by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

On March 13, Vice-Chancellor Reuben Brigety had the onerous task of apologizing to the coaches and players of the men’s lacrosse team of Emmanuel College. According to the University website, Sewanee student spectators hurled racial slurs, including the N-word, at the visiting players (see more on page 2, this issue). The behavior became so vile game officials ordered Sewanee fans be cleared in the third quarter before the play continued. On March 15, University students walked out of classes protesting their classmates’ racist behavior.

Senior Lala Hilizah spoke at the rally on the Quad where an estimated 400 protesting students assembled. Although a similar incident of racist-language brutalizing at a 2014 soccer match resulted in a public statement of apology, apparently little has changed. Hilizah talked about attending a fraternity party during her early days at Sewanee where she expressed an interest in hearing some rap music. The reply: “We don’t play N-word music.” Hilizah wept in relating the incident. “I was dehumanized.”

Another student who spoke at the rally said, “Something that I didn’t understand when I was applying for school was that TWIs [traditionally white institutions] will let you go there for free but it was definitely at the cost of your dignity.”

“The University has swept these actions under the rug,” said Caroline Graham, C’21. “That ends now.”

Brigety addressed the student assembly. “Having to apologize to young black men for the vile racial epithets hurled at them… the same racial epithets hurled at me and my sons over the course of our lives is the most distasteful thing that has ever happened to me…What we do in this moment, over the course of the next several hours, will define this University for a generation…It must start with the identification of those people who are responsible for hurling those epithets today. It’s inconceivable we cannot identify by sundown who did this.”

An estimated 120 Sewanee students attended the lacrosse match. A few of the Sewanee students were heard using racial slurs.

Brigety called for “a structured path for restorative justice” to deal with the students guilty of racist behavior. But Brigety stressed, “There cannot be any reconciliation without repentance…Those who are responsible must come forward.”

University Chaplain Rev. Peter Gray echoed Brigety’s insistence on identifying the students who hurled the racial slurs. “I want to give a challenge to those of you who stand here looking like me…White folks have a choice…are we going to take the easy road which is to shove the bad stuff back underground so that in a year or two years or six months we can be back here again? The hard choice, the right choice, is for those of us who know what happened, who did it, to say, ‘you know what, I’m not pushing it down anymore.’…There are folks who know exactly what happened and the knowledge you have can help hold folks accountable, which means tomorrow can be better than today.”

In response to a call to action by the Order of the Gown, students wearing black gowns as a badge of academic distinction, proceeded en masse to Convocation Hall where portraits of white males adorn the walls. Mandy Tu, Order of the Gown president, reported approximately 400 students left their gowns in Convocation Hall to protest the disparaging behavior of the students who hurled the racial slurs.

Photos of the student rally on the University Facebook page earned over 1,000 responses and over 200 comments to date, including the following by a parent of a player on the Emmanuel lacrosse team.

“As a parent of one of the players on the Emmanuel lacrosse team... I am BEYOND livid... This was a disgrace to the school and NO student should ever feel unsafe when playing away from home. We should be past this BS hateful behavior...I hope the students of Sewanee point out who it was so they can be punished and removed from the school.... SHAME ON THEIR RACIST parents for raising them that way too! On the other hand, it is nice to see the Sewanee students standing up for what is right.”

On March 17, hundreds of Sewanee student-athletes and supporters joined a March Against Racism organized by the Student Athlete Advisory Council.