Racially charged graffiti stating “it’s okay to be white” appeared this past week at Carleton’s campus on the walls of the O-Train underpass near Robertson Hall.
The recent vandalism—which has since been blacked out to read “it’s great to be Black and Brown hoe”—comes in the wake of a nationwide trend of similar messages appearing across Canadian universities.
The Carleton University Students’ Association (CUSA) service centres—including the Race, Ethnicity, and Cultural Hall (REC Hall), the Womxn’s Centre, and the Gender and Sexuality Resouce Centre (GSRC)—have made statements on social media condemning the messages.
“This is unacceptable,” said a Facebook statement on the REC Hall’s page. “We will no longer be silent about the continued racist sentiments that we experience/witness on this campus.”
“It’s not enough to simply be ‘not racist,’ we must all work towards being anti-racist. Silence makes us complicit and it is complicity that allows for white supremacy to thrive.”
OurTurn Carleton, the Carleton chapter of a national student-led initiative to combat sexual violence, also took to Facebook to issue a statement.
“We are deeply upset by what has been going on at Carleton,” the Facebook post read. “Everyone has a right to a safe and welcoming environment on campus regardless of their sexuality, gender, or race.”
CUSA president David Oladejo told the Charlatan it is unacceptable for anyone to vandalize campus property and target racialized students at Carleton.
“I know that this has been an issue in other campuses across Canada, and it’s unfortunate that this has reached our campus,” he said.
Oladejo added that CUSA plans to draft a plan to end hate messaging such as this at Carleton’s campus.
“It was extremely disappointing to hear that this is going on, but if people are doing this—I don’t know if they’re doing this as a joke or what’s going on—we do want to nip it in the bud and deal with it right away before it gets out of hand,” he said.
Paola Diaz, a second-year criminology student, said the messaging hatefully victimizes students who are people of colour at Carleton.
“I don’t think a lot of white people with privilege understand that for some people, they feel attacked—because it’s just a reminder of those times where they felt like somebody else was trying to attack them,” she said.
Diaz added programming such as Islam Awareness Week and Black History Month is important to educate students about people from other cultures so that something like doesn’t happen again.
“I think it’s better to educate people about this stuff, and to tell people that even though they think racism like this doesn’t affect them, it affects people on their own campus,” she said.
“If this continues to happen on campuses, it’s only going to continue to spread. If we see it now at this school, what’s stopping it from happening at the University of Ottawa or other schools?”
But, second-year commerce student Joshua Ong said he disagreed with Diaz, adding that any particular group that is targeted to a certain extent is bound to retalliate.
“These are counter-reactionary retorts. After a certain point, I think it’s predictable that this happened,” he said. “If you think about the statement itself, ‘it’s okay to be white,’ what does it mean? Does it mean that previously it wasn’t okay to be white?”
Ong said he thinks the messaging is “not trying to target anyone, it’s just making a statement on its own.”
“You can see through social media movements like Black Lives Matter and other racial movements that say it’s okay to be this and not this—I mean it’s okay and good to be anything. Why do you have to be only one race all of a sudden? You’re born with the race you’re born with,” he added.
In an email, Carleton media relations officer Steven Reid said the university is committed to a safe environment for all students, faculty and staff.
“Carleton University is a diverse and inclusive community where discrimination and harassment are not tolerated,” he said.
Reid said Campus Safety is currently looking into the matter and remains “vigilant” for any updates.
Photo by Jasmine Foong
