News: Remembering Dr. Gail R. O’Day Page 5
Opinion: We ought to believe Dr. Christine Blasey Ford Page 9
Sports: Sawvel ousted after loss to Life: Wake People Laugh hosts first Notre Dame comedy night of the semester Page 11 Page 16
Old Gold&Black
WAKE FOREST’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1916 VOL. 104, NO. 5
T H U R S DAY, S E P T E M B E R 27 , 2 018 “Cover s the campus like the magnolias”
wfuogb.com
LGBTQ Center sponsors women’s soccer senior game A senior on the women’s soccer team met push-back when planning her senior day BY LILLIAN JOHNSON News Editor johnlg16@wfu.edu
“She walked away and in my mind I thought, ‘This happened to me too.’ That’s what I wanted to tell her, it didn’t feel like enough,” Burke said. “[After], I realized that was the only thing to say.” At that point in the speech, Burke revealed that she was raped at the age of six. SAFE Office Assistant Director Steph Trilling discussed during an interview that more than 1,200 people registered for the event. She said that the sheer number of individuals interested shows victims that if they wish to open up about their experiences, they have community support. “Tarana Burke is a survivor, and not only has she healed and is resilient and a role model to so many people, but she actually built a movement for other survivors to find one another and to heal,” Trilling said. “I’m hoping that the student body takes away that survivors are brave, are powerful, and that they’re not alone.”
Among the international flags representing the nationalities of the women’s soccer team hung in front of Walt Chyzowych Alumni Hill there was a new flag flying during Sunday’s game: a pride flag. The pride flag was hung in honor of team member Bri Carney’s Senior Game, as each senior player gets their own special Senior Game at Spry Stadium during their final season. For the event, Carney and her teammates also sported rainbow wristbands, scrunchies and ribbons. “[It was] very moving for me to see people in support of something I identify with, and seeing validation through that was really cool for me personally and for the community in general,” Carney said. However, Carney’s Senior Grame cannot officially be labeled “a pride game,” like she had originally envisioned it. In the midst of planning the event, Carney and her team were met with push-back from administrators over various concerns. She and her teammates conceived the idea for a pride game back in April, after seeing that Duke women’s soccer team hosted one last year. Once the soccer season drew closer, Carney and her teammates tried to turn her vision into a concrete plan. Two weeks before the Sept. 23 game against Notre Dame, however, Carney met with the Director of Athletics Ron Wellman, who had heard of the team’s plan for a pride game. According to Carney, Wellman was afraid that the pride game would “open Pandora’s box” for the Athletics Department, as this could potentially set a precedent for other sports teams to use their games to support certain causes. She said that the Athletics Department therefore did not approve of the idea, and would not buy pride-themed items. ““[There is] a long-standing policy for events to not be taken over for any cause of any kind,” said President Nathan O. Hatch.
See Me Too, Page 4
See Pride, Page 5
Photo Courtesy of Wake Forest University
Tarana Burke visited Wake Forest to share her life story and speak about the history of the “Me Too” movement. She also addressed many of the misconceptions surrounding the viral hashtag’s role.
“Me Too” founder visits WFU Tarana Burke took the stage inWait Chapel to describe the importance of her movement BY OLIVIA FIELD Life Editor fielor17@wfu.edu Twenty minutes before she addressed the crowd in Wait Chapel, Me Too movement founder Tarana Burke was named The Root’s most influential African American of the year. With an audience packed full of students, staff and community members, Burke took the stage on Sept. 25 to tell the story of her life, explain the movement she created and give context to her number one position on The Root’s list. After joking about beating Cardi B and Beyoncé to the top of the lineup, Burke began her speech by describing how her family helped to shape her understanding of the world at a young age. She emphasized her strong roots,
noting that her mother supplied her with black feminist literature and her grandfather supplied her with history. “All the things that my grandfather and mother gave me were enriching, they allowed me to identify injustice,” Burke said. Burke joined the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement during high school. At the age of 15, she began her career as an organizer by protesting events like the Central Park Jogger Case. After graduating from Auburn University, Burke worked at 21st Century and created relationships with many of the children. During group conversations, Burke said that it was common for young girls to discuss or hint at their experiences of sexual violence. One day, Burke was approached by a young girl named Heaven who proceeded to reveal that she was being sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend. Instead of helping her, Burke shut down and informed Heaven that she was not the right person to tell.