News
Wednesday, September 25, 2013 • page 9
Recent incident reveais underlying, ongoing racial tensions
Ethan Smith
News Editor
On the morning of Sept. 17, two female
students, one Jewish and one African-Ameri
can, woke up to a swastika, the acronym “KKK”
and a sketch of male genitalia drawn on the
whiteboard outside their room.
“I’m tired of it,” said senior Immanuel Bry
ant, one of two founding leaders of Better To
gether, Elon’s multi-faith learning community.
“It used to make me sad, and sad for the person
that did it. I see the person who did it as the
victim because they need to be aware of what
they’re doing and realize what they’re doing is
wrong.”
Despite this incident happening last Sun
day, Vice President of Student Life and Dean
of Students Smith Jackson didn’t send an email
to the Elon community to notify them of the
incident, opting rather for an email titled “Bias
Prevention and Response Initiatives and Cam
pus Notices,” reminding students and staff at
Elon of the university’s policies regarding these
subjects.
Lynn Huber, associate professor of religious
studies, said she hadn’t heard about Smith
Jacksons policy to no longer email students
when incidents such as this one happen, and
was shocked when she found out this was the
case.
“Once I listened to his reasons for no longer
addressing incidents through emails, I can un
derstand his reasoning for it,” Huber said. “Not
that I necessarily agree with it.”
Huber, along with the Department of Reli
gious Studies, posted messages on the depart
ment’s Facebook pages and website to address
what had happened.
“The department as a whole is committed
to diversity,” Huber said. “But we realize in say
ing we want diversity means doing and acting
when there is an incident challenging it.”
Bryant and senior Mason Sklut, the other
founding member of Better Together, will hold
a forum at 6 p.m. Sept. 26 in McKinnon HaU
to facilitate a discussion among the student
body regarding the incident.
“[SGA Executive President Welsford] Scott
[Bishopric] reached out to Better Together and
asked us to facilitate discussion about what
happened and how we want to handle it as a
student body,” Bryant said. “We’re asking peo
ple to keep the discussion going and we’re ad
dressing how to have a discussion about these
topics.”
Three seniors — Diana Abrahams, Sarah
Holland and Paige Ransbury — wrote a let
ter to the student body and submitted it to The
Pendulum (see page 15), calling for the student
body to act.
“This is a student issue that will only be
solved by students, and we believe the first step
is simply to start speaking up for each other,”
the letter reads.
Chaplain Jan Fuller directly addressed the
incident on the Truitt Center for Religious and
Spiritual Life’s website.
“This weekend, as the Yom Kippur holy day
observances came to a close, ugly racial and
anti-Semitic slurs were left on the white board
on a student residence door,” Fuller said in the
message. “The two women students within
identified as African-American and Jewish.
This is an unprecedented act of anti-Semitism
for our campus, accompanied by aU-too-famil-
iar acts of racism.”
Fuller continued the message by remind
ing students of Elon’s commitment to diversity,
and how this incident shows underlying issues
at Elon and how the incident risks derailing
Elon’s efforts to be a more inclusive commu
nity.
“We are ashamed and offended that such
a mindset of bigotry is present in our com
munity, and has been outwardly expressed in
this manner,” the message said. “Our hearts are
sorrowing for the pain of the students, and for
the larger communities, who are being hurt by
these actions and attitudes. Such actions and
attitudes are not representative of our values
at Elon. In a time of great hopefulness, as we
live into becoming a community of ‘unprec
edented. . .commitment to diversity and global
engagement,’ which is our first strategic goal
as a university, one act like this can derail our
communal efforts.”
This act is not the first racist incident that’s
happened on Elon’s campus. In April, then-
senior Blake Thompson found a note posted
on the second floor of his apartment building
that used the term “coon” — a racial slur for
African-Americans.
That month, Thompson said racism on this
campus doesn’t happen in isolated incidents.
Rather, it happens nearly every day. The inci
dent in April happened less than a month be
fore the school year ended, and the incident on
Sunday happened within a month of students
returning to campus.
“It’s a series of micro-aggressions every day
that makes it hard for those without privilege
to be in this environment,” Huber said. “This
incident is just one more thing on top of it, just
OFFENSES TIMELINE
Sept. 8, 2011
Five white males in a convertible
BMW yelled the N-word at an African
American student crossing North
O’Kelly Avenue, inciting the “Not On
Our Campus” movement.
Nov. 15, 2012
A male in a red mini SUV yelled an
Asian racial slur at a student as she
crossed the street at the intersection of
Williamson and Haggard.
one more punch.” *
Huber said she feels these incidents are
happening among the student body for a myr
iad of reasons.
“It’s a hate of the ‘other’ simply because
they are the ‘other,’ and that’s what we’re see
ing here,” Huber said. “It’s anxiety due to chal
lenging the rightness of our own beliefs and
ourselves, causing hatred of the ‘other,’ and it’s
important to remember that this hatred of the
‘other’has persisted for centuries. This is the use
of symbols to hurt others, and that has a long
history. People don’t realize how laden in his
tory symbols are.”
The timing of the incident made it have an
even more significant meaning, Huber said.
“This event is coming right after Yom Kip
pur, which is the most important Jewish holi
day, and one where Jews have been attacked in
history during this holiday,” Huber said. “I’m
not sure if the person who did this realizes that,
but even if it was a dmnken action, it doesn’t
excuse the action and how wrong it was.”
Bryant, a facilitator of the discussion hap
pening on Thursday, said he wishes he could
help those who perform these kinds of acts,
and he feels as though campus is disconnected.
“It irritates me that I don’t know how to
help [the people that commit these acts],”Bry
ant said. “And it irritates me that they don’t
have any friends who say it’s not okay for them
to do those things. It feels like there are two
different languages — there’s inclusive lan
guage from the university, promoting diversity,
and then there’s exclusive language from the
student body, saying they don’t want people
different from them to be part of their Elon
experience.”
Sept. 17, 2013
A note containing religiously and racially
derogatory symbols was posted on the
whiteboard of a Jewish and an African-
American student.
Feb. 1, 2012
A male in a car at the light in front of
McMichaei yelled a homophobic slur at
a student as he walked toward Moseley
Center.
March 2013
Students wrote a racial slur on a note
and posted it in the hallway of an off-
campus apartment.