It’s difficult to conceive and accept that at this stage in human history there are still people who house hatred in their hearts for other human beings based solely off of the color of their skin. Yet, this heartlessness and prejudice never left our country. In fact, it remains a permeating force.

Last week, racial slurs against black and Asian people were written on two floors in Day Hall, a freshman dorm at Syracuse University. The university didn’t issue a statement or communicate about the incident until Monday night.

Often, when incidents involving race occur on college campuses, it is the instinct of those in charge to, first, protect their reputation, and, second, to prevent the message from reaching those who might feel threatened by it.

But this does nothing to extinguish the flame that burned hatred into the perpetrator’s heart in the first place. It takes root in the darkest corners of this country’s history, and it continues to fight for a place in our society heedless of legislative progress or the first black president.

This isn’t the first time SU has been rocked by racial scandals. In 2018, a video surfaced depicting members of a Syracuse fraternity, Theta Tau, swearing to have hatred for black people, Latinx people and Jews. Following this incident, the University promised that actions would be taken to prevent anything like it from happening again.

SU instituted a new required seminar course for incoming classes, called SEM100, with the intention of dialogue surrounding identity. In my class, we ended up discussing light-hearted examples such as whether or not talent is objective when instead we needed to have a serious discourse about race and identity in today’s world. We needed to discuss the Theta Tau scandal and its impacts. We needed to be abundantly clear about expectations of inclusivity and diversity. This was prevented from happening because the reality surrounding the issue is difficult to face.

The university must be transparent with the Syracuse community about what steps will be taken not only for the condemnation of those who vandalized Day Hall, but also for ensuring that minority students on this campus feel safe. We can’t be afraid to talk about it — pushing it silently under the rug as a one-time, unfortunate incident leaves hatred unattended to and allows it to writhe temporarily underground until it, once again, feels emboldened and safe enough to come out.

This continued conversation, recognizing our shared station in life as human beings meant to wrestle with the sufferings not only of ourselves but also of others, is imperative if SU means to equip students to be empathetic individuals within our immediate community and within the world at large.

Sam Bova is a freshman writing and rhetoric major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at sabova@syr.edu. He can be followed on Twitter @sam_bova.   

Published on November 12, 2019 at 10:54 pm