I certainly agree with the sentiment that Feminist Students United took the right approach with their side of the cube (although I wish it were a little less inflammatory and a little more informative), but I do think the Hockey players deserve credit for quickly recognizing their mistake and rectifying it as well as taking measures to educate themselves on this topic. I think it shows quite a bit more maturity and sensitivity than some feminists would be willing to give our athletes for them to own up to this error in judgment and genuinely apologize on multiple fronts.

While I am sincerely appreciative of the apology given by the UNC men’s hockey team and the outpouring support of the Feminist Student’s United brilliant painted cube response I can’t help but consider: where does UNC go from here? Do we pretend that the incident of an offensively painted cube with a sexual double entendre was an isolated case of ‘boys will be boys’ and scapegoat the hockey team for being insensitive? Or do we make the conscious decision to have the tough and necessary conversation and ask ourselves: what is the environment that we as members of the UNC community are creating? Is it one of equality, mutual respect and understanding, a safe and healthy place for all? Unfortunately through my experience and education I can attest this is not always the case. In a world where one derogatory remark about a member of the queer community is too many, one insensitive joke about rape or gendered violence is too many, one sexual is assault is far too many, we as a university have a long way to go. Yet I remain hopeful. I see inspiring actions from UNC students who are sick of the status quo every day. Imagine: a community where we are held accountable to one another, where we feel a sense responsibility to one another, a community that demands to be better, because we can be. One of the most empowering experiences I have been lucky to have recently was attending ‘One Act’, an active bystander education training that teaches students how to successfully intervene to prevent interpersonal violence. This model depends on the idea that if even one person takes just one action, their society may be improved. So I urge UNC students to not shrug their shoulders and walk away when they see displays such as the one the hockey team painted last week. Take the time to question where messages like those stem from, why they are dangerous, and what role can we all potentially play in crafting a UNC environment as it could and should be.