Connecticut College devotes a day to soul-searching about racism
New London — Connecticut College canceled all classes Monday and gathered students and faculty for mandatory discussions after racist graffiti was discovered on bathroom walls in the Crozier-Williams student center Sunday.
Monday’s multiple meetings and related events came on the heels of an emotionally charged campus forum last week that addressed the issues of hate speech and racism on the campus. The college held that forum to discuss a Facebook post by a professor that was perceived as hate speech against Palestinians.
“This has been a very difficult month and a very difficult week for all of us in this community, starting with the dehumanizing words of a Facebook post and ending with racist graffiti that was found on the walls of restrooms in Crozier-Williams yesterday,” college President Katherine Bergeron said. “These events that bookend the month of March really underscore, show us in no uncertain terms, the kind of harm that bigoted and hateful speech can have and the kind of division that it can produce within a community.”
The graffiti, which included a racial epithet for African-Americans, was scrawled a total of nine times between a handicapped-accessible restroom, a men’s room and a women’s room, college spokeswoman Deborah MacDonnell said in an email.
The graffiti was brought to the attention of the college administration shortly after noon Sunday, MacDonnell said.
Gevaisa General, who said she has been a custodian at Conn College for more than 10 years, told the audience at the forum that she hears students of all ethnicities using racial epithets on campus and urged them to stop using such words entirely.
“It’s not appropriate in any situation, at any time,” said General, who is African-American. “So if we can be offended when it’s used against us in a racial way, we should be offended when it’s used against us in an everyday way. It’s not a joking matter if you feel the hurt and the pain behind the word.”
General said she too has been attacked with hate speech on campus. She said she approached a man who had a dog in Crozier-Williams last Tuesday to ask him to leave the building. When General confronted the man, he responded by telling her to shut up and calling her the same racial epithet written on the bathroom walls, she said.
“It hurt, I’ve never experienced anything like that,” she said. “It felt like that man cut me.”
General said the man she confronted appeared to be 45 to 50 years old, was bald, had a dog with him and was wearing no shoes.
MacDonnell said the college’s Office of Campus Safety is leading the investigation and has shared with New London and Waterford police a description of “a man who was seen in our student center and who was overheard using those same terms.”
Monday’s meetings were intended to “continue the work ... for strengthening our community,” Bergeron said in an email to all students, staff and faculty Sunday night.
“This is what the Connecticut College education is about,” Dean of Student Life Victor Arcelus said. “It’s not about sitting on the sidelines. It’s about getting into it and getting into conversations and dialogue and developing through that.”
In her 20-minute address Monday morning, Bergeron denounced the graffiti and its message.
“I cannot and will not tolerate racist acts. I cannot tolerate hate speech or any speech that is meant to degrade or dehumanize,” Bergeron said. “It is reprehensible and has no place on this campus, and I dare say, it has no place in our world.”
The president also recognized that the college’s sense of community has been fractured by recent incidents and the institution must find a path to move beyond those incidents.
“I think this moment, canceling classes, is firstly about acknowledging the fact that we have a broken community. We have to acknowledge that,” she said. “It’s not about coming together in order to say that we are together. It’s about coming together to say that we’re not as together as we should be and we can be better than this. And then it’s about taking the steps to put it back together.”
As of the fall of 2013, Connecticut College’s student body was 70 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 3.9 percent African-American and 3.3 percent Asian, according to the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Student attendance at both forums Monday was mandatory, and college staff members checked students’ names on a list as they entered the auditorium.
“It is very meaningful to have so many of the community gathered like this to talk about some of the most important things that you’ll ever talk about in your life,” Bergeron said.
In the afternoon, Bergeron and 11 other senior college administrators continued what Bergeron called a “day of work” to address the issues students have faced on campus.
“It is a different kind of work than we have when we go about our daily routine,” she said. “It is a very different kind of day that will allow for a different kind of thinking and conversation.”
Kadeem McCarthy, a senior anthropology major, said he was less than eager to attend the forum last week. After attending the forum, however, he said he was moved by the intelligent and impassioned conversations he witnessed.
“There are people in this room that are affected — like really, really affected — by this and I was sitting here like, ‘I’m not racist so screw it,’” McCarthy said he thought during last week’s forum. “I think there was a collective breath of ‘we’ve got to step up.’”
McCarthy is black and gay and, having grown up on the mostly white and affluent island of Nantucket, said coming to a school that was predominantly white and affluent was not a culture shock for him. He had never felt unwelcome at Conn College, he said.
However, after the racially charged graffiti was discovered over the weekend, he said he felt the conversation that began last week was opened to a wider conversation about race on campus.
“For me it sucks because it’s personal now and its personal for my friends as well,” McCarthy said. “My friends and I were joking that this is weirdly echoing the civil rights movement and schools where white people didn’t want people who were not like them there.”
Some students who participated in Monday’s forums said they were disappointed in the way Bergeron and her administration handle racist or intolerant incidents on campus.
“I think I know why I’m not hearing as much as I feel like I need to be hearing from you. It’s because y’all don’t have a clue, and I’m serious,” sophomore Alina Johnson told the panel of administrators. “Have you ever felt like you were the only one of your kind to enter a building? Have you ever felt like your decisions were questioned in this life? If the answers to those questions is no for you, then you don’t have a clue.”
Other students said they felt Monday’s conversations would further advance efforts on campus to eliminate bigoted speech and actions.
“To the coward who decided to write those words up on a bathroom wall: Thank you, because your disgusting attempt to try to cut this community and to try to further marginalize and destroy this community has created wounds that initially may be so deep that we may find solace in those that we find similar to us, and it may initially look like you’ve succeeded,” sophomore Jake Muhlfelder said. “We need to make sure that when those wounds do heal, that we heal stronger and better and tougher than we’ve ever been before.”
On Monday night, students received a message from Stewart Smith, the director of campus safety concerning a threatening phone call made to a staff member.
“We have reason to believe it may be related to a previous phone call, as well as a verbal confrontation in Crozier-Williams,” the email reads. “Campus Safety is working directly with New London Police. They are looking for a white male (with a bald haircut) in his 50s and who has been seen walking a black dog with a red harness on campus. The school is posting a security guard in Crozier-Williams until further notice. Anyone who has seen someone who meets the description is advised to call campus safety at 860-439-2222."
Connecticut College Spokeswoman Deborah MacDonnell said she did not have any further details concerning the threat.
Staff Writer Jessica Hopper contributed to this report.
c.young@theday.com
Twitter: @ColinAYoung
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