QUINTIN JAMES
Assistant Sports Editor
On Feb. 11, an alleged incident downtown involving SUNY Fredonia students led directly to a racial slur being posted on social media. This has sparked outrage and controversy on campus and online.
In a matter of hours, Fredonia was notified through Twitter, Facebook and email of this incident, and some started to investigate.
Mick Ribble, a sophomore double major in social justice and sociology, saw the photo from a friend and decided to post it on social media. They were angry with such hateful speech, but they were not surprised.
“I first posted it on Twitter [tagging] Fredonia’s account, asking if this is what our school is okay with. I then turned to Facebook, saying the same thing, and also put it on my private instagram. I was angry that someone could be so hateful, though I was not surprised at all,” said Ribble. “I’m exposed to racism and other forms of prejudice daily, and seeing it on my own campus, I knew that I had the ability to bring visibility to the issue locally.”
“I wanted to make fellow non-PoC students on this campus see that this is an issue that is happening in Fredonia as well,” Ribble continued. “My intentions were to expose the kid and to let people know that their friend was a harm to communities of color. I wasn’t about to let some white boy get away with being racist.”
In fact, according to many students, racial slurs can be seen as hate speech. The law doesn’t necessarily support their claims.
This is now the second major incident of racism in Fredonia this year, the first one being the infamous “Blackface” incident during Halloween weekend.
Ribble recalls the incident, and he believes that the way Fredonia handled that situation explains the reason for the amount of disconnect on campus.
“The last time racism was exposed on this campus [the blackface incident], we got an email from the president shaming call-out culture,” he said. “‘Shaming and harassing also have no place on our campus community,’ [Horvath wrote.] How about centrism and tone-policing angry, marginalized students has no place [in] our campus community? If we continue to condone racism while also silencing black and brown voices, we are going to get absolutely nowhere as a campus.”
“This campus needs to educate itself,” Ribble continued. Various marginalized student communities [and] clubs are expected to educate everyone else . . . It’s on us as individuals to educate ourselves because if we don’t, we’re perpetuating the problem that already exists.”
Fredonia and President Horvath released a generic statement after the incident condemning the message and reiterating that “this behavior does not reflect the University’s values of being a place of welcome and respect for all, and we have an obligation to call these acts out and hold those accountable to the fullest extent possible by our policies.”
She ended the message by saying that the university will release a full statement later on, going further into details about the matter. Over the past few years, Fredonia has developed a pattern of struggling with many incidents, including sexual assault and race.
Dr. Cedric Howard, vice president for Enrollment and Student Services, commented on the rules of student speech.
“When someone uses a third party platform [social media] to say anything offensive or controversial, it is free speech. If it’s a direct threat to a student or the university, then it is dealt with as an endangerment,” he said.
Where the incident happened impacts how the situation is handled.
“We can address it directly [if it happened on campus],” said Howard.
On the other hand, if an incident happens off campus, there are limitations on what steps the university can take without getting other parties involved.
In response to many allegations and incidents, Fredonia usually sends out emails to its students. Students like senior Jalen Wright are essentially numb to the bigotry on campus and the school’s lack of discipline for these incidents.
Wright originally saw a screenshot of the photo from a friend’s Snapchat story, and he described his initial reaction as a mixture of being hurt, yet not surprised.
“You become numb to it on this campus. It hurts and I’m speechless,” said Wright.
Wright expressed that people on this campus are done with seeing vague emails about racist remarks because no significant change ever happens after these incidents.
“We need action!” said Wright. “The email apology is nice, but what will you do after? Words without action is cheap.”
While many think the right decision would be to kick the student out, legal issues make that very hard to accomplish. Students who know this had a tough time figuring out a suitable and realistic solution, but agreed that some sort of harsh punishment is necessary for this act of racism.
“Of course there should be actions taken against the student, but will there? Probably not. But actions come with consequences,” said Wright.
Ribble had a similar response when asked about what the school should do about this situation.
“I think his ‘punishment’ should be a workshop or course that he is required to attend, and actively participate in, that focuses on black and brown cultures and history,” he said. “I cannot assume that he will change his ways, nor should I even expect it, but it is administration’s duty to do what they can to try and educate him and make him change his behavior for the future.”
Jelissa Samuel, a senior history and political science double major and president of the Black Student Union, said that this is sort of like a cycle. She agreed with Wright’s point about being numb to these incidents because they happen so often.
She stressed that it would be better for Fredonia to fix these problems now instead of waiting until they potentially lead to violence.
“This shows the problem we have here. Administration has the power to stop it before violence starts,” said Samuel. She added that these incidents need to come with major consequences.
“Students feel uncomfortable and it’s a problem that it occurred and they will do nothing. You can’t maintain a healthy diversity if you’re too comfortable with tradition,” she said
Samuel brought up a racial incident that occured on the University of Alabama’s campus similar to the Fredonia’s. That student was kicked out.
According to USA Today, 19-year-old Harley Barber was expelled from Alabama in January after going on a racist rant on her social media account.
Samuel believes that if Alabama can punish its students for hate speech, Fredonia can do a better job of it as well.
“Talk is cheap, there is hate speech, but there has to be consequences for it,” she said.
Counseling for this, according to Samuel, is a “sorry because I got caught” type of punishment.
Howard explained that the school can’t force counseling on students, but sanctions such as probation, reimbursement and educational sanctions can be handed down if the situation calls for it.
In today’s climate, race is a huge topic of discussion in many circles. On college campuses, racist incidents and slurs have been reported repeatedly in the last few years. SUNY Plattsburgh is dealing with a racist incident very similar to Fredonia’s and the minority students have protested and printed out a list of “non-negotiable” demands in order to address this problem.
They threatened to not purchase any food on campus, not participate in courses, to block roads, contact multiple news and media outlets, and contact SUNY Central if their demands aren’t met by March 2.
Fredonia is in the process of solving this incident, but their decision will be heavily monitored by the students on campus.