#deactown

“I Drink Your Milkshake” by Antonina Whaples

Acrylic on cardboard

Wake Forest University: my alma mater. No, more than that: my home away from home. My father joined the faculty of WFU in 1991 (happy 30 years dad), and I grew up down the block on Polo Road. Most days you could find me riding my bicycle to the library where I’d search manually though old folios in the catalogue for a VHS call number, use my Dad’s ID and come home with a backpack full of distraction. It was an idealized environment for me, but I didn’t necessarily want to attend the university. It’s kinda hard to blend in with your classmates when all the professors know you & your family. Politics abound. I was surprised my senior year of high school to be accepted to WFU on a presidential merit scholarship for Studio Art, and spent the entirety of my time as an undergraduate defending my right to be there. I heard a lot of “I bet your dad got you that,” & “it must be nice to get the faculty discount here” (mostly from students who owned a car, let alone a very expensive one - I didn’t own one until I was 23 years old #scholarshipkid).

Wake Forest may have been a fond memory for me if it hadn’t been for my time there as an undergraduate. Perhaps I would have blissfully embraced some sweet southern idealization of my father’s workplace with the naïveté of romanticized academia - C.S. Lewis & Tolkien type experiences. And of course, there is still some of that within me, marked by positive experiences with select professors, staff, and fellow students. But let me make this abundantly clear: those moments were few and far between. Something about the sweet memories is a bit “off” - as if they stand out simply because the overall experience was so dark in comparison. It wasn’t just that our horrifying nickname for the school “Work Forest” is real, it’s that I lost 3 friends to suicide 100% related to the stress and harassment that minority students face in Wake Forest University’s environment.

I could spend an inordinate amount of time divesting the details of the nuances of every angle of the university that I’ve experienced, and let me say the web is quite complex. In addition to my “fac brat” status, I also worked for the university in food service, as staff at the gym, staff at the library, staff in IS, as a janitor/custodial worker, in the Human Resources department, and as a student manager of the Wake Forest Fund call center (aka telemarketer). I travelled to NYC on behalf of the University as part of the Student Union Art Acquisition committee to help them invest 80k into art assets (of which they have an extensive collection. One piece we purchased is now worth millions). Additionally, over the past ten years since owning Kindred Spirits downtown and publicly offering my services and guidance as an inter-tribal Shaman, I have been asked by a multitude of faculty/staff/students to offer certain ceremonies on campus to deal with racially based discrimination, violence, suicide, and even murder. Sometimes now all I do is listen to the truly disturbing tales of others who have been through what I’d consider “worse” than I, and simply hold space for someone to hear their truth.

In this case, I need to speak my truth on the issues Winston Salem is facing in the planned take over of downtown Winston Salem’s east side in an attempt to create a white community haven in the middle of a historically black and industrial area: Gentrification’s very definition. Throw in a heaping amount of entitled cluelessness and you can pretty much track the University’s awareness of their PR issues through their Facebook ads and posts (which are basically & sadly overtly just to make themselves & potential students feel good about themselves.) Somewhere in all of it you can sense the panic as they wonder what will happen if the truth is uncovered, but can I say I really see any guilt in those front-facing for the university? I cannot. All I see is defensive tactics meant to silence the public outcry against this planned take over. I think they really just hope no one notices, or at least: not anyone THEY know or have to be SOCIALLY accountable to (clique power).

So when Nicholas Schmidt stood up to speak out about WFU’s impact on the local landscape & it’s inhabitants (the tax paying citizens of the city of Winston Salem), I couldn’t help but feel RELIEVED. Here was someone who said what we all wanted to say, but through art. And when AFAS censored the art I was truly disappointed in them as an organization. Being a pseudo-neighbor on trade street, I hadn’t gotten involved in any of the art district drama around AFAS; which from its beginning had a large resistance to their existence. In fact, I had heard such disenchanting tales about them that I just stayed away. Eventually I met various artists from their organization; as well as leaders… and I became an affiliated artist & have hung some art with them. It wasn’t a negative experience until this recent SNAFU in judgement:

But the decision to take down Schmidt’s mural may have been the most brilliant thing they’ve ever done because this one act of defiance has opened up a world of conversation in the local community about important steps we need to be true neighbors to each other (ironically WFU is obsessed with “disruptor” rhetoric when the buzzword feeds them). Not only is the city talking about it, WFU is being forced to look in the mirror (public embarrassment is apparently the ONLY way to force any sort of self reflective behavior - a sad reality for an institution proclaiming “Pro Humanitate” as a primary value).

And you know who seriously needs to rewatch Mr. Rodgers? Wake Forest University. Because whether or not they want to admit their wrongs now (or wait til a convenient later date and spin it) what they are doing is wrong: no admission is necessary for it to be factually & morally true. I don’t know that anyone can blame a single member of the university, or even one specific department or the students themselves: it’s a real system that “wake bubble”. It seems as if the university feels it is too big to fail, too important to the city of Winston Salem to be accountable for anything (and let me say additional unrelated legal allegations coming against them for half a dozen questionable behaviors involving money is alarming - let’s just say some non-profits are getting a little incestuous).

I guess the real questions for me are:

Is Wake Forest University even capable of being accountable for their actions?

Who is responsible?

Who will be held responsible when the actual responsible party doesn’t wish to be (classic insider protection strategies)

Is it too late to change our fate, or is the jury still out as to what the fate of the east side of Winston will be?

Will Wake Forest be able to make an epic comeback as an institution that actually values the lives of the students, faculty, and staff who have sacrificed for the prestige of the institution? Or will this cycle undermining the good will of the good individuals caught up in this matrix continue?

Is WFU choosing in this pivotal point in its identity to become a real Demon? It’s seems it’s sadly so.

Ultimately, will WFU realize that although it provides some form of economic support to the city through jobs, that it is actually not as important of an economic puzzle piece as they think they are? (And that most of its faculty and staff feel generally abused by their systemic issues?)

Winston Salem is a city of nearly 300k people, with Clemmons/Lewisville/Kvegas just on their outskirts adding to that number considerably. They claim to be one of the top 5 employers in our county, but I believe that number must have significantly shifted since Atrium bought out the Medical Center. And let’s remember, WFU is a non-profit. So that property they are buying up (aka people’s homes/communities) are lost city revenue. It’s really time to stop believing that Winston-Salem is somehow dependent on this institution to survive, especially in this shifting economy. Moreover, the status of the university as a prestigious place to work, with class structures embedded into their departmental politics and the rampant faculty/staff classism needs to be addressed. For too long WFU has been heavily marketing it’s mythical mystique and greatness to our local populous, their future students (which statically very few end up becoming city community members), and their board of trustees (which let’s be honest is pretty much a frat trying to run our city).