Free Republic

Over a year into the completion of San Diego State University’s racial healing garden, few students, scholars and staff appear to be spending time within its circumference. The $250,000 Native and Indigenous Healing Garden at the public university was built amid tensions regarding the Aztec warrior mascot, accused of racism, cultural appropriation and toxic masculinity. The healing garden is meant to honor Native Americans and the Aztec culture “at a time when we need to ‘heal’ over the issue of indigenous identities,” according to a 2018 Aztec Identity Task Force report. The garden was completed in March 2020. A grand...

The California Department of Justice concluded a white student was discriminated against and harassed by a Native American lecturer at San Diego State University. A six-month investigation by the department determined that then-student Crystal Sudano was discriminated against based on race and faced racial harassment and retaliation after challenging the professor’s views.(snip) The investigation reportedly found that the professor sent at least 15 offensive Facebook messages to the then-student, including one that threatened to lower her grade after she voiced her views about the school’s Aztec Mascot.(snip) In Facebook messages, he accused the student of being “racist” for wearing an...