When Carmen Scott, a UNC class of 2002 graduate, saw students protesting police brutality at Saturday's football game against Pittsburgh, she was inspired to support the students involved.
“So when I saw them, I personally saw them — and I wasn’t expecting to see that — I can’t even tell you how it made me feel, it just filled me up because I was depleted, you know what I mean? And so I feel like I shared that sentiment with a lot of people who saw the protests and I just want to make sure those students know that, because I don’t know what they’re being told,” Scott said.
She said she wanted to find a way to give positive support when students might get negative feedback for the protest.
Jerome Simpson, the organizer of the protest, said the reaction has been a mix of support, understanding, disagreement and anger. He was inspired by the surge of support among UNC alumni.
“You’re trying to use your voice in a way to bring light to a serious issue and one of those methods is by not talking in this case, or sitting down," Simpson said. "And so often it’s just belittled and people just want to talk about something else, or just try and change the narrative, so it’s great to see that support."
Scott said she began by going to her friends on Facebook and seeing who would be interested in taking out a full-page ad in The Daily Tar Heel to show support for the students who protested.
“So I just kind of reached out and was hopeful to get like 30 people because I was like well, if we get 30 people we’d each be paying like 30 bucks," Scott said. "That’s not bad, you know, for a half-page ad.”
Then those friends added their friends to the page, and the number of supporters grew to 525 people.
“At some point it stopped being about the cost of the ad and being able to afford the ad — it started being about the participation and it started being about the sheer number of people who, within an amount of hours, literally signed on to do this, and so passionately and eagerly,” Scott said.
