The Russell House Theater was packed with students, faculty and staff on Thursday evening ready to discuss a racially charged incident that occurred on campus earlier in the week.
The "Community Dialogue," held by the Office of Multicultural Student Affairs and tagged with #NotOnOurCampus, left some concerned students with more questions than answers regarding the incident, its consequences and their safety.
As people flowed into the theater, there was a sli.do polling system projected on the big screen allowing for a thread of anonymous answers or suggestions focused on the question: "How can we move forward? What solutions can we implement?"
Shay Malone, Director of Multicultural Student Affairs, took the stage. She introduced an acronym, ROPES, to the people in attendance as a sort of guide to how everyone should conduct themselves in the dialogue.
"R is for respect ... O is for open-mindedness ... P is for participation ... E is for expectation ... and S is for safety," Malone said. "We're gonna learn here today."
Next to the stage was John Dozier, USC's Chief Diversity Officer and Senior Associate Provost for Inclusion.
"The racist remarks that littered our walls have affected us during the week that we celebrate, we acknowledge, the work ... of Dr. Martin Luther King," Dozier said.
Dozier said that USC's law enforcement is continuing to investigate the incident that circulated social media on Tuesday and prompted Thursday evening's dialogue.
"While it is important for us to get to the bottom of who might have done this, we can be sure that whoever it was is likely paying attention right now," Dozier said. "And to that person, I just want to let you know that your hatred has no place here at the University of South Carolina."
As Dozier went on to discuss what OMSA and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion do in terms of supporting underrepresented students, "a host of programming," such as Welcome Table SC conversations that bring students, faculty and staff together to talk about their personal experiences.
It was around this point that the projector behind the podium was getting flooded with questions and comments, almost all of which were either ignored or not noticed by the person at the podium.
"Swept under the rug"
Instead of conducting the dialogue by taking comments one-by-one, the facilitators introduced themselves then moved forward into repetition of the question on the projector: "How can we move forward?"
Answers appeared on the screen behind the podium. But neither Dozier nor others who took the stage, including Student Body President Ross Lordo, turned around. The comments weren't part of the dialogue — a microphone was being passed around the audience so that individuals would have a chance to voice concerns.
What comments appeared on the projector were different from what was heard from the crowd or the facilitators.
"Holding people accountable and not just sweeping it under the rug like they did with the girl who did black face last February," one anonymous comment read. This comment was never acknowledged.
Dozier said, "I don't suspect that this will be the last time we will experience someone littering on our walls."
There lies the problem for several students in attendance, one of whom was third-year public relations student Kayla Driffin. Her parents, aunt and other relatives are alumni.
"Most of my family came here, and they were dealing with this when they were there," Driffin said. "So it's like, when does it stop?"
Another student, second-year broadcast journalism student Maya Queenan, recalls several racial incidents not just as she was growing up but on USC's campus as well.
"There's been so many racist issues that have happened here and I'm only a sophomore," Queenan said. "My friend got garbage thrown at her and called, 'Take my Trump trash, n-----.'"
Queenan says that while it is disappointing and angering to deal with incidents such as these, she isn't surprised.
Referring to what many at the dialogue considered to be a delayed reaction from USC President Harris Pastides, Queenan said, "I'm really hurt, and I did not appreciate the way USC handled this whatsoever."
Pastides was traveling back from Washington, D.C., and couldn't attend the discussion. According to Dozier, the university wanted to have the dialogue as soon as possible instead of waiting for Pastides. First Lady Patricia Moore-Pastides did attend, but did not address the audience.
"Not adding up"
“Eyewitnesses observed a white male that appeared to be in his mid-40s in the area at the time the [fliers] were discovered,” USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in a statement. “Video surveillance confirms that description and USCPD is working to identify the individual. Officials are not sure if he has any connection to the university.”
Students present at Thursday evening's dialogue did not care if it was a perpetrator directly affiliated with the university or not — it was their understanding that these incidents should not occur from the inside or the outside, and some found it hard to believe that so little information was found on that person.
"First they said it was, like, right before classes started. And then [Dozier] got on the mic and said, 'Well ... it was early Monday morning,'" said second-year biology student Daishanna Pearson. "Well, if it was early Monday morning, and y'all had faculty and staff on campus, why didn't they see the posts?"
"I mean you got janitors in and out of Russell House, you got janitors in and out of Gambrell and everywhere else," Pearson said. "Why didn't they see the posts before students got on campus to see the posts?"
Driffin said she did not understand how it can be concluded that the perpetrator is not connected to the university if he is yet to be identified other than his skin color and possible age.
Driffin also voiced concern about a lack of security on campus at least in Gambrell Hall, where a suicide had occurred just three months prior.
"What can we do?"
A student in a red sweatshirt stood up during the dialogue and directed attention to the "E" part of Malone's "ROPES."
What students, especially students who are victims of racially charged incidents, "expect" from the administration is for them to stick their necks out for them, "because we would do it for each other," the student said.
"Black people have to be there for each other," Queenan said, followed up by Driffin saying, "No one else is."
Second-year broadcast journalism student Naja Hough said that unity is a fair starting point for really seeking out concrete change and moving forward from incidents like the posting of the fliers.
"On this campus, if we're all together and we all have the same idea — like how we're going to move forward, how we're going to protest, how we're going to fight back, what responses we're going to give when white students or non-black people of color might ask us questions about how we feel," Hough said. "I feel like the more unified we are on everything we do, the more of what we say will be heard."
To the question, "What can we do?" which had suggestions and answers coming up on the projector before Malone turned it off, Queenan says that current procedures, whatever they may be, are not effective.
"I get that you have to be like — keep your PR front or whatever, but you also have to realize that you do have an African-American population on campus," Queenan said, "and if something like this has happened three years in a row then obviously what you're doing right now is not working."
Pearson said that her main qualm with dialogues surrounding such incidents is that it feels like they are put on to "look" as if action will be taken. Driffin added that it felt more like a dealing in political correctness than a real call to action.
"We're paying you"
Whispers in the audience heightened a bit when the projector was turned off. It was a sort of confirmation that each anonymous question, comment or concern on the sli.do poll would either be glossed over or not addressed at all in the short time allotted for a dialogue.
Driffin, Hough and Queenan had all initially thought that the anonymous polling would be used as a guide for discussion.
"That made no sense to me, especially when [Malone] came up and she said, 'Yes, I turned the questions off,'" Queenan said. "I was like, 'You're shutting down our voice."
Queenan was also unimpressed with the response to the questions that were answered.
Yes, we were able to answer questions and everything," Queenan said, "but they just went so around the questions that I feel like they just didn't acknowledge that people had statements behind them."
Hough felt that there really wasn't enough time for each perspective to be acknowledged. Students were shuffled out of the theater around 6 p.m., an hour after the event started, and encouraged to attend other events going on at the time that had nothing to do with the incidents people had planned on discussing.
When Pearson posted on Facebook about USC making an attempt at putting itself in a better light so that people will still want to come to school there, she said, several people reacted to it by retracting their desire to attend the university.
"Of course that's what they're gonna say because I mean who would want to come to a university where you get treated like this?" Pearson said. "I mean we're paying you to go to school here, and at the end of the day we're treated like crap. That's like me going to the store and buying something I don't want."
Queenan says she understands that the likes of Dozier and the administration are on her side and the side of all students. She felt like some students were getting a bit defensive.
"I could just tell that it was really difficult for Mr. Dozier, but at the same time, it is also difficult for us. We are students. We are experiencing this. This is our lives on the line if anything does happen," she said. "So I just feel like if Mr. Dozier understands what's going on, he should have given us better answers."
Malone concluded the dialogue by saying that discussions can continue to answer students' questions and concerns. No date has been officially announced for a second dialogue.