This is the second publicly addressed hate incident according to the Amherst Student Newspaper:
https://amherststudent.com/article/mens-lacrosse-members-involved-in-racist-incident
These incidents at Amherst College are both disturbing & disgusting.
Yesterday another post dealt with vandalism at another super elite LAC (Middlebury College in Vermont). It wasn’t clear to me if the suspected vandals were or were not connected to a sports team.
Agree - disturbing and disgusting that in this day and age these types of things are happening, especially among our supposed best and brightest.
@Publisher I agree. I have so many wonderful things to say about Amherst College, so I hated the idea of posting something so terrible ( <–I even struggle to find a word that encompasses the gravity of this). Many were concerned that with COVID-19 taking center stage and students leaving campus that this would be lost in the shuffle. As promised by the school, they addressed it.
It’s despicable. I attended Amherst, and this is embarrassing and just so troubling, more so because it sounds like there was a pattern of bad behavior that was ignored or excused. All coaches talk about the importance of character but I guess not all mean it.
Amherst students did this stuff, now you’re forcing them (publicly) to own it, @Meddy. This seems like an important, necessary post.
While AC banned frats years ago, including underground frats more recently, these behaviors are reminiscent of frat culture. Very toxic, very elitist, very exclusive. The college did address it, but the underlying issue goes beyond racial and cultural awareness: they need to address the privileged status of sports teams on campus and their internal culture (recognizing of course, that not all teams have this, and not all members of a team subscribe to discriminatory views).
@merc81 Thanks. As a person of color, this made me very sad, concerned, uncomfortable and as a default I tend to want to shrink back and not post about such awful things.
As a parent though, I am inspired by the loud, concerned and thoughtful voices of today’s young people and the good that comes from them speaking out, questioning those in charge and insisting on something being done about these matters. In fact, from what else I have read since I posted this article, a portion of the student body is calling for Amherst to do more to repair this. My hope is that much good comes from this- for all parties involved.
I just saw this… a few years ago my daughter visited the campus, and on paper, it was a really good fit. Almost the first group of students she ran across were several members of the men’s lacrosse team. And that encounter was the end of her considering attending Amherst, it was such a turn off. I’m glad they are addressing it, but they need to be looking at their admissions policies too, to prevent more problems in the future.
@divarose It is unfortunate that your daughter had that experience. I agree that further work is necessary in addressing this. Hopefully Amherst can be an example of what good can come out of this very bad situation. Time will tell.
I am a current Amherst College freshman. The ONLY team that has this problem is the men’s lacrosse team. The men’s football team had an openly gay black captain this year and they have hosted “Pride Games,” which most other sports teams have done as well. The men’s lacrosse team has had several incidents in the past few years, and they are the only team/club which has had any incidents like this (with the exception of the Amherst College Republicans (the club, not all Amherst Republicans in general), who had their funding stripped roughly a year ago because many of them were active participants in one of the men’s lacrosse team controversies). I think it’s largely due to the lack of racial diversity on the men’s lacrosse team; I checked out the roster the other day, and 90% of the team is white. Also, most of the men’s lacrosse players come from private high schools (not to say that going to a private school is bad; my brother is attending Groton starting next year; I just think that combined with the overwhelming lack of minorities on the team and the incidents on the men’s lacrosse team, it points to a sub-culture of elitism (even though this is ironic and somewhat hypocritical, considering all of us attend one of the best private colleges in the country)).
Most people on the men’s lacrosse team are not bad; about half of the freshmen on the men’s lacrosse team were on my floor this year, and I really liked everyone on my floor (though I will say I did notice that many of them are conservative, so I think that could be indicative of a much more conservative culture on the men’s lacrosse team than the rest of the campus, potentially contributing to toxic masculinity which can fuel incidents like these; not to say anything bad of conservatives, just the fact that the culture as a whole could be harmful). Anyway, they just issued an official apology today, and work is being to address the problem both within the men’s lacrosse team and across the wider campus community (our president, Biddy Martin, says they are working on implementing guidelines to address issues of inequality and discrimination of any kind on campus).
@ChemAM Thank you for your thoughtful comment and insight #tusksup! Here is the referenced apology by members of the Men’s Lacrosse team:
@ChemAM Thank you for this information… It is a shame the damage these type of incidents do, because they really do cause serious harm to the perception and reputation of a school. It sounds like the administration is working on changing some of the unfortunate culture with this team, which is very positive.
Conservative does not maen that one is racist, just as liberal does not mean that one is open-minded.
Jerks are jerks.
Agree. And, this problem (team conduct inconsistent with the school’s stated mission) has recently occurred at least one other time in the athletic department. That time it was met by Biddy Martin with much the same type of rhetoric that she recently displayed. The roster archives of the offending team have been wiped clean on the school’s website. Time will tell whether this discipline will make a difference.