Posted on 04/24/2005 11:37:19 AM PDT by DemWatch
I never lived on a college campus. So I wasn't sure what bothered me about the way administrators at Trinity College handled three mail threats targeting African-American and Latino students on campus. Was it the forced evacuation of students who did nothing wrong? Was it the fact that this was happening at a religious school? Was it simply that this level of racial intolerance was happening at all?
Last Thursday, about 43 students of color were moved from their dorms to an undisclosed location after the third letter threatened violence with a weapon. Packing up 43 students and putting them up in hotels seemed like an extreme way to deal with a coward who hides behind hate mail.
Then again, I don't have a child at Trinity College whose life could be at risk.
Since the black students and Latino students at Trinity are unavailable, my niece, Amoria Amundson, is the closest thing I have to shed some light on how some students must feel. She's a freshman at the University of Illinois in Champaign. She was flabbergasted when I told her about the Trinity incident.
What would upset you the most, I asked her: someone mailing letters in which they threatened to shoot black and Hispanic students or having school administrators suggest you'd be better off going home or to a friend's house, or to a hotel until the perpetrator is caught.
Her answer surprised me.
"The [administrators] would have to adjust themselves," she said. "The campus should be safe enough for the students. I wouldn't want to move. Now if somebody was threatening to shoot me, personally, I'd be gone. You wouldn't have to put me in a hotel. I'd go home."
Still, I'm not sure the hundreds of African-American and Latino parents of the 300 students of color on the Deerfield campus didn't appreciate the administration's precaution. A spokesman for the school claimed she didn't get one complaint about the evacuation, only thank-yous.
Sending the wrong message?
But George Blaise, an alum of the University of Illinois at Champaign, and director of public affairs at WCIU, was disgusted enough to call up and rant.
"When stuff happened, we called everybody up and we stayed up all night," he said. "We wouldn't leave our dorms."
Blaise believes Trinity College sent the wrong message.
"To roll up on the minority students and put them in a hotel, that will perpetuate whatever is going on," he said.
And, really, the idea that black students, or that students of any ethnicity or race, can be run off a college campus because of threats doesn't sit well with me either.
Racism hasn't changed, and I doubt if I will live long enough to see the day when little black boys and little white girls walk hand in hand and no one, absolutely no one, raises an eyebrow.
Until then, people who are consumed with racial hatred or hatred of any kind pose a real threat to the innocent.
Among my concerns is that Trinity -- a religious institution -- is involved at all. That hiding among the sheep is a wolf who is threatening to kill another human being because of his or her race. If I had a child at Trinity, I'd be more worried about how many more wolves there might be.
And before we condemn Trinity for its flawed plan that seems to give a hater just what he or she wants, I can't blame them for being cautious.
Rumors abound
In 1991, most of us were stunned when a graduate student from China killed four people and wounded two others at the University of Iowa -- all because another student got better grades. And in 1966, a crazed Charles Whitman climbed atop a water tower and killed 16 people at the University of Texas.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported on Thursday that a Trinity student told his mother the racist letters were sent to white women dating African-American athletes. A spokeswoman for the school denied that claim on Friday. "Those are rumors," said Melissa Stratis.
Frankly, I'd have an easier time understanding the thou-shalt-not-date-a-black-athlete angle to this story. It's just not hard to believe that some students who grew up in the Bannockburn/Deerfield area might have a problem with that, even if they attended church every Sunday.
And it's not unusual for both black and white students to be uncomfortable with interracial dating. After all, do you really think black female college students don't feel slighted when they see a star black athlete hooked up with a white female? Or that white male students don't have similar misgivings?
But here's my biggest problem.
School officials can't say how long the students will have to remain off campus. It just makes me wonder how Trinity would have handled this problem if race wasn't involved. Would they have shut down the campus?
"If there's a kook on campus, everyone is in danger," Blaise said. "Black kids. White kids. Everyone. But to roll up on the minority students and put them in a hotel, it is really sad."
How soon we forget.
Her conclusions seem about right (allowing for the reflexive "racism hasn't changed") but she sounds bemused by their implications. Apparently she can't quite bring herself to believe that there is some human value greater than safety.
"Now if somebody was threatening to shoot me, personally, I'd be gone."
I think this girl makes a very good distinction, I wouldn't even have thought of that.
In any event, I hope this school is putting some effort into finding out who is sending these letters. That is not addressed in this story.
Ban water towers? :-)
Texas Tower
Where Whitman shot 16 people in the streets below.
Some water tower. That thing looks like it would leak like a sieve!
(I knew it wasn't a water tower).
Bannockburn/Deerfield is a pretty nice area. And, chances are, the students are no longer in the immediate area, since there aren't a lot of hotels in the immediate area.
So, one result of this movement is that the students involved are no longer in town...so, if any shooting does start, it won't disturb the residents.
Just a theory.
About a few years back I read about a church In Dallas,Tx that was to have been vandalized with painted hate speech. Some months later after a hate crime bill in Austin, Tx was passed the FBI found the same paint in the church basement. No one was charged, paster later resigned.
I would think the first order of business here would be to find out the SOURCE of these mailings. From what has been reportd (OJ, Tiger, Hip Hop brothers, etc.), the reaction of black females to white females dating black males isn't exactly sweetness and light.
How interesting
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1391442/posts
How interesting
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1391442/posts
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.