THE CASH STUFF FOR 09-10-26

BLACK STUDENTS AT 

UNC-CHAPEL HILL 

DECRY “RACIAL ATTACK”

DURING WATCH PARTY

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

Black students at UNC-Chapel Hill are blasting the campus administration and police after a terrifying incident on August 31st left them feeling particularly unsafe.

According to the campus student newspaper, The Daily Tar Heel, “…a racially motivated attack…took place in Greenlaw Hall Monday night (August 31st.). The perpetrator entered a “Love Island” watch party hosted by several Black student organizations to throw objects at attendees and brandish a makeshift incendiary device.”

The Daily Tar Heel continued, “…during the watch party, the perpetrator entered the Greenlaw Hall classroom and made racially charged threats. Students in attendance said they felt that their lives were threatened.” “After leaving the academic building, the attacker was also spotted chasing students through the Pit while threatening them with open flames.”

UNC Campus police eventually caught up with the suspect, who was identified as 45-year-old Keegan Carlisle Wilson, a UNC alumnus. UNC police say that Wilson was apparently having a mental breakdown when he came on campus. He was committed to UNC Hospital “due to exhibiting mental distress.” Once cleared, authorities intend to charge Wilson with disorderly conduct, vandalism, damage to property and aggravated assault along with banning him from campus.

Reportedly, 80-100 Black students were affected by the “racial attack” and some sought counseling afterwards.

The suspect’s unidentified mother is quoted in subsequent published reports saying that “The system failed us,” referring to her inability to “get him mental health help for months.”

Meanwhile, UNC-Chapel Hill Administration and UNC - Chapel Hill Police are  pushing back on accusations by Black student leaders  and faculty members that those watch party students were essentially “abandoned” while they were under attack.

Some who were trapped by Wilson during the attack claim that there was no campus-wide Alert Carolina message issued, warning of the incident.

UNC Police Chief Brian James maintained that no campus alert message was sent out because of the length of time it takes to confirm an incident, and then have that confirmation approved. Even so, Chief James said the suspect was taken into custody within 17 minutes of officers being alerted.

"He was in custody and there was no longer a threat to campus," Chief James told WRAL-TV. "What I don't want to happen is, we're sending out multiple alerts all the time about everything, and then, when it pops up, I really need you to pay attention to it. You're like, 'Oh, this is another Alert Carolina message.”

Still, some UNC faculty members say the system has worked differently in the past.

"This is an incident where 80 to 100 of our students thought there was an imminent threat to their lives. They were ducking under their desks," Mark Peifer of UNC’s Dept. of Biology said. "This is, from my perspective, the most serious incident we've had on campus since when a gun was drawn and someone was killed."  

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TRUMP’S ANTI-DEI TAX EXEMPT

STATUS THREAT INCLUDES

PRIVATE HBCUS TOO

By Cash Michaels

Contributing writer

In an effort to further stamp out DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) policies in the nation’s higher education, private historically Black colleges and universities that in anyway maintain admissions policies, scholarships, loans or other programs for students of color could lose their tax-exempt status under a new proposed rule by the Trump Administration because they “engage in racial discrimination.”

In North Carolina this would affect Shaw University in Raleigh; Bennett College for Women in Greensboro; Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, Livingstone College in Salisbury; and St. Augustine’s University in Raleigh.

Overall, at least 18,000 private schools and colleges could now be affected by a draft proposal that was released last week by the Dept. of the U.S. Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service. Under this proposal, private schools K-12 and post-secondary institutions that are found to be discriminating on the basis of race, color or national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational , admissions, scholarships, athletic or other policies against whites,could have their 501(c)(3) tax exemption status revoked.

Reportedly, the Treasury Department estimates at least 750,000 students attending private schools across the country may be enrolled and “qualify for scholarships allocated on the basis of racial, ethnic or national identity.”

The proposed rule has not gone into effect yet, but and when it does,  is slated for May 31, 2027. But once it does, those private schools, if found to be in violation, will lose their tax exempt status, meaning they will then be subject to federal income tax, and donations to those institutions will no longer be tax-deductible.

HBCUs, in addition to other “minority-serving institutions” will be affected, most observers note. “Schools rebranding race-based preferences as equitable, inclusive, or diversity-enhancing does not change their discriminatory nature. Today’s Treasury and IRS proposed regulations establish a clear standard, and the institutions that continue to use discriminatory practices will no longer receive the benefits of federal tax-exempt status,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. “Under President Trump, this Administration is standing up for America’s students by ensuring racial discrimination has no place in American education.” 

Interestingly. The proposal would not affect private institutions that have a religious mission or curriculum. Religious affiliations would be exempt under the proposed policy.

Critics were not please with the proposal.

"This is not neutral enforcement ‌of ⁠civil-rights law. It is an affirmative attempt to turn civil-rights law against the very people it was enacted to protect," AAUP President Todd Wolfson said in a statement. "For half a century, federal policy recognized that measures intended to dismantle entrenched racial exclusion are not equivalent to policies designed to preserve it."

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