Letter to the editor

Dear Duke Students and Workers in Solidarity,

I wish I could say that when I heard that a senior-level administrator hit a parking attendant (with his luxury car) and kept moving, I was surprised. But I wasn't. I was disgusted, sure. But surprised? No. Duke has always been a playground for white elites. You learn to navigate the space and the sense of entitlement that pervades it. It's called the plantation because white supremacy is a fact of everyday life. Patriarchal objectification of women's bodies is also an unremarkably everyday occurrence. And the wealth, much like the power, is concentrated in the hands of a few.

I was, however, surprised by your response to this series of events. Your response thus far has been just, and it has been right.

Back when I first entered Duke as a first-year graduate student, the Duke Lacrosse Scandal was making national headlines because it exposed the rape culture prevalent on campus. As in Trask’s case, the use of racial slurs were alleged. The fact that the predominantly white lacrosse team held its party in a nearby neighborhood indicates the structures that produce a feeling of entitlement to enact predatory violence exists both on-campus and off. What’s more, Duke's presence and expansion throughout the city of Durham coincides with the gentrification of working class and people of color neighborhoods. Calling for a $15 minimum wage for Duke workers is a start, but in a city where more and more people cannot afford rent, let alone homeownership, will it be enough?

Duke is always in the news and usually it's either basketball or bigotry - related. (Remember when Kappa Sigma threw that so-called "asian-themed" frat party?) As an alum, and as a Black woman alum at that, I'm proud to see such strident challenges to the good ol' boy system. Collective resistance is a true inheritance for Black folks. To the Duke students occupying the Allen Building, thank you for having the courage to join in that legacy of struggle. Thank you for not hiding behind your privilege as Duke students. Thank you for putting your bodies and potentially your education/careers/livelihoods on the line in the name of justice.

I love that y’all are calling to #dismantledukeplantation. As I mentioned above, the plantation analogy is especially apt because a plantation depends utterly on unpaid and undervalued labor. If you want to talk about dismantling the plantation you gotta talk about a complete and total culture change at the level of the institution. Duke enjoys a national (and prestigious) reputation thanks in large part to the student athletes who remain uncompensated for their labor. I'd urge y'all to interrogate the sports nexus even further. Especially because unraveling that knot might help reduce some the gendered sexual violence (read: rape culture) that it breeds. And because it seems to me that Duke owes its student athletes quite a bit of back pay.

But why stop there? Where is Duke’s money invested? Who is on the Board of Trustees? What are your systems of accountability? What is the level of compositional diversity in university leadership? In the professoriate? In the student body? I urge each of you to think expansively as you envision the type of institution you'd like to see in place of the plantation model. Of course, Rome wasn’t built in a day; and although you should be courageous, you should not be reckless nor reactionary as you build a sustainable student movement capable of challenging the status quo and implementing what you see as sensible and sustainable solutions. You have the ear of the university, and the eyes of the nation are upon you. Make it count!

Yours in struggle,
fari nzinga

MA '10, Ph.D. '13