"We Need to See Action": An Institutional Case Study of the Summer of Hate and Black Student Resistance

The present institutional case study explores the antecedents and aftereffects of the Unite the Right rally at the University of Virginia (UVA), a white supremacist event that occurred on August 11th and 12th in 2017. Specifically, we considered how the "Summer of Hate" informed Black undergraduate students' sense of belonging and safety at UVA, as well as their perceptions of institutional accountability before and after the rallies. We analyzed individual interview data from 27 Black students who were newly arriving or returning to campus in August 2017. We identified four themes: (a) disillusionment with UVA and reckoning with the university's racial history, (b) racial battle fatigue from the rinse and repeat of racial exclusion, (c) feeling connected to the legacy of Black resistance at UVA, and (d) hesitant hope for institutional change. The findings elucidate how the historical and contemporary legacy of institutional whiteness at the university contributed to the rallies, as well as how Black students' responses illustrate their commitment to protest institutional erasure and racialized inequities on campus. While Black students appreciated their personal and communal resistance to the displays of racialized hate, they believed the administration had the power to take a stronger position before the rallies occurred. We problematize how prioritizing free speech over the physical and psychological safety of Black students engages and (re)produces white hegemonic ideologies and practices.