TO THE EDITOR:
Former student body presidential candidate Emilio Vicente’s guest column on Wednesday raised some important points about the history of who exactly wins student elections here at UNC.
White heterosexual male students involved in the Morehead-Cain Scholarship program and/or the Greek system have been statistically overrepresented. Meanwhile, candidates like Emilio, who hold identities not traditionally represented by campus leadership, are often expected to justify why they “deserve” a seat at the table.
If we are truly committed to a representative system of campus leadership, the time has come to stop laying the burden of proof on marginalized students to justify their inclusion in a space that supposedly “represents” them. Let’s flip the script and instead ask those candidates already in power why they deserve overrepresentation. Are they more equipped to lead than students of color, queer students, or undocumented students?
It’s time to stop requiring disenfranchised students to make the case for why they deserve proportional representation. Let’s instead ask those candidates already in power to justify why they deserve even more. I have a feeling that the resulting answers we get will be more informative in their incompetency and naiveté than in their substantive meaning.
Wilson Hood
Senior
Political Science and Sociology
