Elon University professor says racism causing her to return to Canada | News & Observer

A professor at Elon University says she and her family are leaving Burlington and moving back to Canada because of the racism the mixed-race couple and their children have faced in North Carolina.

Robin Attas, an assistant professor of music at the school near Burlington, says her husband, Nicolás Narváez Soza, who is from Nicaragua, and their children have endured a number of incidents that made her family feel threatened and unwelcome.

Last year, Attas, who is white, said someone drove by her family’s home in Burlington while her husband and young children, now 2 and 5, were in their front yard. “Someone drove by in a pickup truck and threw a bottle out the window at them and yelled ‘f***ing Mexicans go home,’” she said.

Another similar incident happened at a playground a couple weeks later, Attas said.

The final straw, she said in an interview Tuesday, came last fall when her husband was pulled over for a third time by police in Greensboro. The officer, Attas said, accused her husband of not wearing a seatbelt, even though he was. She said Narváez Soza told the officer he had to get his ID from the backseat, but when he got out of the car and went into the back, the officer reached for his gun.

Narváez Soza, speaking to the student-run Elon News Network, said, “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’ve seen stuff happening on TV like policemen not being patient or just shooting people.’ ”

“I felt very scared,” he said.

That’s when the couple decided to move back north after four years in North Carolina to Attas’ native Canada where her husband also has citizenship.

They are moving to Winnipeg, where Attas’ parents live, while they figure out what they want to do next. She said her family is lucky because they have some savings and were able to sell their home. “We can choose to leave,” Attas said.

Attas said the everyday racism her family experienced was more subtle than these big incidents.

She said her everyday experiences were different from those of her husband. She said Narváez Soza would go into the post office and come out saying, “They were really grumpy to me,” but then, she said, she could walk into the same post office and have people react to her completely differently.

Narváez Soza, who works as a sculptor and carpenter, needed something from a Lowe’s Home Improvement store, but couldn’t remember what it was called. When he asked a store clerk, the person said, “You need to learn English.”

He told the Elon News Network, “That was hard because that was my favorite store, and all of a sudden, I was uncomfortable going there, and then I just felt embarrassed.”

Attas said they did not contact Lowe’s about the incident.

In a written statement Tuesday, Elon President Leo Lambert said of Attas, “Her departure is a loss to the university.” He described Attas as an active scholar who “has been recognized for her work on the analysis of popular music.”

“Ultimately, discrimination and acts of bias are rooted in ignorance,” Lambert said responding to questions by email. “It’s our responsibility as a university community to reach beyond the borders of our campus in order to ensure our broader community will be renowned for its openness and acceptance.”