Earlier this year, the Utah Legislature passed HB261 under the title “Equal Opportunity Initiatives.” According to its description, the bill “prohibits an institution of higher education … from taking certain actions and engaging in discriminatory practices.” In reality, the bill has disrupted key anti-discrimination efforts in colleges and universities across the state. As a direct result of HB261, vital student organizations for addressing discrimination have been forced to close or go independent. Those who have gone independent have lost university resources, including money and space, to support their activities.
Student organizations such as Black student unions or Pacific Islander student associations are linchpins in the fight against discrimination in colleges and universities and their surrounding communities. However, the value of these groups may not be readily apparent to those who are not racial minorities. Some might see their existence as counterintuitive: If the goal is to end segregation and discrimination, why do we have clubs for specific racial minorities? Sociological research on race and ethnicity sheds light on these questions.
W.E.B. Du Bois, one of the founders of American Sociology, described his experience as an African American as being trapped “behind a veil.” Du Bois used the veil metaphor to explain the distorted, incomplete way he was viewed by his white peers. Although he was intelligent, patriotic and capable of contributing to society — and the first Black American to receive a Ph.D. from Harvard University — Du Bois was rarely seen as more than his race by his fellow Americans. His pain and frustration were compounded by the fact that most professional, political and cultural opportunities were held by the same white folks who did not see him for who he was, and who excluded him from participation. Du Bois’s experience is not unique.
Historically, racial minorities in the United States have responded to this “invisibility” and discrimination by creating their own spaces “behind the veil” where they can affirm their worth and value, share resources and organize for collective action. This function is seen clearly in the Black Church, which has been a bastion of Black American culture for centuries and was the cradle of the 20th Century Civil Rights Movement. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a similar space for supporting and strengthening its Black members in the church-sanctioned Genesis Group, established more than 50 years ago. Student cultural associations perform these same functions for college students in Utah today. At least, they did, until HB261.
We have come a long way as a society since Du Bois’s writing in the early 20th century, but contemporary research shows that many racial minorities still experience discrimination and feelings of invisibility. Supporting the cultivation of spaces “behind the veil” continues to be an essential tool for addressing racial injustice. At an individual level, such spaces offer an oasis for racial minorities to relax, commiserate, share joys and exchange useful information and resources. Collectively, they facilitate organized action that helps fight racial injustice in the larger community. Crucially, white students are always welcome and supportive white classmates who see their Black peers clearly, not distorted behind “the veil,” do in fact attend the Black Student Union meetings at our campus and others.
Anti-discrimination efforts can and should take multiple forms. The existence of “spaces behind the veil” does not threaten or preclude the formation of mixed-race coalitions. In fact, they strengthen them. Our own research on Black Latter-day Saints recently published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion illustrates this. Out of meetings and conferences of Black Latter-day Saints have come concrete suggestions that help fulfill Church President Russell M. Nelson’s joint call with NAACP leaders to to “root out racism,” such as increasing racial representation in church artwork as seen in LDS temples in Utah and nationwide, to name just one example.
Supporting “spaces behind the veil” helps broader mixed-race coalitions flourish, in universities as well as churches. A little-known fact is that the NAACP itself was formed in 1909 by an interracial set of founders, including W.E.B. Du Bois, Ida Bell Wells-Barnett and Mary White Ovington, among others. Our research shows that removing support for student cultural associations jeopardizes individual students as well as efforts to root out racism.
The legislators who presented HB261 said that student clubs were to remain untouched, but this did not happen. Instead, this “anti-discrimination” law has undercut some of the most important anti-discrimination organizations in the state. Students of color at public campuses have lost funding, resources and support, feeling devastated and, at times, betrayed. We believe the Utah Legislature can correct their mistake and stay true to the aims of anti-discrimination, rooting out racism and interracial support by repealing HB261 in the next legislative session.
(Michael Lee Wood) Michael Lee Wood is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University.
Michael Lee Wood is an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University.
(Jacob S. Rugh) Jacob S. Rugh is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University.
Jacob S. Rugh is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at Brigham Young University.
The views expressed here are those of the authors alone and not of their employer, Brigham Young University.
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