Champagne Ellison, San Jose State University senior, at protest rally (Karl Mondan)
Colleges and universities are supposed to be “institutions of higher learning”. They are also places we expect our children to be safe. Yet once again there are headlines highlighting racism on campus.
No – not in Alabama or Mississippi, or Georgia.
This time it’s at San Jose State in California.
I’m tired of people pointing at the south as the last bastion of racism in the U.S.
I’m also tired of headlines using the term “hazing”. It diminishes the severity of the racism.
I agree with Reverend Jethroe Moore II:
“This is not simple hazing or bullying. This is obviously racially based terrorism targeted at their African American roommate,” Reverend Jethroe Moore II, president of the San Jose/Silicon Valley NAACP said in a statement Saturday. “The community will not stand idly by and allow for any student of color to be terrorized simply due to the color of his skin.”
This isn’t simple campus fun and games. Three white students have been charged.
The students currently face misdemeanor hate-crime and battery charges for allegedly forcing their 17-year-old black roommate to wear a bicycle lock around his neck and taunting him with racial slurs that referred to slavery…
Campus officials learned about the alleged incidents last month, when the parents of the black freshman, who has not been identified, went to his dorm room and saw a racial slur on a dry-erase board, according to reports.
The student later told campus police that he had been repeatedly harassed, saying four of his roommates called him “three-fifths,” referring to a slavery-era provision of the Constitution that counted slaves as three-fifths of a person. According to campus police, the roommates hung a Confederate flag in their suite and one had Nazi paraphernalia in his dorm room
A fourth student has been suspended.
The parents of the victim issued a statement:
As a family, we are deeply disturbed by the horrific behaviors that have taken place against our son. Our immediate focus is his protection.
We have taken a stand on this matter. Our response prompted the community to be alerted of the appalling conduct of the students involved. We appreciate the outpouring of support from our family, community and the efforts put forth by the Black Student Union of San Jose State University.
We are hopeful the District Attorney’s office will take the necessary measures to ensure justice will prevail for our son.
Due to the sensitivity of the ongoing investigation, we are requesting privacy.
To protect his identity and not complicate the investigation, no further comments will be made at this time.
I’m not surprised. My own campus in NY is still confronting a series of incidents – the most recent one was a sign posted in a dorm “Emmett Till deserved to die”
One of my colleagues wrote:
The incident at my college was actually the latest in a series of racist occurrences at New Paltz in the past few years. For a self-proclaimed liberal college in a liberal town in one of the most liberal states in the country, these blatant displays of racism are both frustrating and frightening. New Paltz, both the college and the town, proudly promotes diversity, multiculturalism, tolerance, acceptance, and understanding. However, the recent spate of racist episodes challenges the very foundation on which these well-intentioned ideals are based.
What’s equally upsetting is that these events are not unique to SUNY New Paltz. As the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education details on its website, racist incidents continue to plague colleges and universities across the United States. Whether it’s “colored only” or whites only” signs being placed (“jokingly”) on water fountains, confederate flags being hung in dorm rooms, racist skits being performed at fraternity or sorority events, racist graffiti being spray painted on campus buildings, or opposing players being taunted with racial slurs at sporting events, racism is undeniably widespread in higher education.
It is patently obvious from the listings on the JBHE site, that this is not a bunch of old folks, who are dying out. These are young people, ostensibly getting educated.
As teachers, parents, students, and anti-racists we must raise our voices, and protest while we educate.
The battle is far from won.
Cross-posted from Black Kos
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