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| A tweet in support to stand up to hate crime |
Three students at San Jose State University have been suspended after harassing their black roommate with racist attacks. Just yesterday, prosecutors filed battery charges and misdemeanor hate-crime against the three freshmen.
The student, whose identity has not been published, has stated that his three other roommates called him "Three-fifths," referring to how black slaves were counted for representation in the Congress before the Fourteenth Amendment. When he protested, the roommates then continued to dub him as "Fraction." Further aggression involved putting up a Confederate flag in the dormitory suite they all shared, barring the door with furniture so as he could not go in or out, and fastening a bicycle lock around the student's neck and telling him they lost the keys.
In a letter sent by the harassed student's family, they state:
"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."
The three students acknowledged the mistreatment of their roommate, but downplayed the incidents as pranks and jokes - denying allegations of anti-racial actions. The three freshmen are subjected to face penalties from probation to a year in jail if they are convicted.
While racism is not something that we can fully wipe out, it's disturbing to hear of news like this, especially coming from such a diverse school like San Jose State, which just last month, named their first black couple as homecoming king and queen. It's scary to think that unless the attacked speak up, there is little way in knowing what is going on behind closed doors, and this could happen at any time.
William Nance, Vice President of Student Affairs, urges:
"If you see something, say something."
12 comments:
I am happy to hear that this victim is speaking up, as far too many do not and many have no one to speak up for them.
I appreciate Nance's statement, it reminded me of a social experiment I watched regarding racism in stores. I could not agree more Nance's sentiment. And although the first half of this video has some all too common and silent responses http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH60U_rb6M4 , the latter half has some inspiring people in it.
I think far too often people believe being silent is an acceptable action when surrounded by any form of hatred, but to me, that's like saying you support the hatred—speaking up is so crucial to combatting issues of racism and blind hatred. More people need to realize that silence is often how prejudices can manifest into full blown, unregulated abuse. It's been seen on both small and large scales time and time again. It's scary to think that all it takes is speaking up, yet time and time again it does not happen. Advocation is everything.
I'm not quite sure this is a full-blown hate crime, as SJSU and the student alleges. As much as the knee-jerk reaction to this is to call it a hate crime, it remains unclear whether the student was targeted because he was black. At this point, the case is as much a question of motive and intent as it is effect - were the students acting in a racially degrading manner because of their dislike for the alleged victim, or was their dislike and degrading manner towards the alleged victim due to a racial distaste? It seems as if the automatic conclusion is that it was a hate crime, but unless these students have had a history of anti-black activity, I don't think this one event is enough to prove that this event was racially motivated.
I find it hard to believe that the three students can downplay such horrible acts as mere "pranks and jokes." I know that some people say that racism is dead in America, but the fact is it's still very much alive, just as Johan said. I find it especially disturbing to hear that people in California are doing things such as this because California is supposed to be one of the most liberal and accepting states in the country. Yet now here are these students raising a Confederate flag and debasing a student who specifically told them that what they were doing was bothering him. Though we have made a substantial amount of progress against hatred in the past few years, we need to remain vigilant, because as this article has proven, hate crimes still plague society, even in areas that embrace equality.
Kira's right that it's unfortunate that far too often people choose to remain silent rather than speak up for themselves and others. I understand that many people don't want to get involved, and that it takes a lot of bravery to do so, but unless people try to change the status quo, it will remain the same.
I agree with Alex that what they did is completely shocking, especially in California, and that there's no way that it can be passed off as "pranks and jokes". This was outright harassment and cruelty and I do think there ought to be major penalties for such behavior.
Also, Nathan, I see your point. However, this wasn't generic bullying and one would be hard-pressed to prove that it was just because the victim was an annoying guy or something along those lines. The students' use of racially derogatory terms and dehumanization made it rather clear that there was major racism involved- the victim's race was the characteristic they chose to focus on.
When I heard about this story I had very similar (horrified) reactions like comments above. Like Johan mentioned, unfortunately, racism will never fully go away, but this story is horrendous. The fact that these students consider their actions as "pranks" just shows immaturity, for they cannot take responsibility for their actions and that they do not see their actions wrong. While I agree with Kira's point that if a victim does not speak up, the attacks will never go away, I don't necessarily agree that it means that the victim accepts the action. I think in many cases regarding any kind of attacks, many victims are afraid to speak up about what happened to them due to fear of future attacks, they feel they have no one to turn to, or because it is so scary and personal, that people try to block it out. Like I mentioned earlier, unfortunately racism does still exist, but I think the best way to prevent any form of hatred, like this event, is education. Obviously these are college students, so they do have some form of education, but I think that it needs to be emphasized that these acts are wrong in schools, in homes, etc.
Like others have stated before me, I think it's a terrible thing to hear that there is still this racism floating around. Like ALex said, I think that it is ridiculous that they tried to just play this off as a "prank". The fact that they were calling him a "fraction" in reference to 3/5s' made it pretty obvious that it wasnt just simple pranking or jokes. Also the fact that they were "taunting the 17-year-old victim with racial epithets and knocking him down while trying to place a bicycle lock around his neck" makes it clear that this was hate crime rather than bullying.
I think its extremely dissapointing and a shame that racism is still around.
In regards to Nathan's comment...
How can this not be a hate crime? Look at it. This was not a group of racially diverse students. Had this person "deserved" or provoked motive for the crime in anyway, I'm sure he would have pissed off more than three people, let alone three white-male people. Secondly, this crime takes on the aura of a hate crime because usually when someone pisses you off, you don't put a lock around their throat and lock them in a closet. You usually just hit them or something. I don't know, maybe I'm toooootally off base with my analysis but...I don't think any sort of motive could provoke something as biased as this. Even if there was motive, the specific actions taken against this student have racist undertones, still making it a hate crime.
This crime makes me so angry that I find it hard to form coherent thoughts about it but I'm gonna try.
I was gonna go ape on Nathan but I see Amy and Rachel beat me to it :) No but Nathan really, you can't even argue that this isn't a hate crime. The abuse was all racial abuse. I read an article that was maybe from the LA Times, and there's a quote from a NAACP guy that says the students weren't bullying the victim - they were terrorizing him. That's true. And I'm shocked that the 4 white students were only suspended, not expelled. Right now they're only facing misdemeanors that would have a max jail sentence of a year, but the NAACP is trying to get harsher sentences, and I hope they succeed in that.
This is the best article I've read about the crime: http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_24566367/san-jose-state-students-charged-hate-crime
Stuff like this just makes me so mad because it's 2013 and this is America and there are still people living in fear because of who they are and that's hella dumb.
I do not want to dismiss racism in this country. Racism is certainly a prevalent and sad problem that still plagues not only America but the world. As has been said, this probably was a hate crime.
However, there are plenty of crimes committed every day, plenty acts of bullying, plenty of jeers and careless comments that are not related to race. I do think that Nathan brings up a legitimate point. Perhaps the victim was hated first, and then his race was used as an excuse to hate him. Perhaps not. But sometimes you first hate someone, and then find reasons to fuel your hate. This does not mean that this was not a hate crime, or that racism was not bad, but let's please not be so quick to dismiss each other's comments.
In addition, I am bothered by how we discuss prejudice and injustice as a society. Ethnicity and religion and sexual orientation do lead to prejudice, but so do physical appearance or athletic ability or intelligence. We are all guilty of stereotyping. I am not saying that we are all guilty of hate crimes, so please do not misunderstand me. But I think that we should look at these crimes and not have our only feeling be indignation. We can condemn the criminals, but we should learn from these crimes that focusing on differences is an unfortunate human trait. There are so many ways to label each other. They do not all lead to crime, most don't, but some do. I have not been received prejudice in my life for my race or my religion, but I have been stereotyped based upon my perceived intelligence or other attributes. I am not saying that these incidents are anywhere near as violent as the acts committed on this victim, but they still hurt. So please, let us move past indignation and think about how we can reduce seeing each other as little walking-talking labels.
I do not say this to point fingers at anyone.
I definitely think that this was a hate crime I mean you just don't say things like that. did you guys not see this amazing video "The Black Bruins [Spoken Word] - Sy Stokes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEO3H5BOlFk
Watch it!
Brianne that is an awesome point that really got me thinking about stereo types and labeling in general. We all need to watch how we think and judge for sure.
I don't know how you can refer to the 3/5ths clause when talking to a black person, and then ask if it was racially motivated. And then put up a confederate flag afterwards - the half of the country that seceded so they might have a chance to retain slavery. I really hope these white kids learn that racism is wrong and it should have died with the confederacy.
It's terrible to see stories like this in the news, but even worse to think that there are so many instances of aggression such as this one every day. Part of the reason that people don't speak up about these attacks is because racism has become the norm. Every time that someone faces discrimination on the basis of race and that prejudice goes unreported, anti-racial attacks become that much more acceptable. I don't think that any of us can say for certain whether or not a jury will see the students' attacks as hate crimes or extreme cases of bullying, but there's no doubt that their actions were motivated by racial prejudice. I personally hope that the freshmen receive a punishment proportional to the extremity of their actions. People need to know that those actions just aren't acceptable.
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