A Scene At Columbia
What Happened:
Early Sunday morning, in front of the library, a sophomore was videotaped shouting, “white people are the best thing that ever happened in the world,” and continued his racist ramble in front of a group of minority students. Some students pulled out their phones and started to videotape this incident which was later posted on social media, where it then became viral.
At the time of the incident, it was reported that after his grand speech he continued to harass the students that were around at the time.
A student who witnessed the incident was reported saying, “after this encounter, he continued to harass several students and Public Safety did nothing to help or protect the students when they were contacted, this came after he forcibly grabbed a black woman and asked, “black women if they liked to date white men.”
Many online viewers responded with comments such as, “disappointed, but not surprised” and “that’s the white privilege. It’s intoxicating.”. But what I found interesting was that people on this particular post were defending him, or at least supporting what he was saying.
The school has not taken action against this sophomore, yet Columbia has been slammed with angry letters, comments, and emails because of their lack of action.
This isn’t the first time that Colombia has been slammed with actions of racism, in late November of this year the swastika was spray painted all over the professor of Jewish history's office.
My Thoughts:
Although the dean has responded with, “Our community will not waver in its support for those of any faith, race, gender, sexual orientation, background or identity,” it is hard to believe that anything will be done.
I personally believe that something should be done. This was done on school grounds and therefore the school has the right to take disciplinary action. Unlike the “Bongs Hits for Jesus Case,” this was on school grounds and school rules apply here. We saw in the Prussian Blue Twins documentary that white supremacy was not a crime and was people taking out their first amendment rights. Yet in this instance, this was on school grounds and there are rules set in place for people to follow, rules against racial outbursts like this one. If the school lets this slide then minorities will start to fee lunwelcome and unsafe. If no disciplinary action is taken I believe that this will become a recurrence, first the silent graffiti, then the very public racist speech, what’s next?
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/11/nyregion/columbia-university-racist-student.html
https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2018/11/29/teachers-college-professors-office-vandalized-with-anti-semitic-graffiti/
https://twitter.com/aalanasir/status/1071689527943720960?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1071689527943720960&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.insidehighered.com%2Fnews%2F2018%2F12%2F11%2Fcolumbia-student-goes-racist-tirade-fellow-students Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNNCVSpQz6s
Many incidents just like this occur in several universities, I have seen very similar situations just like this all over social media, specifically Twitter platform. It surprises me how most of the time these individuals intentionally say these vulgar things targeting minor communities. It is not very smart on their behalf as their crowd of friends seem to find it funny, entertaining, and post it on social media for the public. I have seen people tweet the schools and the schools always say something along the lines of what you mentioned Columbia responded with, but I do not know whether immediate action is taken or not. I personally think they should get expelled entirely.
ReplyDeleteIssues like this have always happened throughout history. It is interesting though because now that we live in a time where everyone owns a smartphone, videos and pictures are now being taken to catch these moments of discrimination or wrong doing. It may seem as if there is more abuse than ever, but it is just because there is now evidence of these incidents happening. I think it is important to videotape issues like this to expose society and force the people who choose to ignore issues of discrimination to see what is really happening in reality.
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