On Thursday, March 24, NC’s Black Student Union (BSU) met in the freshman cafeteria to discuss tactics in moving forward from the scandal taking place two weeks earlier.

Students reevaluated the situation and discussed their personal experiences prior to and resulting from how the administration handled the scandal.

“They were just silent about it the whole time and persecuted students who talked to the press,” junior Nadya Awino said. “They handled it so poorly, and the time to fix it has past. It feels like everyone has forgotten about it.”

Senior Autumn Pope, vice president of the BSU, and senior Olivia Walters, president, asked members how they felt administration should have managed the situation, leading the group’s discussion as students expressed their frustrations.

“What should we do to move forward? We need signs of solidarity; we need to come together to move past this,” Walters said.

The main concern students addressed focused on the inappropriate uses of the n-word by other races.

“People need to stop accepting the ‘I didn’t know’ or ‘well, my friends say it’ or ‘I heard it in a song,'” Pope said.

Other students, however, discussed their opposition to the n-word entirely.

“We need to destroy the connotation of the term or we need to stop using it ourselves because we look like hypocrites otherwise,” junior Xavier Grace said.

BSU advisor Brenda Slater translated this frustration into solutions to pass on to NC administration.

“Teachers need training in how to address racial issues in the classroom properly,” Slater said. “Teachers need help and direction in how to handle this. This is absolutely necessary in moving forward.”

BSU members concern themselves with ensuring every student feels represented, safe, and accepted at school, highlighting the importance of understanding different cultures and races without prejudice.

“We are orange. Our school is good, and we know that, but we should be doing our best to show others that,” senior Tierra Mack said.