Statement from the Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention on Silent Sam

While we appreciate the efforts of the UNC-Chapel Hill administration in forever removing the Silent Sam Confederate monument from our campus, we are saddened and sickened by the Board of Governors’ (BOG) actions in giving the North Carolina Sons of Confederate Veterans, a white supremacist group, the statue and $2.5 million, plus another $74,999, in UNC funds. The Center for Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at UNC-Chapel Hill is founded on tenets of social justice and racial equity. Actions like those of the BOG seriously compromise our legitimacy in the communities we serve. We add our voices to those of UNC faculty, staff, and students, as well as community partners, who have eloquently stated their opposition and called on UNC-Chapel Hill leadership to speak up forcefully. We ask our University leadership to condemn white supremacy and the specific actions of the Board of Governors regarding the Confederate monument. We also urge all people to work toward dismantling racism within their spheres of influence.