There is a lot going on at U of R recently, and the renaming of buildings seems to be the most recent in the schools attempt to “reconcile with the past.” I’ve got lots of opinions on the matter, mainly because I have already seen and felt some of the painful reactions of the Richmond POC community, and wanted to understand why the University was acting so foolish around the subject. I think the renaming of Mitchell-Freeman hall is the most genuine reflection of campus life that we have seen thus far.

Prior to the pandemic, students organized and united over racial injustice on our campus. President Crutcher held an open discussion form, tons of clubs were founded to further address racial biases, and many faculty and staff signed petitions in support of the movement. As beautiful of a display as all of these forms of protest are, they embodied an ideology of equality that I believe is just not present at U of R. We are not a progressive school, and in fact some of the most racist interactions that I have witnessed have taken place on this campus. We are also not all a bunch of white supremacists, don’t get me wrong, but if you start to look at the students who lead POC protests, you may start to notice the same few continuously pushing for equality. This, although seemingly harmless, is extremely problematic for both POC and non-POC community members. Not only does this lack of intersecting participation exhausting and harmful for the powerful POC people who have taken it on, it also gives other students a feeling of exemption from racial conversation. Similar to the free-rider theory, allowing students to think that our campus is inclusive or diverse is not realistic. The tone-deaf nature of Mitchell-Freeman, however, is.