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Quasimodo
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Dec 20 2015, 09:50 AM
Post #1
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- Posts:
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http://inthesetimes.com/article/18647/why-race-relations-on-campus-must-be-challenged-and-transformed
DECEMBER 8, 2015 I Saw Disturbing Racism at Yale After 9/11. Sadly, It Seems Little Has Changed. When will our universities stop treating students of color as throwaway items in the grooming of privileged white students? BY SAQIB BHATTI
(snip)
On March 27, 2003, seven days after the start of the Iraq War, my friend Katherine Lo heard unknown male voices in her suite. One of them said, “This is the room.” She locked her bedroom door and remained as quiet as possible so they would think she wasn’t home. After about 10 minutes, they left.
But she says they left her a parting gift, a note on her white board that read, “I love kicking the Muslims ass bitches ass! They should all die with Mohammad. We as Americans should destroy them and launch so many missiles their mothers don’t produce healthy offspring. f*ck Iraqi Saddam following f*cks. I hate you, GO AMERICA.”
Kat stayed in her bedroom the rest of the night, terrified they would come back. She says that one of the men was armed with a two-by-four wooden plank, according to her suitemates, and that the university later told her that the intruders were three white men and one Black man, all Yale students.
(snip)
A group, Concerned Black Students at Yale, formed, and convened a town hall meeting to discuss the attacks on students of color and anti-war activists.
I was appalled as a Black student shared stories of students and university employees routinely calling the police on him, assuming he was an intruder. Then, as others spoke, I realized that his experience was a feature of Black life at Yale.
Like students of color at Yale and other colleges today, we were outraged by the university administration’s underwhelming response to the attacks. We felt we were in imminent danger and the administration was not doing enough to guarantee our safety or bring the perpetrators to justice. The morning after the meeting, a group of students took over President Richard Levin’s office at Woodbridge Hall. I was part of the attempt, but didn’t make it in before university officials locked the doors.
We demanded that Levin and Dean Richard Brodhead (now the president of Duke University) sign a letter acknowledging the attacks, agreeing to launch disciplinary investigations, and committing to meet with us in the future to discuss these issues. They refused to sign, although they did eventually accede to some of the demands. The students left Woodbridge Hall, after Levin sent out a campuswide email about the incidents and agreed to hold forums for students to share their concerns.
The next year, the men who had allegedly entered Kat’s suite at night with a weapon were brought before the Yale College Executive Committee for private disciplinary hearings and were put on probation for varying lengths of time. Their names were not made public, although Kat was told their names and permitted to discuss them with others.
Several student organizations criticized the light punishment. They believed that the university’s policy of suppressing the names of perpetrators of incidents of violence and harassment, including sexual violence, on campus endangered other students and prevented true accountability. Levin defended the policy, saying, “To publicize is to convert what could be a learning experience in life to a permanent scar—why would we permanently tarnish the reputation of a 19- or 29-year-old? We’re a humane institution.”
(snip)
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Quasimodo
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Dec 20 2015, 09:52 AM
Post #2
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- Posts:
- 38,130
- Group:
- Tier1
- Member
- #17
- Joined:
- Apr 28, 2008
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- Quote:
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“To publicize is to convert what could be a learning experience in life to a permanent scar—why would we permanently tarnish the reputation of a 19- or 29-year-old? We’re a humane institution.”
Goes with, We're in the kid business."
Doesn't go with, "What they did was bad enough"...
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