<p>This vile and reprehensible act shows that racism can appear in the most progressive states and institutions. University of Alabama had huge national press coverage over the sorority issue which was nowhere near as bad as what is related here. </p>
<p>No, this couldn’t be true…or maybe they’re listing the wrong campus. As we’ve been hearing for awhile, the other regions of the country aren’t like the racist South. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Sadly horrific things happen everywhere. I do hope that this gets the same national attention that the Greek House issue got. </p>
<p>San Jose State is 99% instate students. So these were very likely Calif kids doing this.</p>
<p>Prayers for this student. I hope this young man can move on past this very painful experience.</p>
<p>I’m from Calif and all my family is still there. I am very aware of the friction that goes on there between the races…Blacks and Hispanics, Asians and whites, Blacks and Asians, Whites and Hispanics, you name it…each group comes up with rationalizations/generalizations to be petty and unfair. This is sad because we need to move past these things. </p>
<p>the point is that these incidents must get exposed and addressed, but shouldn’t cause students to fear going to X school, because Y school will also have issues, too. </p>
<p>In the case of Alabama, it would be unfortunate if Asian and Hispanic students choose to go elsewhere simply due to low numbers at Bama. The numbers will never increase if that’s the deciding factor.</p>
<p>The south has better race relations than California. As bizarre as that sounds that seems to be the fact. UCLA the so called most liberal institution in the country has some off the wall racial incidents.</p>
<p>This is horrible. I can’t believe anyone would do that to a fellow human being. He’s also somebody’s child, and as a mom, it just makes me cringe to read the article. My heart goes out to him and his family.</p>
<p>There were 8 young men in that suite - 3 delinquents and one victim. It is disappointing that the other 4 young men didn’t take a stand (at least what can be deduced from this article) in their suitemate’s defense. </p>
<p>I have made it a point the last few years whenever anyone around me makes a racist remark to call them on it. - they need to hear from everyone that racial intolerance is unacceptable and that there are at least social consequences if they display that behavior. I encourage my children to do the same (although 3 of them are pretty laid back/mind my own business kind of people so I don’t know how bad it would be before they actively stood against it) </p>
<p>I plan on discussing this San Jose situation with them over Thanksgiving. I’ll pose the question “What would you do if you were a suitemate and saw this happening? What if you lived down the hall?” etc.</p>
<p>My son did face a situation like this, when he was a sophomore in high school and had just started at a new school. He was afraid that if he said anything, he’d be ostracized. He reported it.</p>
<p>I doubt that was her point. I think her point was that the Alabama situation, which involved some alumni being racist, caught huge national attention. So, let’s see what nat’l attention THIS situation gets.</p>
<p>Agreed. Sadly, we have a long way to go on race relations in this country. I also agree that the south has dealt with its issues of racism more directly than other parts of the country have. The south-bashing a lot of us experience gets a little old, and although no one wants to hear stories like this one (and I am deeply sympathetic to the young man involved) they serve as a reminder that there are a lot of hateful people even in places that are supposedly more tolerant.</p>
<p>Nobody is insinuating that this makes what happened at UA better. Bad doesn’t erase bad, but punishment should fit the crime.
However, the media chooses what to exagerate, and there was huge negative press over the Alabama incident and relatively less over this one. All acts of racism are deplorable, but when one occurrs in the south, it is presented as evidence. Elsewhere, it’s an isolated event.</p>
<p>I totally agree that “one bad issue doesn’t make another bad issue better” however, as mom2collegekids and others have said, racist incidents seem to garner far less attention and have less of a long term impact on popular opinion if they occur in states such as California that have a more progressive reputation. Other posters here have mentioned “the look” that sometimes occurs when you mention that your child is going to a university in the South. I’ve actually had someone ask if my son would be made uncomfortable by the racist comments he would hear around him. The people who made these comments had never set foot in the South and their impressions were formed solely by what they had read in the media.</p>
<p>Having said that I am encouraged to see that the egregious incident at San Jose State has been widely reported.</p>
<p>It’s ridiculous. The south is the last part of the country people have no problem impugning without any knowledge of what it is like whatsoever. And it’s not just the look, it’s the face. And the comments. “Your son goes to college in X? What’s THAT like?” As if there is no racism or backwards attitudes in the midwest or east or west coasts. When I tell them I think the south is less racist than where we live, they vehemently disagree–but they have no evidence to support their claims. In fact, some of them proudly claim that they will never set foot in the south. This is why, as a previous poster said, the Alabama rush thing was “proof” of how backwards the south is, whereas at San Jose State or Dartmouth or Amherst or wherever it is only ever an “exception” when racism rears its ugly head.</p>
<p>By no means did anyone mean that this happening makes what happened at UA “better” or any such. It is all racism.</p>
<p>Some obscure article in the NY Times that has not garnered much attention still pales in comparison to the media attention that Alabama received recently. When I hear that CNN reporters are lurking in the shrubs outside of the dorms, dressing up and pretending to be students, approaching students, etc. When it makes the national news on TV and it is the talk of EVERYONE. What happened at San Jose is just outright past appalling, it was dangerous and placed the victims life in danger. Yet, this story still has yet to make the nightly national news every single night for weeks like UA. </p>
<p>Sorry, but those that are ignorant of the south are just as racist in their remarks. Have any of those that jumped on the HATE ALABAMA band wagon back in September jumping all over the San Jose State CC pages and blasting them? Even the thread in the parents forum is lackluster compared to what went on with the Alabama bashing.</p>
<p>As I recall, the sorority incident took a few days to blow up in the national press. It looks like the SJSU one is following the same relative timeline in terms of how the media covers the story:</p>
<p>I live in suburban Philadelphia and have not had one person raise an eyebrow when I mention that my son applied and was accepted to the University of Alabama.</p>