As students and faculty arrived on campus Wednesday morning, they found several sidewalk chalk messages about the “White Affairs Association.” These mysterious messages soon became a topic of debate, with some students questioning whether they were racially motivated.
“The first thing that should be mentioned is that White Affairs is a play on names, an attention-getter,” said graduate student Joshua R. Jones, the man behind the sidewalk chalk. “It is not meant to promote one race over another; we support true equality for all people. We do not support racism, in fact we seek to abolish all forms of racism and sexism in whatever form it may be presented.”
The White Affairs Association is not an ETSU-affiliated organization. Currently Jones is the sole member.
“In no way am I trying to promote a racial division. I was trying to highlight all sides and divisions,” said Jones.
Lettee Harris, an advisor for the Black Affairs Assocation, said “It was antagonizing, I think. It was wanting the reaction that it got.”
These messages come at a time of heightened racial awareness on campus and in the nation primarily because of the controversy surrounding the Jena Six in Louisiana. Last week the Black Affairs Association held an impromptu rally and advertised on the sidewalk about freeing the Jena Six. Some of these messages were later crossed out.
Ash-Lee Henderson, president of the Black Affairs Association, cited three other incidents of racism that have occurred on campus in the last two weeks, and initially believed this to be an additional incident.
“Our goal shouldn’t be to censor the debate,” said Henderson. “It shouldn’t be just to say, ‘We don’t care what they say, they’re wrong, we want to snuff them out.’ It should be an opportunity for us to have dialogue with them and to share with everybody else on campus how we feel about stuff like that.”
Jones said he could not understand why his message would be seen as racist. “I guess again it relates to each individual’s bigotry who feels that way,” he said. He also said that it was “disheartening” to see his own message crossed out later that day, with information about the Black Affairs Association written over it.
“Hopefully we can become an established organization and work with other campus groups to promote equality,” said Jones when asked about the future of White Affairs.
Joy Fulkerson, a coordinator for the Student Organization Resource Center (SORC) said, “It’s created some dialogue on campus, and so I hope we can direct it in more positive ways and get beyond just the chalking, but talk about ways in which we can all work together. “
“I think there’s lots of groups on campus already organized that have the same intentions,” she said.
Currently, organizations need to obtain permission from the SORC before writing on the sidewalks. Jones did not acquire this permission.
“I wasn’t aware of the restrictions ,” Jones said.

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