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Racist Graffiti Found on Bathroom Stall in SIPA
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 27, 2007
An inflammatory message with racist sentiments toward people of Middle Eastern and African descent was discovered scrawled in a bathroom stall in the International Affairs Building yesterday.
The graffiti read, “Attention you pinko Commie motherfuckers and Arab Towelheads: America will wake up one day and nuke Mecca, Medina, Tehran, Baghdad, Jakarta, and all the savages in Africa. You will all be fucked! America is for White Europeans!”
Adil Ahmed, CC ’09 and president of the Muslim Student Association, said he was shocked by the ignorance and hatred of the graffiti’s perpetrator.
“It [the graffiti] was written in a dirty place and they’re dirty words and that’s where they belong, if anything, in the trash,” Ahmed said.
Ahmed, who indicated that he thought the comments may have been linked with Monday’s on-campus speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said he was disappointed that the perpetrator would equate Ahmadinejad’s views with Islam and the entire Muslim community.
“It’s upsetting and I really hope the person who wrote it would really try to learn about Islam and what it really is,” he said. “I look at this statement and say that a lot of people I know on campus would be shocked by this too, whether they’re Muslim or not Muslim. It would be very offensive to any group on campus.”
Members of the Black Student Organization also said they were offended by the graffiti.
“As a black student, and just as a human being, I’m really shocked and disgusted by it,” Tiffany Dockery, CC ’09, and president of BSO, said.
“This is a noose on a tree,” Dockery added, comparing the incident to the intimidation tactics used against black students in the Jena Six controversy when nooses were hung from what was considered to be a tree traditionally for whites after black students sat under it. “It’s letting me know that this place is not as safe as I want it to be. It’s not as safe as I thought it was.”
Dockery added that the message should trouble everyone at Columbia. “This doesn’t just affect minority students, it really affects us all,” she said. “We all live in this community. It’s just a reminder that, in terms of creating community, we’re not there yet.”
Michelle Diamond, CC ’08 and president of the Columbia College Student Council, said that she intended to work with the University to get the graffiti removed today.
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Who cares what someone writes on a kharzi wall?!! The people who whip this up are the lefty professors and fringe students with nothing better to do. It might turn out that a gay, Hispanic, pacifist, Jew might have written it....then what?
Just like the noose incident with the professor recently. I wouldn't be suprised if it was another black student who just happened to be given a lousy grade by the professor. And here they are yelling about the KKK. Shame on Black Americans for falling for this non issue. Worry about the issues that matter;
like why the black population in NYC has eroded over the last 20 years;
why black teens still do worst in NYC public schools;
why jobless rates for blacks in NYC are higher than any other group;
why blacks are being priced out of their own neighborhoods in NYC.
It sickens me the loud mouths in the community are quick to condemn this imaginary Klan member; but fail to look in the mirror and see the real problem.
You kids are so quick to jump on the RACIST bandwagon.
Most of your grandparents or great-grandparents went through the Depression and had something to worry about.
Look on the positive side. There are all those grants, scholarships, restaurants for you to eat in, toilets that flush, because some OLDER PEOPLE worked hard and didn't worry too much about the small stuff.
Quit acting like nerds. Grow up. And don't call black Minutemen names. How racist!
Hmm. Seems to my (admittedly) semi-coherent mind that your average white undergraduate graffiti artist never even heard of Medina, for instance, or Jakarta. (Nor your above-average white undergraduate, for that matter.) Now, where does that leave us, Watson?
I'd be willing to bet pretty much everything I have that this is a fake:
1) The 'author' mentions bombing African savages who aren't necessarily Muslim - this makes the author a? that's right, white supremacist
2) Who do White Supremacists hate as much, if not more, than any other group? that's right, its the Jews
3) The author had time to call Communists, Arabs, and Africans names and still had time left over to bomb several cities and a continent yet didn't even have a moment to drop a bommb on Tel Aviv? Unlikely
I invite you to prove me wrong - show me where people speak of the superiority of 'White Europeans' WITHOUT mentioning the Jews.
""""Ask yourself: Why haven't Blacks assimilated? Does slavery and segregation have anything to do with it? Did segregatiion result in intractable social patterns, and housing patterns?""""
When did slavery finish?
AND YOU'RE STILL BLAMING IT FOR YOU CHOOSING TO NOT INTEGRATE?
Why do African Americans have their own flag?
Why are they supporting the Jena 6 and saying that they are now the new rights for blacks people?
(putting those thugs in with Rosa Parks would have her rolling in her grave I'm sure!!!!
What happened in Jena was not an issue about "thugs" it was clearly racism, not only in the school, but in the police department as well. Since when do we give long jail sentences to people who start fights in school? Especially when it was provoked in such a threatening way?
How did they find out that there was graffiti in that bathroom stall? Maintenance people never go in there and SIPA people can't read. Must have been a visiting "dignitary" from Iran who wrote it and then employed the ancient Persian secret police method of disinformation by reporting the info. to the Head Charlatan.
caN i aSk Sum of ewe pREtenshus MOFOs two stop AttAking aynwon taht doesn't right up to par? Eye could piont out sumThIng wrong wIth enny plost hEre witch is nOT grammeratically cORRect. Mehbe I shuld've sed, "That is not.." in stead of *witch*, butt ewe understand the pOnIt, write! Wee Kneed two fockus on thEE haight sPeeCh and stand twogetherr ass won ColOmbia communitey. Were is the lOVe at/
pee.s. "Bollingerism" is grate!
Serously. I meen that with know scarcasm.
So, maybe Bollinger was as harsh as he was to prevent more of these comments....
Can I ask those of you Columbia grad or undergrads who are posting on these blogs where you learned (or didn't learn) how to write? Is this the level our universities are getting?
I cuoULD bee rong, BUt ur LaSt scEnteSe miTe bee Easier reAd, "Are these the levels our universities are getting?"
oAR maYBee even, "Is this the level our university is getting?"
juStt an thOuoght...
Actually, the grammar was correct (as a group of universities can also reach a single, combined level).
Hate messages are not new in Columbia. So, don't misunderstand and think that this is happening because of the free speech issue from this week.
I am shocked by the writer though. Hopefully it is not a student in SIPA, because he/she is basically not learning anything in the international school then.
The terrorists can flip their cars over on the Interstate going at an ungodly rate of aceleration, and like the book, The Mask of Sanity, says, "Cannot profit from experience." They have a jihid for doing the same stupid Nixon things, over and over again.
Well, I'm an asian student. I'm amazed that a student belongs to Black Student Organization crying racism. You put yourself in race category. So far I haven't seen White Student Organization, American White Diver, White Causus etc. Can you just mingle in the organization such as Colorbind Diver, Colorblind Causus, Colorblind Student Organization. Why don't you all crying minorities do as I do....I went camping with my indian and black friends, went biking with my russian friend etc....you guys are hipocrits.
"Well, I'm an [ignorant] asian student. I'm amazed that a student belongs to Black Student Organization crying racism."
Many Asians erroneously believe that the exclusion of Blacks from civic and business affairs is due to their inability or unwillingness to assimilate.
Dear "[Ignorant] Asian student," use your intellectual curiosity. You are, after all, a university student.
Ask yourself: Why haven't Blacks assimilated? Does slavery and segregation have anything to do with it? Did segregatiion result in intractable social patterns, and housing patterns?
So I’m sensitive?
Bitter?
Reactionary?
Angry?
No, Mad?
I target myself?
I categorize myself?
I place myself in the margins?
Gentrify myself?
It’s really not that serious, Nickisha?
You’re making more out of it than it really is?
The doubt-
The questions-
The subtlety-
The sarcasm-
And Arrogance
You seem to know how to unify yourself better than me
You seem to know how to include and involve yourself better than me
You seem to know how to make yourself belong better than me
You seem to be colorblind
You seem to know it all better than me-
So you tell me
Why must you feel the need to state your activities with your black, Indian and Russian friend?
Could it be a need to show off your open-ness to “diversity” and “diversification”?
And what could possibly be wrong with such a picture?–
But tell me, what contradiction, a hypocrite like me could spot from a comment like yours!
You truly are an example-
A model
Ideal Display of what happens when one does what he or she is “Supposed to do”- You would profess?
So since you’ve figured me out?
My Asian Colleague
Tell me more-
How is it that you’ve made yourself fit in so well?
Since you are so “GENUINE”,
Please tell me, where I’ve gone wrong!
Tell me, how I can follow your footsteps to Success!
Tell Me, what can save my POOR PARANOID SOUL from such misfortune as you so clearly seem to understand!
Tell me, since you seem to know so well!
But answer me one question!
How long has it taken you to get to this point?
Because I am still sojourning, striving and struggling to attain your level of “Intellect” and “Comprehension” of the history of Asians in America
I’m still struggling to understand why Koreans are still not mentioned in Asian Civilization
I’m still struggling to see where the Vietnamese, Cambodians, Thai never fit!
I’m dying to know how you’ve OVERCOME so quickly!
TEACH ME!
GUIDE ME!
Show ME the way to your SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS!
go blame everybody else....I have no time for self pity people.
I think this is a very ignorant comment...who is the first person to be like:
"look at me hanging out with my multicultural friends"?
why don't "YOU ALL" crying minorities
...wow
If the larger Columbia Community does not lend itself as a safe haven it is up to us to create those spaces for ourselves.
And for the record, historically we, people of color, have not put ourselves in categories, we have been placed. It is also very interesting that you start with "well I am an Asian student" Did you know that Asian is considered a race? And I don't get the point of your White Caucus, White etc...are you trying to say that there are no groups which although not exclusive are predominantly white, or that the fact that there are no groups with the label White, Whites are not racist? What exactly is your definition of racism?
You cannot be sure that someone with a law degree from Harvard did not write this message on the shithouse wall in order to stir up reactionary sentiment in the name of their operative think tank. It is on the shithouse wall, for Christ sake. Write "Jahwahu Akbar" beside it if you like. Free Speech on Shithouse Congressional Walls, also!
Bollingerism is spreading and growing darker....
aww michelle, what about FREE SPEECH!!!???
Where's Lee Bollinger? Is he going to condemn that? Maybe he agrees?
Would love to hear his speech on this one.
there's so much ignorance in the world, but more so in this country.
then again, some one once said, even Rome fell.
there's so much ignorance in the world, but more so in this country.
then again, some one once said, even Rome fell.
Wow! Something insulting / racy / ill mannered written on a bathroom stall?!?!?! I can hardly believe it! The Spec is truly pioneering journalism here! Now if you could find a US senator scribbling such slander while soliciting sex, then you've got a story!
THIS is part of a bigger problem, not a mere graffiti on a bathroom stall as you trivialize. Are you a part of the community targeted by this graffiti? If you are not, then no wonder you trivialize it. If you are, then it's disgraceful given your attitude.
The invitation that led to this is part of a bigger problem at Columbia.
...or perhaps the other person thought that the hateful message would itself remain impotent if it remained on a bathroom wall, rather than magnified in a front-page news story.
A fair argument. However, when strong racist remarks are written on an Ivy League university, specifically the school of INTERNATIONAL and Public Affairs, it is worthy of serious concern. Further, such graffiti covered as a news story might actually remind all of us that racism to the point of bigotry is alive and well, and something must be done to combant such ignorance and hate.
there was also racist grafitti on the wall at the Loin's Head bar last night. In white chalk, someone wrote "KKK," And what looked like "MLK likes ass". The bouncer was utterly unconcerned when approached about this.
Perhaps MLK did like ass. I like some asses. Plenty of people like J-Lo's ass, and there is nothing wrong with that.
This is ridiculous.
It almost feels like a witch hunt
Right. Because the campus groups that oppose racism is out to hang SOMEONE to this racist hate speech.
Apparently racism isn't big enough a problem for you to realize its ramifications. Enjoy yourself and your colorblind views.
Hey, as a colorblind individual I resent that remark. One out of a hundred men are colorblind. Please stop being so insensitive and ignorant. The colorblind are people too!
Hahaha... you're hilarious... I'm colorblind too (actually).
Still, race color-blindness is one of the biggest problems in race relations of our time.
-author of above comment.
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