Last week, Lipscomb University President Randy Lowry invited African-American students to his house to talk about their experiences. According to Natalie Neysa Alund’s story in The Tennessean, it didn’t go well.
Some of the students who attended shared their concern about material used for centerpieces which contained cotton stalks, according to the post.“The content of the centerpieces was offensive, and I could have handled the situation with more sensitivity. I sincerely apologize for the discomfort, anger or disappointment we caused and solicit your forgiveness,” Lowry wrote.
An Instagram post by a student who attended the event points to bigger problems than just the cotton stalks — namely, that the food choices also seemed like a white person’s stereotype of black food, that the students didn’t really get a chance to talk about their experiences and that they were directed to send any questions or concerns they had about the event to the Latino advocate, because there isn’t someone to advocate for black students specifically on campus.
This is fascinating because it’s a train wreck of good intentions. The black students believed Lowry enough to show up and be prepared to talk to him about their experiences. Lowry obviously had the sense that this was something Lipscomb needed and he was, indeed, doing good by wanting to have this dinner.
Whoever decided on the decor and menu for the evening, I think, also had good intentions. What would let black students know that Lipscomb really understood them? Well, here are these things white people think of when we think of black people.
People often complain about not understanding what systemic racism is, but here’s a perfect example. Everyone in this situation was oriented toward doing a good thing and were acting to the best of their capabilities to achieve a good outcome. No one at Lipscomb was all, “Oh, we’re going to show those kids. They think they have a place here? I’m going to remind them they should be picking cotton.” We all take for granted that, if everyone’s heart is in the right place and everyone’s eyes are on doing good, then good things will result.
But there are some hurtful underlying assumptions, the first being obvious underlying assumption that whatever stereotype of black experiences the person doing the decorating and menu planning had was true and non-problematic. Less obvious, but more distressing, is the assumption of Lowry’s that, in a room full of black students gathered to talk about black life at Lipscomb, Lowry was the one who should be doing most of the talking.
The people in a situation like this one can have the best of intentions, but if the assumptions they’re starting with are racist, then the good intentions often don’t outweigh it. And that’s hard for white people to deal with. If we mean well and our hearts are in the right place, then how can we be doing anything wrong or hurtful?
But if we genuinely want a good community where we all can thrive, then we have to be careful with each other, and not rely solely on good intentions to get us there.
