Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, October 17, 1993 TAG: 9310170101
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The leader of a gay and lesbian organization at Radford University last year returned to his car to find the windows smashed and "faggot" etched on the side.
A white Ferrum College student made and distributed anti-Malcolm X baseball caps on campus last December, offending black students. The cap was not racially motivated, the student said, but symbolized his dislike for the civil rights leader's tactics.
Two swastikas were painted on bulletin boards on the Roanoke College campus in January. Jewish students lodged a complaint.
A black Yale University student visiting James Madison University in April was partying with friends at a white fraternity house. One frat member commented "Y'all are niggers," repeatedly and pointedly to the black student.
And just two weeks ago, Virginia Military Institute asked the FBI to help investigate what appeared to be racially motivated death threats against a black cadet. Another black cadet resigned from the all-male college after being assaulted by two individuals wearing black T-shirts and camouflage pants.
Call it ethno-violence. Call it gay-bashing. Call it insensitivity. Call them acts of hatred.
Such incidents of bias are on the rise on college campuses across the nation, say experts who track hate crime.
One out of every four college students will become victims of violence based on prejudice during their academic years, the Center for the Applied Study of Ethno-violence at the University of Maryland in Baltimore reported last year. Those statistics are up slightly from results of a similar study conducted by the center in 1986.
"It isn't so much that it happens, ethno-violence is simply part of American everyday life," said Howard J. Ehrlich, a sociologist and center director. "It's here and it is here in substantial levels on college campuses."
The data though, are very "soft," says Dorothy Siegel, executive director of the Campus Violence Prevention Center at Towson State University in Maryland.
"We're not dealing with hard facts," Siegel said. "One of the things about hate crimes is that they are underreported. What we've done is surveyed minority populations to see whether they have become victims. Indeed they talk about victimization but anonymously."
Reports of acts of prejudice surface infrequently at Radford University. But at a packed house Hate Crimes Panel Discussion last year students freely discussed personal attacks of hatred, said Carolyn Byerly, an assistant professor in the media studies department.
"Students stayed and gave testimony," Byerly said. "Some was racial and some was other."
It is clear, says Ehrlich, that what is reported in newspapers and on television is only a fraction of what is reported to authorities. There is a belief that nothing would be done if the incident were reported or that nothing could be done, Ehrlich said.
"That, in turn, [shows] only a fraction of what is really happening," he said.
Naa Bruce, a senior at James Madison University in Harrisonburg and secretary of the school's Black Student Alliance, said there are many "little [racial] things going on every day" that go unreported. Perhaps it is because the incidents are not overtly racial but perceived by segments of the student body as such, she said.
"I'm not saying it's a bad school. It's not," Bruce said. "But race relations, I'm not sure if it's getting better or worse. I'm objective and I can see a lot of things happening that maybe people don't mean to do and aren't intentional. But the way they come across to the student body is not good."
That was one reason the alliance drew widespread attention to the incident last April involving the black student and the white fraternity. Alliance members faxed news releases about the incident to newspapers all over the state.
"We wanted to get the information out that things like this still happen on college campuses," Bruce said.
As to why such incidents are occurring - and apparently in greater numbers - Ehrlich says it may be that the current generation of college students came of age of political awareness during a conservative time.
"I think that makes a difference," Ehrlich said. "It makes a difference that young adults come to be socialized in a conservative or progressive period. For most college kids today, that was essentially a period of conservative-dominated politics."
The question now facing institutions and the students who attend them is how to deal with incidents.
The anti-Malcolm X cap incident had the potential of splitting segments of the Ferrum College campus. But the college's African-American Student Association "got together and nipped it in the bud before it got worse," Tanisha Holland, association president, said.
"We got together amongst ourselves and talked about the possibilities of what could happen if we ignored it," Holland said. "We took the issue to [college President Gerald Boone] and things were handled through mediation."
Mark Gibson, director of multicultural education at Ferrum, said the college seized the opportunity to use the cap incident for educational purposes. The incident was mediated by a committee established by Boone and the college's student affairs division, Gibson said.
"The campus - I don't want to say rebounded, but utilized that as a meaningful and valuable experience," Gibson said.
That VMI itself called attention to alleged racial incidents was intentional, said Lt. Col. Michael Strickler, director of public relations for the Lexington school.
"We called authorities and reported it and at the same time we said `Let's go ahead and bring it out, bring the media in,' " Strickler said. "We felt like it was the right thing to do.
"Better to handle it in a proactive manner than react to someone calling about the issue."
Maj. Gen. John Knapp, superintendent of VMI, not only addressed the media the evening of Oct. 6 but spoke to the entire Corps of Cadets about the alleged incidents.
"Recently, our basic ethic and the history of our corps has been attacked in a way that cannot be tolerated and cannot be allowed to be representative of this corps," Knapp told cadets. "Threats to or assaults upon any cadets, whether racially motivated or not, will not, shall not be tolerated."
Officials at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg conducted a series of forums this month to assess the school's racial climate in the wake of a campus magazine's cartoon that black students found offensive. Called "Mighty Whitie," the cartoon depicted blacks wearing shirts labeled "watermelon" and "fried chicken."
The college's Black Student Organization confronted the magazine editors and boycotted several businesses that advertised with the magazine. Since then, the organization has encouraged the administration to re-examine the college's publications guidelines and has made an effort to ensure that campus publications include black staffers.
"There was no one to say `Hey, don't print this"," said Mikael Davis, a junior and president of the organization. "What we are doing now is more proactive rather than reactive. We need to have people on these publications.
"We need to have people to safeguard against this."
Acts of prejudice - or more, an insensitivity to differences in race, religion or sexual orientation - have spawned educational efforts.
The "Klanwatch Intelligence Report," a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., reported in February that educators were discovering that an appreciation and acceptance of differences could be developed when students of varied backgrounds were exposed to each other's cultures in a non-threatening environment.
As a result, some universities have conducted on-campus conferences and seminars where students and faculty can discuss campus tension and search for solutions, according to Klanwatch. College administrators, too, have been advised to encourage the development of student organizations to combat prejudices, Klanwatch reported.
The Radford Alternative Alliance at Radford University provides support for its gay, lesbian and bisexual members and educates the campus community on issues of sexual orientation.
"Our primary purpose is education and support," said LeAnn Foster, an alliance spokeswoman. "We include activism, but we're mainly there for education and support for the greater university and community at large."
The alliance does at least 25 lectures each semester at dormitories and classrooms. The alliance also operates a phone line.
"We get quite a few calls from students saying they think they might be gay or think they're being harassed by a roommate - any number of things," she said.
Foster lauded the university administration for its receptiveness in funding not only alliance activities but other events that promote diversity.
A group of Roanoke College students founded "Shades of Maroon" this year. Composed of black, Asian, Hispanic and white students, the group is driven not by hate incidents but by concerns of living in a white-dominated culture, said Mac Johnson, vice president of student affairs and dean of students.
"The greatest problem on a lot of college campuses is racial insensitivity," Johnson said. "There are incidents that grab the media attention but the more pervasive problem is lack of sensitivity. This is one of the things the [Shades of Maroon] would like to address."
One of the group's goals is to recruit more minorities to the Salem college, Johnson said.
"One of the long-range goals of the college is to increase diversity," he said. "The best way to do that is to have the minority portion of the student body helping you get there."
Four percent of Roanoke College's enrollment of 1,700 are minorities. Minorities comprise 17 percent of VMI's 1,200-member Corps of Cadets. Fifteen percent of Virginia Tech's 19,000 undergraduate students are minorities. At Ferrum College, 14 percent of 1,130 students are minorities.
The cropping up of organizations, seminars and curriculums to combat prejudice has itself, prompted incidents.
"What's happening today is different from two to three years ago," Ehrlich, of the Center for the Applied Study of Ethno-violence, said.
"There's a more concerted and organized attack on people who are involved in anti-racism programs, ethnic programs and women's studies. So that instead of the more general acts that are being publicized, we're seeing a whole new class of activities that have developed - a lot of attacks on special programs, revised curriculums.
"It's part of the rallying cry of political correctness."
by CNB