Racist Experiences on Campus

In response to the question about racist experiences at Millersville University, narrators responded with different encounters and personal understandings. These incidents occurred in a variety of places including in classes, in off-campus apartment complexes, and on campus. Evelyn Dais recalled a personal encounter she experienced on her way to the Francine G. McNairy Library and Learning Forum where two students called her a monkey before proceeding to make animal noises behind her.(2) In the apartment complexes located directly behind the university, Taylor Muse found racial slurs written on a stolen street sign her sophomore year.(3) Other narrators described incidents that included being called a gorilla, white students using blackface on Snapchat, hostile threats and warnings from other students about publicly displaying support for racial equality, and facing ignorant comments or dismissive attitudes from professors. Of the narrators that experienced racial discrimination on campus, these incidents left them feeling unwelcome and unsafe. Referring to the blackface incident that took place on campus in the spring of 2017, one narrator explained that they never experienced any racial animosity to that magnitude before. Personally believing that everyone on campus was united together, this incident hurt them.(4) All of these examples remained far from the only racist acts that specific organizations, like Black Student Union, heard of or dealt with.