A LETTER TO SCAD

We, the BLMBees, are writing this letter in response to the Savannah College of Art and Design to address the lack of support and maltreatment of its black and brown students, faculty, staff, and the cities of Atlanta and Savannah, Georgia. In light of the current state of our country and the world, it is imperative now more than ever that our voices, concerns, complaints, and demands are listened to and taken with urgency. 

We are outraged by the lukewarm and apathetic response we have received from the SCAD administration in relation to the Black Lives Matter  movement. However, this is not an isolated incident but has plagued our campuses for a long time. To quote your most recent email: “SCAD is a community of inclusion, acceptance, and love. As a university focused on creativity and the arts, we embrace a plurality of perspectives and viewpoints in pursuit of new ideas and solutions.” We are under the impression that, from this email, you are willing to hear us and make the appropriate steps toward a better establishment. 

With that in mind, it is crucial to address the way in which SCAD has played a role in the cycle of oppression and institutional racism. According to SCAD’s FactBook for 2019-2020, racial demographics for full time undergraduates displays clearly that (10%) of students identify as Black, (7%) are Hispanic, and a large majority of the student body (51%) are White. As for faculty, according to that same SCAD FactBook, there are 476 full time White professors teaching at our school. This is an enormous racial disparity as only 34 professors are Asian, 21 are Black, and 16 are Hispanic. To do the calculations for you, only 0.14% of professors at SCAD are people of color; with black professors making up only 0.04% of SCAD’s teaching population. These numbers are more than abysmal; they are a direct violation against the very promise of inclusiveness and diversity you boast so openly when promoting the school. 

Another issue we have is the gentrification of the cities of Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia. Starting with Atlanta, also known as “the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement”, this city is the 2nd largest majority black metro area with a population of (51%) Black or African-American. Atlanta was shaped by activists, artists, and great leaders like Jefferson Franklin Long, Dorothy Height, John Lewis, Bernice Johnson Reagon, and of course Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. With Atlanta being home to historically black colleges like: Morehouse, Spelman, and Clark Atlanta University, it is pivotal that SCAD honors and respects Atlanta’s history of amplifying black voices, black youth, and black art. 

Additionally, the Savannah campus deserves that same respect. Savannah is the oldest city in Georgia and is a historically black city with a deep and long history of civil rights. With a population of (54%) Black or African-American, you cannot turn a single corner without being reminded of its culture, people, cuisine, art, business, and more. Just a 14 minute walk from The Hive residence hall stands the First African Baptist Church ever established in The United States and is the oldest continuous black church in America. Furthermore, just 60 years ago on March 16th, 1960, black students led by the NAACP staged sit-ins at white-only businesses in downtown Savannah, one of those businesses was a Levy’s Department Store that is now known as the SCAD Jen Library. If SCAD is going to take up space in these cities, it should be without question that this establishment gives back, not only to Atlanta and Savannah, but to its black and brown community whose history is often erased or overshadowed by SCAD’s own gentrification. 

We are also compelled to question SCAD’s treatment of its majority Black or African-American custodial, cafeteria, and security staff. This point is best shown on ‘SCAD Day’. There are firsthand accounts of black/brown staff being purposely hidden and replaced with white staff when parents and their children are touring the school. Whatever the excuse is for this action is irrelevant. It is unbelievably disrespectful, humiliating, and degrading for your own faculty to go through this, especially after providing food, hygiene, and safety to your students and to your school. One testimony concerning this comes from a SCAD student who has chosen to remain anonymous. They write: “When I walk into the cafe, I am always greeted by the warmest and kindest women. They never fail to boost students' confidence; especially those who are stressed or down. I have had numerous conversations, laughter, and smiles with the people who work there; to the point where I am on a first name basis with almost all of them. To see the way in which their work goes unnoticed and unappreciated by, not only students but by the administration makes me sick to my stomach. This was only highlighted more when SCAD Day came around and I could no longer find the workers whom I had such a close rapport with. Instead, I was greeted by unfamiliar white staff whom I’d never met nor seen up until that day. Then, just like that, SCAD Day was over and they were gone and our usual black/brown staff had returned. It was the most visually evident display of racism that I witnessed in the way our staff is treated and the way the school advertises itself. To so blatantly push your black workers to the back while white workers show off how great and palatable our campus is; I was disgusted. Those black/brown men and women deserve a lot more than what they’re getting.”

However, this is not the only account of racist behavior within the school. Most recently, in our 2020 Spring Quarter, Professor David Rousseau teaching DSGN 208-10 ‘Storyboarding Essentials’ was caught on video using a racial slur used towards Black/African-American people. When a student brought forward a complaint and filed a report with the school over said professor’s behavior and use of the word twice in two separate classes, the professor was not penalized appropriately and instead wrote an email back to the student on why he should be allowed to use that slur and how the way in which he used it was permitted. This professor is still in employment with the school to this day and it is also important to note that this is just one story of many others where professors and/or faculty have faced no real repercussions for racist language, behavior, and treatment towards their students and/or co-workers.

We also must put into light the lack of diversity within the curriculum offered at the school. This is best exemplified with the art history class CTXT: Culture in Context, which is a part of the general education courses. Within this class, students are subjected to only learning European artwork and art history. Not only does this white-wash and neglect the contributions to “culture” and art made by artists from Africa, Asia, and Latin America, but students are additionally not given the choice in substituting the class credit for a course that teaches art from other regions of the world. The excuse made for this academic choice is: due to the limited weeks within a quarter, there is not enough time to cover artwork from other regions besides Europe. This choice, especially in the 2nd blackest state in America, is inexcusable and deprives young artists of a fully well rounded education of art on a global scale. As you said so yourself, “Our world needs transformation now, and artists, designers, and educators play a central role in this important work.” 

These concerns do not even begin to fully encompass complaints and issues we have with SCAD. We can acknowledge our universities great access to resources and opportunities in the art and entertainment world. Nevertheless, this does not excuse its past and present behavior toward its students, faculty, staff, and the cities whose space it takes up. Our college is very young in comparison to other universities and has the unique opportunity to set the precedent for what a contemporary and modern school can be and look like.

 In order for that to happen, the following actions must take place:

• Acknowledgement of SCAD’s role in the negative effects its actions, or inactions, have caused its black/brown students, alumni, faculty, and staff as well as acknowledgement of its continued oppressive behavior within the SCAD community and the cities of Savannah and Atlanta.

• A formal apology to its students, alumni, faculty, and staff while also making a serious pledge to improve and change as a way of affirming said apology with appropriate administrative action rather than just words.

• Utilizing SCAD’s massive platform to give prominence and support to the Black Lives Matter movement as well as black/brown artists or artists of color in general whether on the local level, nationally, or internationally scale.

• Donating portions of SCAD’s revenue towards Black Lives Matter associations and/or other local organizations with additional aid to programs and opportunities that assist black/brown students specifically.

• Academic reform to classes provided, such as CTXT: Culture in Context, an art history class that is required for all students to take but only focuses on European artwork and European artwork only. 

• Provide support to black/brown students, faculty, and the cities of Atlanta and Savannah. This can be in the form of scholarship opportunities, visibility, community fundraisers, outreach programs, POC guest speakers, hiring more professors of color, and more. We especially stress the most that SCAD provides a scholarship or scholarships for local Savannah and Atlanta black/brown artists and youth in the area. With an additional scholarship for black and brown students not on a local level.

• We also demand continued open dialogue and conversation with your students, faculty, and staff especially those of color with the intent to listen, learn, and take appropriate action towards the betterment of the school but more crucially the students and staff.

You advocate that: “Our bees are our #1 priority,” we hope you can keep that promise.

In solidarity, 

BLMBees