<p>Make of this what you will. It is a data point. My son is a junior and I would never send a child to a school that used a hoax to make systemic changes like this or to allow the student body to think that there was true racism on the campus.</p>
<p>Oberlin</a> racism | hoax | Multicultural Center | Afrikan House</p>
<p>Be honest, though: if you’re reading that blog, you probably never would have sent your kids to Oberlin in the first place.</p>
<p>I find it kind of tedious, frankly, how right-leaning posters on College Confidential keep carping about Oberlin.</p>
<p>Rockbandmom, I’m not really sure what you’re hoping to accomplish by these postings here and in the Music forum. No college is perfect, in its administration or in its classroom. Where legalities are concerned, and given the short timeline Oberlin had to respond, it is entirely possible the administration was bound from communicating the hoax to students at the time (legal charges probably being explored) but it did have to react to students’ anxiety. We’ll never know. Berklee and Oberlin could not be more different academically, and it seems as though your daughter is happy at Berklee. My son got a tremendous education at Oberlin, in both the Con and in the College. Thanks for showing another “take” on the situation, but I’m confident Oberlin is moving on constructively. If not, their very smart, vocal student body will no doubt let them know.</p>
<p>Ah, the sharp lens of retrospection. Give me a break! How do any of us really know what the real motivation was for a young man to do the things he did? And how do any of us really know what it was like to be on campus then? So what if he voted for Obama, what he did was wrong and troubled.</p>
<p>Folks shouldn’t rely on any one source. It doesn’t make sense. Elsewhere, it seems selected student leaders were aware this was centered around two students. Also that there was some wait, while the FBI took a look. And, some incidents continued, after the boys were id’d.</p>
<p>It is SO easy to blame. A bit harder to confirm.<br>
And far too easy to post links-</p>
<p>Oberlin’s official statement, as found [here](<a href=“http://news.oberlin.edu/articles/oberlin-college-statement-bias-incidents/]here[/url]:”>http://news.oberlin.edu/articles/oberlin-college-statement-bias-incidents/):</a></p>
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<p>RockBandMom obviously doesn’t know the first thing about Oberlin. The ridiculous distortions and dishonest characterizations floating around in the rightwing fantasy blogosphere are not a credible source of information about the college.</p>
<p>I would have to agree with Dave72 on this one. For RockBand Mom to make a snap judgement about the suitability of an Oberlin education for her son based on the right wing blogosphere’s incessant distorted carping on these events is preposterous. IMHO, RockBandMom is operating under one of the following: (1) total ignorance about and bias against the true nature of the college culture and experience at Oberlin (a culture that values in-depth study and discussion of social justice issues, open expression of opinions and respect for diversity - very much aligned with my daughter’s values), or (2) she/ he / they is a paid shill/■■■■■ for Berklee or another (whichever) enrollment management corporation that seeks to steer prospective students away from applying to Oberlin. (FYI, I learned a valuable thing from my daughters indoctrination at Oberlin the proper use of the pronoun they when referring to a trans person. I hope I learn more such important things from her experiences there.)</p>
<p>Those of you who, like me, are real parents looking to find or share real information, look elsewhere, and/or take what you read here with an exceptionally large grain of salt. There is so much trolling on this site, really, most of the time I don’t know why I bother to come back here. Except that, as an educated person / fool, somehow my idealistic nature tells me that it is the right thing to do to speak truth as I see it and call out dishonesty. Go right ahead, all you trolls on here, smack me down as hard as you want to, but I call trolling on this one. All of the right wing blogosphere commentary on the hate speech and the administration’s response is straight up trolling for right wing political ends. Good thing that really, most of the time, those right wing commentators are only succeeding in preaching to their own, very limited audience, narrow-minded choir. </p>
<p>IMHO, the Oberlin administration does deserve much of the criticism they have gotten for their failure to provide at least a tad more general information about what they knew about the perpetrators of these crimes. But really, to be fair, this criticism is only being levied at Oberlin because they got into the media spotlight on this one. In truth, Oberlin acts like every single one of its peer elite colleges, in that they are entirely risk adverse in terms of violating student or staff privacy. At bottom, there is always a consideration re: keeping the alumni, big money donors, and endowment safe, and big lawsuits and /or withdrawal of donation pledges are the worst thing for the institutions money. Insistence on privacy above all is at times detrimental to / in conflict with the welfare of victims of campus crimes perpetrated by students or staff of the institution. So it goes in the business world, so it goes in elite institutions. Just read all the press in the last year about sexual assault on college campuses to get a taste of how risk adverse elite institutions are re: sharing information with the public about perpetrators of campus crimes. These are systemic problems that are not Oberlins alone; not to say that it is impossible that Oberlin can and should lead change in these systemic problems. Oberlin can take action to change, and in the instance of the student task forces formed after these events, it has taken action to examine how its policies harm its own in the service of protecting the institution.</p>
<p>Sincerely, Yours Truly, Ms. Ladybug, real mom of an Oberlin junior, who told me earlier this week that she is sick and tired of people calling what happened last year a hoax. Real racist, anti-Semitic and homophobic things were done that really hurt many people, and outraged the majority of people, at Oberlin - those actions were reprehensible, caused much fear and pain and distress on campus, and regardless of the motives of the perpetrators, the administration needed to address that fear and pain and distress by listening to their students on the day classes were suspended. As a parent, I think it is preposterous that people are saying that I lost X$$$ that day that classes were cancelled so much invaluable, priceless learning on college campuses takes place outside of the classroom.</p>
<p>“Hoax” or not – there were people who were threatened. They were the victims before the intentions of the perpetrators were known – and they remain victims of those perpetrators now that we know who they are and what they claim they were trying to do.</p>
<p>Is the college supposed to carve out a response to threats made to students that only addresses race-based threats that later turn out to be empty threats – and not bother to address race-based threats that later turn out to be backed by action? That’s what RockBandMom just said…</p>
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<p>Exactly. In any case, I thought blog posts weren’t allowed on this site? </p>
<p>I agree with other posters. The college had to do something to respond. Actual people were hurt by the actions of the idiot who perpetrated the hoax. I really don’t understand the OP’s outrage.</p>
<p>The fact that it turned out to be a “prank” or “hoax” doesn’t change things for the victims:</p>
<p>[18-year-old</a> track star accidentally shot by friend when she jumped out of a closet to scare him | Mail Online](<a href=“18-year-old track star accidentally shot by friend when she jumped out of a closet to scare him | Daily Mail Online”>18-year-old track star accidentally shot by friend when she jumped out of a closet to scare him | Daily Mail Online)</p>
<p>Ugh. Not a day goes by…</p>