Students Meet Protest Backlash

Campus groups have officially distanced themselves from the actions of individual students who rushed the stage while Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist was speaking Wednesday night. The students' actions brought an abrupt end to the event.

As a result of national media attention, largely from Fox News programs and conservative blogs and publications, many students have received hate mail and even death threats from people all over the country who read or heard about the protest.

Some were targeted because of quotes published on the Internet or in print, but many others received threatening letters even though they were not present at the protest.

Chris Kulawik, CC '08, president of the Columbia University College Republicans and a Spectator columnist, said that he had not received any hate mail from people outside of campus.

"The most noticeable thing people will say to me [is] 'I hate you. Get off my campus,'" he said.

The Chicano Caucus, the group that originally organized the protest outside Lerner Hall, released a new public statement Sunday evening thanking those who supported the protest and clarifying the group's association with those that went on stage. While the group as a whole did not plan or sanction rushing the stage, several group members participated, including the main organizer of the outside protest, political chair Karina Garcia, CC '07.

Many members have received hateful messages as a result of Wednesday night's events and "the misrepresentation in the national media of the Chicano Caucus's involvement," the statement read. Garcia said she has received phone calls to her dorm phone.

"This racist backlash exemplifies the nature of the organization that was brought to our campus, and only validates our initial decision to protest the anti-immigrant Minuteman Project," the statement read.

"But this isn't a sob story, either. I've gotten a lot of great mail, too. We've gotten a lot of support," Garcia said.

Ryan Fukumori, CC '09 and a member of the Asian American Alliance and the International Socialist Organization, was another one of the protesters. After being quoted in a New York Sun article that was linked on a conservative blog, Fukumori received hate mail with racist epithets and violent threats.

Calvin Sun, CC '08, and Christina Chen, CC '09, both members of the AAA executive board who were not at the protest, also received a threatening e-mail from a man in California. The message began, "Hey gook: The good folks at VDARE.com are reporting on the stunt you and your comrades pulled at Columbia."

"Some of our members have been targeted because of the actions of one of our members. We need to make sure the safety of our members is assured," Sun said. "We still stand by what they [the protesters] believe in, but we need to be very careful."

The group originally endorsed the protest planned by the Chicano Caucus that took place outside Lerner, but Sun said that AAA is still working on an official statement.

Members of the ISO-several of whom rushed the stage-have also received threatening messages. David Judd, SEAS '08 and an ISO member who was not present at the protest, said he received three death threats.

One message read, "Here's to hoping that you and yours are slain by someone in the U.S. illegally. That would be the ultimate poetic justice."

The students who rushed the stage will be hosting a town hall meeting Wednesday evening, including a question-and-answer section, to discuss who the Minutemen are and why they object to them as an organization.