Perhaps it may have more of an effect if more presidents of “conservative” colleges signed it.
The presidents of the University of the South and University of Dallas are among the signers.
On the other hand, college associated people may not be seen as a primary constituency anyway.
Isn’t it the job of the College Presidents to ensure that there are no “incidents” on campus that make their students feel anxious? Isn’t that part of what they get paid for?
It can be hard to completely ensure the absence of potentially threatening incidents, such as threatening graffiti or other clearly criminal activity where the suspects are not caught or identified, or political activity that tests the boundaries between free speech versus threats and harassment.
I’m curious why none of the presidents from the Ivies or MIT or Stanford signed.
I’m curious as to why our new leader of the UNITED States isn’t saying something a little more condemnatory than “stop it,” in light of the surge of racist acts. It’s sad that college presidents have to urge our new president-elect to speak up.
so, the conclusion is that an elected person, who is yet not an official official, and is still a civilian who happens to live in Manhattan, can do something about it? If you are trying to defend the letter ucb, it ain’t working. The point is that if the local guys and gals who are actually in charge of the campus have a “hard” time of minimizing “threatening incidents,” it seems kinda whiny to ask someone else to take responsibility. What ever happened to the ‘buck stops here’, i.e., the Unversity President’s desk?
Maybe some of the graffiti was done by those dissatisfied with the election results in order to keep the pot stirred. it has happened before many times.
Blame the victims. Good job, Tom. Please study the history of such false accusations.
Sometimes the “victims” are to blame.
@TomSrOfBoston , in my area, a middle school has been in the news twice in a week’s time. Kids were chanting “build the wall” in the cafeteria. Then yesterday, a noose was found in the bathroom. Do you think the 12 year old Occupy Democrat operatives concocted both?
One of the very issues that’s going on is the seeming tone-deafness of many of our citizens. Can you imagine why people would simply roll their eyes at the sentiments you’ve expressed here, and in this context?
Sure there are false flags and outright lies (e.g Duke lacrosse team rape accusations). But must someone ALWAYS bring up suspicion within the first two milliseconds of a complaint about unfair treatment?
When black GOP senator Tim Scott says he’s been pulled over 7 times in the last year, is he just the amazing statistical anomaly?
Tom, you stated: “Maybe some of the graffiti was done by those dissatisfied with the election results in order to keep the pot stirred. it has happened before many times.”
Name one. Please. The incidents of such behavior that I’m aware of were provocateur schemes by the FBI and police departments to discredit protesters. I hope we are not returning to those days, but I fear we may be.
I live in NY state, and hour north of the city. Wealthy suburbia, to be frank. Middle school kids chanting “build a wall” to the hispanic bus driver. The denial makes me sick to my stomach. I am completely disgusted by the president-elect’s failure to acknowlege this appalling behavior. NO hispanic citizens of this country are asking kids to do that. And no doubt now the mods will shut this thread down, but this had to be said.
And a lot of the incidents cannot be denied – they are on video or audio. Some of them are simply outrageous and are clearly directed at certain groups. There appears to be a lot of simmering anger that is now being unleashed. And you have to ask yourself what is emboldening these people. My conclusion is the rhetoric during the campaign.
How about the substitute teacher telling young students that their parents will be deported and they will have to go into foster care? Beyond belief.
Middle school kids were cruel before Trump and will be after Trump.
A lot of Presidents didn’t sign the letter, because they viewed it as a bit too “political”, it wasn’t a easy decision to sign or not signed…so I don’t hold it against any one that signed or didn’t signed the letter.
A breakdown of reported incidents:
https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/11/18/update-incidents-hateful-harassment-election-day-now-number-701
Largest location? K-12 Schools. But I wonder if that’s because there are authorities there to report them versus random encounters on the street that might not be reported. Either way, sad that this is happening at all.
ETA: The good news is the number of occurrences is declining.
Maybe it was…SPACE ALIENS!
More seriously, I’m sure some of it is phony, but certainly not all of it, and the reports of abuses and rising visibility of white supremacy, homophobia, transphobia, and misogyny are so widespread that it’s unreasonable to wave it away. This is real; it’s bad; it has to be stopped.
It’s one thing for people to be racist, etc., but it’s another thing for them to express those feelings so openly that minorities feel actively threatened on a daily basis.
Yes, there is some good news as well. For me it is the outpouring of support for the targeted groups and the pushback against all this bullying and bigotry. It is bringing out the best in a lot of people.
And I could not be prouder of what is coming out of our college campuses. We spend a lot of time criticizing these kids for all their whining and seeking of “safe spaces”-- and personally I am no fan of those things either. But when push comes to shove they have shown that they know what is important. They are willing to stand up for their communities and push back against things they think will tear those communities apart.
I think as parents we can say we did a pretty good job with these kids after all.
I wish I could like @marvin100 's comment a thousand times.
all this bullying and bigotry
There is bullying and bigotry on both sides. And I fear that both side have lost touch with civility and common decency. I disagree with Pence on many issues, but if I had happened to see him at Hamilton, I would never boo him.
To me, that’s just plain rude.