YouNited, formerly Love Not Hate, an organization that works to help those who may have been impacted by changes in the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Programs, picketed outside of Wagoner Dining Hall on Friday, Feb. 14 to share resources and information to those impacted by DEI changes in schools and communities.
“They are not keeping us safe, so we have to keep us safe together, as the people,” said Rose Saraiva, one of the picketers for Love Not Hate and UNCW student studying social work. She said that DEI is built into the social work code of ethics and its existence is vital to the program’s existence.
“In our school, we used to have 15 faculty members per organization, like the LGBTQ Center or the BSU,” Saraiva said. “Now we only have one.” Some argue that this can leave programs meant to lift up minority students understaffed and undeserving their community.
Saraiva is the owner and operator of the @younited_nc Instagram account, and organized this picketing event under the mentorship of Lily Nicole Nichelle, a 2015 alumna of UNCW. Nichelle is the co-founder of the Lowercase Leaders (LCL) non-profit in Wilmington, which was born during 2020 in the height of the Black Lives Matter movement. During a protest that ran for over 100 days, Nichelle realized that education is one of, if not the most important players in activism.
“It was amazing,” Nichelle recalled, regarding LCL’s influence during the George Floyd protests. “It was very organized and structured. It was the first time in 70 years that Wilmington voted blue, because we talked to students, we activated their voices and we turned the city blue.” Nichelle credits this change in political atmosphere to the numerous workshops and educational classes hosted during the protests, and deliberately implemented this focus on teaching the public into the set up of the DEI picketing event.
“We just want to educate [the public] on what’s actually happening,” She added. “Not just what we’re being told is happening. When I tell you that, when I give you a story, then you give a shit about DEI. We’ve learned you have to humanize the cause or else no one cares.”
The group spent 10 days contacting local businesses and organizations for donations and resources to be handed out to the UNCW community, and while there isn’t a proper RSVP system to keep track of the exact number of contributors, many organizations expressed excitement for the picket. “We did not know until 11 a.m. today that we were able to get permitted,” Saraiva said. “We told people not to come [to Wagoner Hall] until after 5 p.m. but since we could get permitted, faculty members and student organizations could join without facing possible consequences.” On Friday, the permit only lasted until 6 p.m., but Saraiva was hopeful that they would be able to renew it for the following days.
Nichelle commented that the first step in organizing this event “was coming up with a tangible way to safely gather,” and that this weekend worked perfectly in their favor. Homecoming weekend meant that numerous alumni would be on campus, alongside the current student population and faculty members. “We are capitalizing on the opportunity where people would already be here.”
“The system isn’t fixable because it’s set up in a way that will always fail the marginalized, but when the people come together united, the power lies with us,” she added. “When we realize that, we are truly unstoppable. This is not a sprint, this is a marathon and it’s going to take everyone tapping in.”
As an alum and a woman of color, the DEI situation at UNCW hits very close to home for Nichelle, and she hopes that the influx of alumni on campus at the same time as the picket will draw more attention to what is being taken from students. “We paid our money for an institution; we get to demand better of our institution. We paid our dollars for this, so we can demand better, so the current student body can thrive, not just survive,” she said.
Love Not Hate distributed red cards that informed people of their rights if they are stopped by the police or by ICE, flyers about the Chrysalis Center for counseling and eating disorder treatment, Covid-19 tests, Narcan and Plan B. Saraiva explained that in N.C. citizens had 12 weeks to get an abortion although many do not know that they are pregnant until much later. Love Not Hate works with the community to get ahead of these issues.
“It’s really important that we all have equal rights, and bodily autonomy rights are a huge issue right now,” P.K. Raynes, another picketer, shared. “There are many concerns about bodily autonomy rights that extend beyond abortion access, such as access to gender-affirming medical care. I am a trans person, so my rights are about to get ripped out from underneath me.”
Tim Joyner joined the picket to speak up for the rights of the Black and LGBTQ communities he is a part of and to speak out against injustices against them. “I’m not going to say that I am ‘scared’…it’s not in my vocabulary.”
YouNited updated their Instagram story on Feb. 15 to tell students not to attend their 24/7 All Day, All Night resource fair on Chancellor’s Walk from Feb. 14-16 because they were told they were trespassing. In the video Saraiva posted on @younited_nc she shared that she was being sent to the Dean of Students for the offense and a UNCW Campus Police vehicle drove into frame and told them to “make [their] way to [their] car.”
More information can be found @younited_nc on Instagram where they routinely post resource information and picket updates. Nichelle can be contacted at [email protected] or at www.sokotohouse.org.
