At a panel discussion held Tuesday in the Ben Linder Room of the EMU, about 30 students and community members reiterated what they’ve been saying for several weeks: The Pacifica Forum makes them feel unsafe, and they want the Forum off campus.
The panel discussion, organized by the Multicultural Center, was composed of Black Student Union President Michael Reta, ASUO President Emma Kallaway, Community Alliance of Lane County member Linda Hamilton, Eugene Anti-Hate Task Force member Michael Williams and University student Cimmeron Gillespie.
“We just weren’t having enough dialogue about the Pacifica Forum,” MCC member Lidiana Soto said, who emceed the event. “There have been lots of protests, but not a lot of dialogue. We thought it would be good to have folks come and talk about it.”
Panel and audience members uniformly denounced the Pacifica Forum throughout the two-hour discussion. Several speakers, including Hamilton, shared their previous experiences with racism.
Hamilton spoke, much of the time on the verge of tears, of growing up in Louisiana and hiding from the Ku Klux Klan.
“I made up my mind when I left Louisiana I would never run from racism again,” Hamilton said. “We need to take a stand for what is right.”
Reta also shared his story. He said that his first week in Eugene, when he was a
freshman, a car drove by him shouting racial slurs.
“It’s crazy to me that at public university that hate remarks are spewed and people almost turn a blind eye,” Reta said. “This is the first year that I’ve seen so much participation from students (against the Forum). It makes me proud, but it also angers me that my classmates and professors don’t feel safe walking around.”
Safety was the recurring theme at the meeting. All of the panel members contended that the Forum’s meetings crossed the line of acceptable speech.
Williams said that, although the law sets a bare minimum for speech, communities can and should enforce stronger standard through “whatever pressures are necessary to bring people in line.”
“I don’t really care whether they had the legal freedom or not,” Williams said. “We cannot be safe if we put up with it.”
Charles Martinez, University vice-president of the Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, agreed.
“I’ve heard people say the solution to hate speech is more speech, and the conversation ends there, as if the only thing that should be done is people talking,” Martinez said. “The difference is there is not only discussion; there’s energy and disruption. It’s not only been directed at the Forum, but also at the University campus. I think that’s essential.”
University student Ariel Howland likened racists to a carrion-feeding beasts.
“White supremacists are like hyenas,” Howland said. “They act strong in a group, but one of them alone is a coward.”
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