Dealing with hate
Everyone’s got their own ideas for how to deal with nooses and the like. Let’s compare!
New York City has declared November 29 to be a “day against hate,” when presumably no cars will honk and New Yorkers will throw off their prickly demeanors to live in harmony.
On Friday, the mainstream Columbia establishment (the student councils, SDA, the Chaplain’s office, etc) are hosting a Community Summit to “create substantive connections and relationships between both individuals and communities,” at which participants will “focus on how we can best understand and appreciate the different lenses of experiences at Columbia, respectfully engage and challenge each other particularly around difficult topics, and create an environment that is supportive of all voices.”
And next week, the newly-created-but-still-highly-amorphous “Columbia Solidarity” group/movement/thingy is promising “a series of actions and escalations” to address the litany of grievances articulated last week. The people will run Columbia, indeed.
Look out for coverage of a graffiti-oriented press conference at Teachers College later this morning.
- LBD
Tags: hate crimes
5 November 2007 @ 5:26 AM · 11 comments
on 
How many hate crimes will occur on November 29? Bullshit feel-good days like this only promotes more hate crimes just out of spite.
I don’t understand what the “mainstream Columbia establishment” hopes to accomplish by hosting this summit. What needs to be said that isn’t already known intuitively? It isn’t that the people who do these things (nooses, swastikas) think that they won’t hurt anyone…
bwog needs to investigate matters of real importance on this campus, like:
* why do the lawns around maison francaise smell like shit?
* why do the cold taps in EC run hot every morning before 10am?
They’ve been spreading fertilizer around the Law School and Maison Francaise. It does smell, but it keeps the grass growing.
And secondly, I agree that this is once again another pointless step. Having some stupid “day” to raise awareness is not going to stop anything. The various protests we have here are just as pointless.
Also, everyone is invited to this summit happening on Friday whether you are or are not involved with a particular student group.
The summit should be a great opportunity for students to communicate to admins and eachother about how they feel the community should react when incidents like the noose happen. (e.g. public safety protocal and whether it is effective). We might not be able to stop the fringes from perpetuating such acts but at least this is an opportunity for the rest of us to find a way to move forward when things like this happen. And more importantly, for students to tell admins what they feel directly without any middlemen.
Again, this is open to everyone. If you want to attend, RSVP to communitysummit@columbia
I’d be interested to see how the community summit goes, especially towards the end of telling “admins what they feel directly without any middlemen.”
Many of the complaints have to do with race and ethnicity. I totally support those claims for equality, but I’m not sure directly speaking to Robert Kasdin will cure the race issue. Even creating another wing of bureaucracy known as Ethnic Studies seems to be inviting a cut in funding in about four years when people are gone.
It will take a lot to convince me substantive change happens within Columbia.
Attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding attention whore protesters feeding attention whore graffiti writers and noose hangers feeding…
i heard there was a press conference at TC about the swastika and that the prof whos door was attacked put a mezuza up. does bwog have any information about this?
In response to your query, “why do the lawns around maison francaise smell of shit”
It is shit. It’s called manure, it is cow poop, it is high in nitrites and it happens to be excellent fertilizer.
You should go outside every now and again, it would do you well.
it’s precisely because i go outdoors so much that i asked the question.
i think it’s ridiculous to use manure in a city. thousands of people walk past maison francaise every day. every single one of us is subjected to the awful smell day in day out.
i used to live on a farm, and i thought that by moving to a city i wouldn’t have to periodically suffer the smell of manure. obviously i was wrong.
but fuck you anyway.
i feel like your exclamation point is a bit to close to the word nooses in the opening paragraph. i know its been a few weeks… but just saying.