A private school in Music City is under fire after the university president hosted minority students for dinners at his home. What was originally meant to be a dialogue about diversity at the Lipscomb campus quickly became an uncomfortable situation for all involved.
Instead of raising concerns of perceived racism at the predominantly white school, students took to social media to complain about the menu choices, decorations, and lack of chairs.
When the students walked in, their eyes darted right to parts of the centerpieces: stalks of cotton. Of course, the plant has a negative connotation due to its direct association with slavery, only amplified after the invention of the cotton gin.
One student in attendance took her concerns to Instagram.
“As we arrived to the president’s home and proceeded to go in we seen cotton as the center pieces. We also stood and ate dinner, there were no seats to sit in and it felt very uncomfortable. We were very offended, and also the meals that were provided resembled many ‘black meals’ they had mac n cheese, collard greens, corn bread etc. The night before Latinos also had dinner at his house and they had tacos. They also DIDN’T have the center piece that we HAD tonight,” the post reads in part.
According to the same student, Lipscomb University president Randy Lowry was not interested in the students’ concerns over the table decorations. When pressed about the cotton, he simply dismissed the issue.
“His response was that he didn’t know, he seen it before we did, he kind of thought it was ” fallish”, THEN he said ” it ISNT INHERENTLY BAD IF WERE ALL WEARING IT ” then walked off,” she wrote.
Layered on top of the cotton and food was the apparent passive-aggressive attitude towards the whole evening by President Lowry and his wife. According to students in attendance, the couple never directly addressed any minority concerns.
President Lowry has since issued a direct apology.
Lipscomb University, founded in 1891 and associated with the Church of Christ, has a student body about 78 percent white and seven percent black. The most prominent institution in Nashville, Vanderbilt University, tracks around 55 percent white and 10 percent black.
