Black students at Southern Methodist University say they are tired of feeling targeted by campus police, of coded comments from faculty members and of outright racist acts such as fliers titled, “Why white women shouldn’t date black men.”
They point to 1969, when African American students occupied the president’s office demanding that SMU do more to recruit and retain black students and faculty members.
They point to 2015, when a new generation of students asked for the same after the distribution of insensitive party fliers and the anonymous posting of racist comments on social media.
And now in 2020, they point to anger and frustrations across the country over the treatment of black people, especially police brutality. The subtle racial tension at SMU — students say they always feel it but are not always able to talk about it — is a reflection of the struggles across the country and how slow progress has been for many.
Now many students say they are tired of waiting for change. Earlier this month, black students at SMU once again presented a list of demands to the university, with goals that echo those that came before. Among the asks this year are for the university to set aside $7 million to help black students attend SMU, for policies to hold those who commit racially insensitive acts accountable and for black mental health professionals to be made available to students.
“We’re still feeling uncomfortable in nearly every single class and like an outsider in our own school because there’s been no progress,” said junior Abena Marfo, who is president of the African Student Association. “I’m literally the only black person in my classes and get all these microaggressions — sly comments on my hair or the way I dress.”
Students and alumni restarted the #BlackatSMU hashtag earlier this month amid nationwide protests in response to the death of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man killed by a white police officer who knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes.
Black students said their struggles on campus highlight just how frustrating it is to fight the same battles for better treatment and representation year after year.
On social media, they described how they make sure to wear clothes with prominent SMU markings when they drive around or walk across campus. Even then, many said, they’ve been stopped by police.
They told stories of classmates insinuating that they were at SMU only because of affirmative action or athletic prowess. Of students from a white sorority explaining the reasons it didn’t want black women to join, including because they were “aesthetically unpleasing.” Of a black ballerina getting backlash for dyeing her pink tights and shoes to better reflect her skin color.
“I remember when my teammates and I got called ‘porch monkeys’ on yak because we were chilling on the stairs in between class,” one tweet read, referring to the discontinued Yik Yak social media app.
University President R. Gerald Turner said it was painful to read through the posts because students described an SMU that is not the school he has strived to shape since he took over the campus in 1995.
“It’s obviously not the kind of experience we want them to have,” he said. “Moving that needle anywhere is difficult — in corporate America, in cities and in states. … And because of the nature of a university, perhaps it’s more intensely felt here and we have a greater commitment to try and do something about it.”
After meeting with students earlier this month, Turner said, he is working on an action plan with timelines.
Let’s play!
Preppy white boy calls me a nigga at a frat party and the apology was, “Sorry about Paul, he gets a little racist when he’s drunk.” #BlackAtSMU
— kaleb (@klbcomedy) June 2, 2020
But in the five years since, their representation on campus hasn’t changed much. Only 6% of students and 4% of instructional faculty are black, nearly mirroring what it was then.
Turner says SMU has worked to improve the campus culture, even if enrollment and faculty demographics don’t reflect much growth.
After The News’ coverage of #BlackatSMU struggles in 2015, university administrators met with students every two weeks for an academic year and then monthly for the following two years.
SMU officials talked with other universities, businesses and even unions across the country, searching for ways to make the campus more welcoming and culturally aware.
That led to initiatives such as hiring a senior adviser to the provost whose sole focus was improving cultural intelligence across campus, and to a cultural intelligence initiative called CIQ@SMU.
The university requires all new students and incoming faculty members to participate in CIQ training, which includes information on bias and microaggressions. SMU now has an online tool to report bias incidents as part of the effort to set cultural standards.
“You may not be able to change people’s attitudes, but you sure can change their behavior,” Turner said. “What we’re making clear is what the approved behavior is and taking action if that doesn’t show up in our students or faculty and staff.”
Turner pointed to a recent photo in The News of SMU coaches and football players passing out water bottles at a Black Lives Matter rally. He called it just one example of how CIQ has helped more staffers and students be aware of social issues.
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But Emem Inyang, 22, who graduated in May, said she restarted the hashtag this month because Turner’s initial letter addressing Floyd’s death was yet another example of how the university fails students because it decried racism in general but did not address specific concerns.
“It didn’t acknowledge the needs that black students might face, especially in this environment,” she said. “It didn’t even use the word black. That was a very SMU thing to do.”
Inyang was a high school senior in Pennsylvania when she read about SMU’s struggles in The News.
She had attended a summer science camp at the university after middle school and had fallen in love with the place. Rather than discourage her from choosing SMU, she said, the story solidified it as her top choice.
She said that if she was going to go to a PWI — a predominantly white institution — she wanted it to be one that was aware of its challenges and ready to do the work to address them.
But while attending SMU, Inyang felt the university wasn’t serious about change. She worked with various groups and in the admissions office, where she saw little progress in increasing the number of black students and staff members. She felt that when concerns were brought up — such as racist fliers — SMU officials tried to quickly dismiss them as one-time incidents.
And CIQ seemed to deflect from confronting the tough issues facing black students specifically by instead focusing on more palatable ideas such as diversity in general, she said.
Marcus McNeil, a football player who ended up transferring to another Texas school after struggling on campus, shared that frustration after serving on the CIQ advisory board.
McNeil grew up in a family of activists, and in 2016, after Philando Castile was killed by police during a routine stop in Minnesota, McNeil joined thousands in a Black Lives Matter protest that July 7 in downtown Dallas.
A gunman started shooting police officers as protesters were heading home. At the time, McNeil didn’t know the man was targeting police, and the former offensive guard scrambled to find shelter in a hotel. In the chaos, he lost his keys and wallet and ended up having to find a way out with friends even though he didn’t yet know if it was safe to move around downtown.
That night — when five law enforcement officers were killed — continues to haunt him. But he said his coaches at the time seemed indifferent to his experience. McNeil had already felt like white athletes were given preferential treatment and that he was marked as a problem player for speaking up about inequities he saw on campus.
“I never heard, ‘How are you? Are you OK?’” he said. “What I did hear was, ‘You need to focus on football. Do you want to be a football player or an activist?’”
McNeil said he tried to make life better for other students, such as by helping to organize a Mr. and Ms. Black SMU homecoming court. But he said the frequent microaggressions he faced just wore him down.
“Mentally, it got to the point that if I had to do another two years of this, I just don’t know where my brain would be,” he said. “I can’t keep fighting this fight.”
He transferred to Texas State University, where he said the campus climate is much more inclusive of all students.
Chad Morris, SMU’s head coach at the time and now offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Auburn University, issued a statement saying that in his 28 years of coaching, he had encouraged a culture of “inclusion, diversity and brotherhood.”
“It was no different while I was the head coach at SMU,” he said. “It’s disappointing to me to learn that one of my former players feels that way about his experience.”
Meanwhile, a new group of black students is picking up the fight for change at SMU. Two students have raised more than $15,000 to buy shirts and fund various campus initiatives in the fall to promote awareness for Black Lives Matter.
This month, Turner held a series of video calls with black students and faculty members to discuss concerns. He then vowed to develop better accountability and expanded implicit bias training. He said he would make current funds available for scholarships for black students in the short term and would also make growing scholarship endowment a priority.
From the archives: The News’ 2015 #BlackatSMU deep dive into the challenges students have faced
Turner also said talks with campus police were continuing to address student concerns about profiling.
As the nation collectively focuses on inequities across all systems, Turner said, momentum has built to really make lasting changes at SMU and across the nation.
“You have almost a consensus in the country that there need to be improvements and that the opportunities to work significantly toward racial equality and social justice are now available,” he said.
Administrators will once again meet with black students regularly to update them on progress. But Turner admits that making dramatic changes to the campus makeup will be a challenge because SMU is competing with other elite schools across the country for top students and fewer high school graduates are choosing college.
Research has repeatedly shown that black high school students have fewer opportunities to take courses that prepare them for college because of limited class offerings or because they aren’t tapped for advanced programs at the same rate as peers.
That eventually leads to a smaller pool of graduate students to recruit from for faculty positions.
Meanwhile, the resurfacing of #BlackatSMU has already given some potential students pause. A handful of black students planning to attend SMU in the fall posted on social media that they were reconsidering their enrollment.
A few students on the call with Turner said they felt that the president was encouraging them to reach out to those students who posted their concerns about attending SMU.
SMU admissions officials said no young people had asked for a deposit back or said they didn’t plan to attend SMU because of #BlackatSMU concerns.
Turner issued a statement to The New stating that “if our students respond to concerns expressed on Twitter, I would want them to acknowledge what they and others have experienced here — good and bad — but also to let incoming students know that we have programs in place to work on these issues and invite them to come work with us.”
That request stung Kennedy Coleman, a junior who was on the video call with Turner and who is programming chair for the Association of Black Students. Coleman has responded to questions from potential students who have reached out to her individually, but she doesn’t want to do the recruitment work she feels SMU should be doing.
“I have told students that yes, I would definitely still come here because it does have its benefits and resources,” she said. “If you know you’re going to go to a PWI, I wouldn’t let someone else’s ignorance stand in your way. Don’t let it define your whole experience and — Wait. Pause. Because sometimes, it be hurting. I’m not going to lie — But you can’t let it stop you from finding your success.”
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