Greensboro is no stranger to tension, isolation and division among its citizens. The Greensboro Massacre drove a wedge straight through the city and left emotional wounds open for decades. However, many in this city have also been able to critically look at these wounds, and in 2006, Greensboro started on the road to reconciliation with the first Truth and Reconciliation Commission in the United States.

At its core, the commission sought to shine light on the many truths and perspectives that lead up to and came away from the Massacre. People in the city saw the need to turn the great kinetic energy that came from the tragedy into healing relationships rather than a force that would continue to force us apart. This is reconciliation, not retaliation. It comes from a place of peace and truth-seeking, not revenge and retribution.

This weekend, a confederate flag was destroyed on campus. To myself, to many in this community and to those with historical and social context, this flag is a symbol of hate, violence and domination. I agree with many that such symbols have no place in a community that holds justice at its heart, yet I do not believe that non-consensual destruction of anyone’s property has a place here either.

The question now is how to move forward from this event. How do we as a community work towards reconciliation and truth-seeking rather than retaliation?

We have a community that is divided among several lines, not just along the ever-touted athlete/non-athlete divide. It is time that we step away from our own truths and our egos and look at members in our communities as living people with unique experiences and understandings, no matter how distant they seem.

We have resources here at Guilford to facilitate conversation and begin to move forward. Let us use this event as an opportunity to critically examine the culture we have here and ask the hard questions together. Questions of power, dominance, revolution, activism, justice, etc. in critical ways.

I am not implying that the this act is parallel or even comparable to the human life taken at the massacre, but simply that Greensboro in many ways set the stage for reconciliation between contrary groups. This response also comes from a white, cisgendered man, someone who could walk through a confederate rally and not feel physically threatened. I offer this not as panacea or as condemnation for anyone’s response, but as a student who is concerned about where the domino effect already in motion, whether seen or unseen, will go. Actions have ripple effects that last well on past our experiences with a place. In a time of change here at the college, will our student body leave a legacy of unresolved division and hate?

Daniel Raeder, senior