SU Campus Store is guilty of engaging in performative activism

Coming Back Together is a reunion dedicated to bringing Black and Latinx alumni back to Syracuse University’s campus to celebrate their accomplishments. If someone would have told me that SU has been hosting this event every three years since 1983, I would not have believed them. SU and genuine acts of inclusivity don’t seem to go hand in hand, but, when CBT 2021  came around on Sept. 9, I was pleasantly surprised. 

I felt the energy of the campus shift completely. Walking into crowds of alumni that look like me on the promenade was almost baptismal. A wave of acceptance and community washed over me. I felt reborn into a space where I can finally hold my head high and not feel threatened by someone trying to bring it down. It was happiness in its truest form. 

I didn’t know any of the alumni personally but I smiled from ear to ear whenever they walked past me as if I did. Our connection was familial, tied together by the generations of SU’s promise of a safe space for their students of color. At that moment, that promise felt real. 

However, like the previous promises made from SU, this one came with strings attached. The surface level allyship that the university promotes is not only disheartening but also damaging for the students of color that attend this campus. On the second day of CBT, I noticed a new mannequin at the campus store that displayed Kappa Alpha Psi paraphernalia. 

Kappa Alpha Psi is a historically Black fraternity that’s a part of the National Pan-Hellenic Council. Of my three years being on this campus, I had never seen any display of Black sororities or fraternities inside the campus store. The sight was so out of the ordinary that I had to take a picture of it.

I watched a few alumni flock to the mannequin, presumably reminiscing about their time in Greek life on campus. They seemed to express pride in SU. 

On Sept.14, two days after CBT weekend, the university robbed them of that pride. The mannequin, like the spirit of change and inclusivity from SU, disappeared from the storefront. 

The actions of the campus store is a clear demonstration of performative activism. Through its actions, SU said that people are only allowed in the university’s space if it receives compensation from their time. It’s a modern day minstrelsy where in place of Black face, it’s a Black mannequin in Black fraternity attire.

Performative allyship is an integral part of SU’s make up. It has been used to meet quotas and provide temporary reliefs. It’s the easiest solution for a complex problem. But it fails at securing the longevity of what it seeks to promote: inclusion. 

It would have been a stronger sign of unity if the campus store were to have left up the mannequin past CBT weekend. That would have encouraged me to attend CBT as an alumni. It would have given me the peace of mind that my presence isn’t being used as a gimmick to promote cultural diversity. 

What this incident shows to students of color is that, like the mannequin, our time on this campus is only temporary compared to our white counterparts, that we are only fiberglass displays, modeling the university’s counterfeit ideology of cross culturalism. Instead of people, we are replaceable once SU’s ability to produce a profit is complete.

Chelsea Brown ‘23. She can be contacted at cbrown38@gmail.com.