© 2024 Connecticut Public

FCC Public Inspection Files:
WEDH · WEDN · WEDW · WEDY · WNPR
WPKT · WRLI-FM · WEDW-FM · Public Files Contact
ATSC 3.0 FAQ
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

New England Colleges Try A Not-So-Quick Fix To Stop Rash Of Hate Crimes

It seems every few weeks there is a hate crime reported on a college campus in New England. The groups that keep track of these kinds of incidents say there is, in fact, a marked increase in the number of racist slurs found scrawled on campus walls and an increase in white supremacist group activity.

The University of Vermont was one of three colleges last month in Burlington that reported finding posters on campus defaced with white nationalist graffiti. One read, "White Privelaged [sic] And Proud of It."

At the end of February, hundreds of University of Vermont students occupied a main building on campus demanding, not for the first time, the school do more to address issues of racial justice on campus. 

The Anti-Defamation League connects an increase in these types of incidents to the political climate, including President Donald Trump's comments and tweets on racial issues.

"Since September of 2016, we've documented 346 incidents of white supremacist propaganda," said Robert Trestan, ADL’s regional director for New England.

That number is from the ADL's January 2018 report on the rise of white supremacy propaganda found on college campuses.

"Flyers, stickers, banners, or posters -- you know, items that are actually trying to attract people, and spread a message of bigotry," Trestan said.

Schools in California and Texas are most often hit, according to the report. But the numbers everywhere are up, including in New England.

The activities of white nationalist groups are highly visible, even more so when there's violence, like around the University of Virginia in Charlottesville last summer. Then there are the insidious, more frequent incidents of hate, like the nearly two dozen last semester at Westfield State University, about 15 miles west of Springfield, Massachusetts.

Westfield State President Ramon Torrecilha repeatedly, publiclycondemned theracist, homophobic and anti-Semitic symbols that defaced walls and elevators around campus.

Westfield State University students walked out of class in fall 2017 after a spate of hate crimes were reported on campus, including racist graffiti written on dormitory room doors.
Credit Don Treeger / The Republican / MassLive.com/photos
/
The Republican / MassLive.com/photos
Westfield State University students walked out of class in fall 2017 after a spate of hate crimes were reported on campus, including racist graffiti written on dormitory room doors.
In fall 2017, several residence halls at Westfield State University were targeted with racist epithets.
Credit Jill Kaufman / NEPR
/
NEPR
In fall 2017, several residence halls at Westfield State University were targeted with racist epithets.

The racist slurs found written on dormitory room doors, or scrawled on paper and then slipped under the doors, felt personal to Jasmin Harper, a senior at Westfield State who lived in the dorms last fall.

"The one female who was targeted, was targeted multiple times," Harper said. "And for the residence halls to be attacked, how are we supposed to feel safe?"

Harper, who is African American and Hispanic, is not alone in asking.

Freshman Sara Jabber, a Palestinian American who wears a hijab, withdrew from a night class last fall.

Sara Jabber, right, and her sister, Hannah, are both students at Westfield State Univeristy. Sara stopped going to night class last semester after nearly two dozen racist and bigoted incdients were reported on campus.
Credit Jill Kaufman / NEPR
/
NEPR
Sara Jabber, right, and her sister, Hannah, are both students at Westfield State Univeristy. Sara stopped going to night class last semester after nearly two dozen racist and bigoted incdients were reported on campus.

"After everything happened, I really didn't want to be on campus at night," Jabber said.

So she started skipping class.

"The people who were targeted weren't Muslim," Jabber said. "But I still feel like it could be Muslims next."

Westfield State University professor Imo Nse Imeh said many students came to speak with him last semester about the ongoing incidents. Imeh, who teachers art history, said a criminal justice major was among them. She is white, he said, and she really just wanted to do something helpful.  

"[She] told me how she went to one of the rallies that happened on campus, and it was a student-led rally," Imeh said. "But she was frightened, because she got there with her white friends, and the black students that were on stage, she felt they were saying things that were very anti-white."

She felt like she was being blamed, he said. 

Christina Swaidan, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, at Westfield State University.
Credit Westfield State University
/
Westfield State University
Christina Swaidan, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, at Westfield State University.

Last semester was very challenging, said Westfield State University Dean of Undergraduate Studies Christina Swaidan.

The school is respondingto the events, she said. Some solutions are quick and more concrete than others, like the 400 security cameras installed in and around dorms and other buildings over the winter break. Solutions that involve people talking to each other will take longer.

“As a person of color who's been here for going on 14 years, I think that not everyone is comfortable in an environment that is very diverse,” Swaidan said.

By everyone, Swaidan meant everyone on campus: students, faculty and staff.

The bigotry playing out at Westfield State isn't driven by a white supremacist movement, Swaidan insisted. But the school does have a problem on its hands and it hired a diversity consultant.

William Lewis has worked with colleges and corporations on these kinds of matters. He agreed with Swaidan; the people committing these bigoted acts are "outliers."

"So we have to do as college campuses is to create a space to where they feel uncomfortable, where we're not complicit by being silent," Lewis said. "If [someone] can't get on board, this might not be the campus for [them]."

Even before Lewis arrived in early March, Swaidan said efforts to change the culture on campus were underway. Faculty -- veteran classroom teachers among them -- are being taught how to have culturally sensitive conversations with students, and how to teach inclusively, which can mean a variety of things.

It also can be applied to what materials are used in the classroom. Imagine a typical psychology 101 course. Photos or YouTube videos about how humans make decisions may be projected at the front of the room. If teachers are not already doing so, Lewis said, they'll have to make the effort to find media with not only white people on the screen, but people who look like students in the classroom.

It is a first step at Westfield, and at other schools, and it seems far away from that racist slur on a dormitory room door. But the research on combating bias and hate crimes indicates it's not.

Still, the change will take time. Last month at Westfield State University, two more posters were found defaced with racist graffiti.

This report includes information from Liam Elder-Connors of VPR.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included the incorrect title for Christina Swaidan at Westfield State University. She is the Dean of Undergraduate Studies, not the Dean of Students.

Sara Jabber, right, and her sister, Hannah, are both students at Westfield State Univeristy. Sara stopped going to night class last semester after nearly two dozen racist and bigoted incdients were reported on campus.
Jill Kaufman / NEPR
/
NEPR
Sara Jabber, right, and her sister, Hannah, are both students at Westfield State Univeristy. Sara stopped going to night class last semester after nearly two dozen racist and bigoted incdients were reported on campus.
University of Vermont students walked out of class in February 2018, demanding the school do more to address racial justice and inequity on the Burlington campus.
Liam Elder-Connors / VPR
/
VPR
University of Vermont students walked out of class in February 2018, demanding the school do more to address racial justice and inequity on the Burlington campus.

Copyright 2018 New England Public Media

Jill has been reporting, producing features and commentaries, and hosting shows at NEPR since 2005. Before that she spent almost 10 years at WBUR in Boston, five of them producing PRI’s “The Connection” with Christopher Lydon. In the months leading up to the 2000 primary in New Hampshire, Jill hosted NHPR’s daily talk show, and subsequently hosted NPR’s All Things Considered during the South Carolina Primary weekend. Right before coming to NEPR, Jill was an editor at PRI's The World, working with station based reporters on the international stories in their own domestic backyards. Getting people to tell her their stories, she says, never gets old.

Stand up for civility

This news story is funded in large part by Connecticut Public’s Members — listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information.

We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. As a community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years.

Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Give today at any amount and join the 50,000 members who are building a better—and more civil—Connecticut to live, work, and play.

Related Content