people don't often ask why people have the beliefs that they do, but on college campuses we have that ability to ask groups that we may not agree with, why they hold the beliefs that they do. That is why I cannot stand to hear those argue that we need to just ignore that chalk. By ignoring the chalk, we are ignoring the issue. By ignoring the issue, we make both sides more radical in their beliefs and what they are willing to do to get the change that they want. If we want to bring some resolution to this issue on our campus, we cannot shy away from talking about the racial conflicts in the US just because it may be difficult for us. College is difficult, it should be challenging. We need to utilize the college atmosphere, so that we can come together and talk about these challenging issues. Only after that can we hopefully come to a greater understanding and make peace with one another.
