My first recollection of what I considered to be a hate crime at the University was during my freshman year in the residence halls. Outside two Muslim students’ door, some insolent fool placed Christian Bibles and other fundamentalist paraphernalia along with a note that suggested they’d go to hell if they didn’t convert.
The two students bravely shrugged the gesture off, but the rest of us were morally offended. After all, what kind of person would have the gall to impose their prejudices so obviously?
Four years later, I’ve learned that a lot of people have carried the torch for intolerance. Bigotry quietly lurks on this campus in classrooms, e-mails and most recently, underneath the office doors of unassuming professors.
Students of Rob Proudfoot’s classes may already know about the hate mail he receives every term. Proudfoot courageously tells his classes about the notes and asks his students to write a response. I call this act courageous because the notes are highly offensive to his American Indian heritage and surely must wear on his pride, although he doesn’t show it.
The latest cryptic hate letters came in the first week of fall term. One read, “Drop the Indian shit … you’re a conquered people. We’re all Americans.” The note was unsigned.
A second letter stated, “Foreigners who can’t speak English should not be allowed in this class.” Again, the person writing did not have the backbone to leave a name.
The hatred, fear and anger of the authors are evident; so is their abject ignorance.
The author who penned the first letter should be aware we have not gotten to a point here we can huddle under the equality umbrella labeled “American.” And we’ll never reach that point until we stop qualifying each other’s identities with prefixes like African American, Mexican American or Japanese American. Heck, if white people immigrated to this country from Europe, why don’t we classify ourselves as European American and give equal opportunity hyphenations to every soul on the planet?
As for the note suggesting we expunge “foreigners” from the University, I assume the author did not realize international students think their native counterparts are equally foreign, too. International students and faculty are an asset to this community, and I’m sick of sheltered whiners assuming they’re worthless because some can’t articulate fluently in a language that isn’t even their own.
Speaking perfect English is not exactly indicative of American intelligence, either; I’ve witnessed plenty of my peers struggle to communicate properly (read: like, yeah, um, you know, ain’t, anyways, whatever!), but apparently it’s futile to slip nasty notes about mall-speak.
I know a little bit about hate mail myself. As a columnist, I’ve gotten e-mails over the years praying for my soul or informing me that, “Your brain must be full of bong resin. … You are a dumb bitch.” Even the furry OSU mascot, Benny the Beaver, sent me a drawing depicting a beaver suffocating a duck. Thanks for the constructive criticism, Benny…
These items do not compare in severity with the incidents above and arguably go with the territory of the commentary page, but the odium behind the comments is the same.
Who are these disgruntled torchbearers of hate? And why don’t students hear more about these acts?
Issues of discrimination will never go away, and neither should the discussion of them. Hate crimes do exist on this campus. That’s easy enough to prove. The real challenge is figuring out who is behind them — and more importantly, how to banish the bigotry altogether.