bias incident

The vast majority of Columbia students consider hate crimes and bias incidents reprehensible, regardless of whether we express these views in a public forum. But by creating an artificial division between students who choose to participate and those who choose not to, the Day Out Against Hate obscures the broad consensus against hate that already exists on campus.

With the occurrence of recent distasteful incidents on campus, it has come to my attention that many Americans have not been properly potty-trained.

I am writing to inform you of the outrage that certain segments of the Columbia community are currently feeling toward you and the Columbia administration. We are tired of the inconsistency in the support and solidarity this administration provides to different groups on campus—an inconsistency which continues to be made abundantly clear. We are tired of unequal responses issued by the administration to hateful incidents that take place on our campus.

If any good has come out of these bias incidents, it is the incredible student effort to hold continual dialogue and address the root causes and campus culture that have allowed them to occur. But such efforts are far less effective without administrative support.

On Wednesday, queer leaders issued a statement regarding the hate crime at Teachers College, where we asked individuals to send e-mails to President Bollinger, as well as call the main University telephone. Our friends are still writing, calling, and asking the President to ensure that demands of students and faculty of Teachers College and Columbia University are met.

If you’ve been following the last few years of Columbia bias incidents, you’ve learned that racism is bad, and that we should do something about it. Unfortunately, even though we keep saying that, racism just doesn’t seem to be going away.

The hanging of a noose in Teachers College cannot fail to offend the collective sensibilities of the University community. Here we are at a prestigious institution that preaches tolerance and diversity. Surely, nothing of this sort should happen.

We hope that the Teachers College incident, abhorrent as it was, will move more members of the Columbia community to join the dialogue already in progress.

Occasional but deeply disturbing, bias incidents serve as reminders that the waters of tolerance at Columbia are still tainted.

We, the Columbia University Asian American Alliance, acknowledge that on Friday, September 14, an incident occurred on 114th Street and Broadway between officers of the New York Police Department and an Asian-American student.