April 2010
LOS ANGELES – Swastikas, nooses, a KKK hood, graffiti, epithets and jeers.
An ugly spate of bias incidents has crossed several
University of California campuses over the past
month, causing consternation, outcry and fear that bigotry is alive among the
young and educated.
Students have protested and administrators have
condemned, but the question remains of what lies behind the sudden parade of
prejudice — a growing climate of insensitivity on campuses or a bunch of
immature kids yearning for peer acceptance and attention.
"My guess is some of all of those things," said
interim UC Provost Lawrence H. Pitts. "I’d like to believe it’s really an
extreme minority. It does suggest there’s some underlying feeling of intolerance
in our community."
The incidents have roiled several campuses in the
175,000-student state university system, which is one of the nation’s most
respected and diverse.
At UC San Diego,
black students were offended by an off-campus "Compton Cookout" party that
mocked ghetto stereotypes, a noose and KKK-style hood found on campus and a
student making racially derogatory remarks on a student-run TV station.
At UC Davis,
swastikas cropped up and the gay and lesbian center was vandalized with
graffiti. At UC Santa Cruz, a picture of a noose
was scrawled. On the Irvine campus, the Israeli ambassador was heckled to the
extent that he was forced to end a speech early.
The acts were particularly shocking because they
occurred on university campuses — usually considered centers of intellectual
enlightenment above acts commonly associated with ignorance.
But experts note that universities are microcosms of
society at large, and that includes hatemongers. Upticks in
hate crimes are often seen in times of economic
malaise as people seek scapegoats, noted Jack Levin,
a Northeastern University sociologist who has
studied hate.
Still, surveys show that prejudice among today’s
young people is at a low and interracial and interethnic marriages are at an
all-time high, said Tom Smith, director of the general
social survey at the National Opinion Research
Center. Studies have also long found that education increases tolerance
of different groups, he added.
"College students, as a group, are quite liberal on
this issue," Smith said.
Minority students said that’s why they’re galled
that fellow students today would even think that something like hanging a noose
in a library is funny or acceptable. The school paper later published a letter
of apology from a female student who wrote that she had only been playing with a
rope, accidentally left in the library and did not mean to offend.
"Part of the problem is that people don’t
realize it’s insensitive," said Joelle Gamble, a student at the
University of California, Los Angeles. "They see
it as free speech."
Free speech is a buzzword on college campuses, which
tend to be regarded as "marketplaces of ideas" where students are encouraged to
express opinions freely, said Brian Levin, director of Center for the Study of
Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
But sometimes opinions can cross into offensiveness.
In 2007, a UCLA fraternity member sent out
invitations to a Mexican-themed "Fiesta Friday" party. But administrators
received complaints that the event appeared to stereotype Mexican-Americans and
the party was quickly canceled, said Eamon Reilly, a member of the fraternity’s
board of directors at the time.
"It’s a very fine line between what is insensitive
and what is sensitive," Reilly said. "A lot of people have a hard time drawing
that line."
At UC Irvine,
pro-Palestinian students saw the jeering of the Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren
as a political statement, but administrators saw it as intolerance, albeit of a
political viewpoint. Eleven students were arrested.
"This is a place
where we would like to expose students to as wide a spectrum of the world as we
can construct," Provost Pitts said. "We have a very broad curve of human belief
here. It’s a huge place. So it’s hurtful that this comes up."
Experts point out
that some racist incidents are likely sophomoric pranks as students cross the
bridge from adolescence to adulthood.
Although students are
expected to behave as adults, some still possess a teenager’s impulsiveness and
desire to impress peers which can lead to boorish behavior. Then there are the
copycats who enjoy the ensuing uproar and media attention. "It’s the jackass
phenomenon," Cal State’s Levin said. "Most are not hard-core bigots, but some
are."
Levin and others note
that bias incidents occur on campuses all over the country, and college
hate crimes are likely vastly underreported.
UC Davis psychologist Gregory Herek
said gay and lesbian students tell him they are regularly harassed. "The truth
is there are many acts of intolerance," he said. "This is a day-to-day
experience."
Whatever lies behind
the bias incidents, university officials are stepping up efforts to make
underrepresented groups feel more included on campus. UC San Diego, for one, is
working with the Black Student Union to
establish diversity curriculum requirements and recruit more minority students
and faculty.
On Friday, UC
President Mark Yudoff appointed a special adviser to assist
UC San Diego on tolerance issues.
Pitts said
chancellors will be evaluated on increases of student-body diversity. "This is a
reminder," he said, "this is a battle that’s never won."
Associated Press, March 7, 2010.
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