When you think about racism and bigoted propaganda, you can’t help but take history into account and automatically think about the South. That’s understandable based on the fact that the North and the South fought an ugly war over the eradication of slavery. But what I can’t quite wrap my mind around is the ongoing trend of racism on college campuses all around the country.
This past week, Lehigh University (a University I used to attend) was the scene of some very ugly racist and bigoted hate speech, which was spray painted on the designated multicultural dormitory. As seen in the picture above the word, “Nigger” was spray painted on the steps as well as the walls of the building and eggs were hurled at the front door, leaving the Umoja House degraded and disgusting. The Umoja House, which means the “Unity” house in Swahili was created to give multicultural students a place which they could call their own. Students of all different races and ethnic backgrounds fill the Umoja house and make it a wonderful place where students get to know more about their fellow minorities, bridging all kinds of cultural differences. Even white students were welcomed at the Umoja house. But, students of this well known University still feel the need use hate tactics to promote racism and bigotry.
It’s sad that in 2013, one of the most prestigious colleges in the country harbor students who would rather hate, than walk into a building full of wonderful students looking to make meaningful relationships. College is all about relationships. Some of the most important people in my life came from the experiences I created while in school. How can you create these experiences when you have students vandalizing buildings because they hate black people, or despise foreigners who may not look like them? College is supposed to be an institution of higher learning. When you go to college you expect to meet people from different backgrounds and cultures for the sole purpose of learning how other people live. You are not supposed to be bombarded with hate speech and racism. This is not the 1860s confederacy, Lincoln freed the slaves. This is not the 1960‘s south, Rosa parks already got off the bus. When will we stop this old and tired way of thinking.
You can’t win with hate anymore, but you would think college educated students would understand that and see the bigger picture. What is even more disturbing about this situation is that it’s not the first time this has happened and I’m sure it will not be the last. The Umoja House is known for being vandalized, usually with racist and bigoted motives. How ironic that the only building on campus that seems to always come under the fire of vandalism is the multicultural dormitory. Not to mention it’s surrounded by fraternities and sororities dominated by the majority.
The time is now to look into your soul. What do you see? Do you see a hatred driven bigot who gets off on terrorizing innocent people? Or do you see a loving and caring person who will not tolerate this kind of behavior in his/her circles? The choice is yours, but the change is ours. I hope you’ve decided to be a part of the change.
words by: @blogzworth
