A Wake Forest University student has been under fire after rationalizing a joke, which was perceived as blatant racism by students of WSSU and WFU.
An Instagram post was created in support of a student falsely campaigning for Student Government Association president. The post indicated one of the candidate’s initiatives was to “build a wall” between WFU and Winston Salem State University, a neighboring HBCU. It also stated that he would make WSSU pay for the wall.
Jordan Lancaster, a junior WFU student attempted in justification of the post after the university’s president, Nathan Hatch released an email to apologize to the WSSU community.
“While the intent of the authors may have been a parody of a national issue, it was deeply offensive and unacceptable,” the email included.
https://twitter.com/jordylancaster/status/1109565876125224960?s=21
The joke outraged students; however, Lancaster’s act to undermine the racial and classist offensiveness in the joke sparked Twitter controversy.
“Seeing the replies from students/alumni of Wake Forest shows a lot about some of y’all’s character. But of course privileged white students at a predominantly white institution wouldn’t understand where we’re coming from,” Matthew Parker, WSSU junior replied to Lancaster’s tweet.
Seeing the replies from students/alumni of Wake Forest shows a lot about some of y'all's character. But of course privileged white students at a predominantly white institution wouldn't understand where we're coming from.
— Matthew (@_lamar99) March 24, 2019
Many Americans are aware of President Trump’s efforts to build and improve upon the border wall between the United States and Mexico.
“As far as the wall is concerned, we’re going to build a wall. We’re going to create a border. We’re going to let people in, but they’re going to come in legally,” said Trump in the Republican president debate.
Twitter users, black WFU students and WSSU students attempted to educate Lancaster and her supporters of why the joke was offensive.
The reasoning: a joke made in poor taste by a white student in regards to a black university. This equates to segregation, divisive tendencies and overall perpetual hate within the country.
https://twitter.com/ohsweetlexie/status/1109908438899924992
Lancaster followed up her “people need to grow up” post with several screenshots of the comments made by outraged users.
The situation garnered media attention from Barstool Sports who dedicated an article in complete support of Lancaster and the post, calling those who were offended “sexist pigs.”
WSSU students were not provided the opportunity to have their voices heard. Instead, they are being perceived as negative people.
https://twitter.com/souheilayy/status/1111771837481000967
Differences in views are posed when it comes to feuds between predominantly white institutions and historically black colleges and universities. For example, there is a constant conversation between the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and N.C. A&T centered around UNCG becoming classified as a HBCU.
I’m blocking everybody that say uncg is a hbcu. It’s offensive to those who worked so hard to even be allowed to go to college. Just 60 years ago. Some of y’all grandparents weren’t even allowed to go to a uncg
— Zay💋 (@___zayonce) October 22, 2018
Many people decided to leave Lancaster and those in support of her to ponder the consequences of their actions.
“Jordan, honey, do you know you go to a school that had to punish a group of White men for running through the halls yelling “nigg*r?” Or that a separate group of men targeted hijabi women on the night of the 2016 election? Or that they happened on the same day?,” one user tweeted.
Sweet bean I know you’re not done at Wake yet and there’s still some more reading to do, but you’re missing a lot of work on race and genocide. You sound like a Nazi or a Nazi-sympathizer — I can’t tell the difference and I highly suggest picking up a book or picking up the slack
— Jé St Sume 🇭🇹🏳️🌈 (@stsumej) March 24, 2019
“The problem is that most of the people who don’t see a problem with the implications of this post aren’t interested in thinking that deep about it,” another user tweeted.
https://twitter.com/Lexiz_nexiz/status/1109861815989747712
