America continues to struggle with race
It doesn’t only happen in Charlottesville.
Or just in the South. Or just in St. Louis, where the city has been convulsing for days after the acquittal of a white police officer in the shooting of a black man.
Or on the campus of Georgia Tech, where students are outraged at the fatal shooting of a black student at the hands of police. It happens everywhere. Including here in Delaware County.
More than 150 years after brother fought against brother in the effort to save the Union, the nation continues to struggle with race. Don’t believe it? Maybe you should talk to the students at Cabrini University.
The Main Line campus has been engulfed in a bit of an uproar after racial graffiti was discovered on a dorm room door. Of course this was not just any dorm room.
It happened to be where one of Cabrini’s African-American students resides.
And, of course, it just had to include the N-word. Nice, huh.
The message, dripping with hate, was clear.
“Go away, N-----,” the scrawled message declared.
The intended target apparently was Sennia Vann, who lives with two other girls in the dorm room.
“I am the only minority in this room,” Vann told a local TV station. “I was shocked, angry, confused as to why something would be written on my door.”
We wish we could say we were as well. Sadly, we are not. It is a recurring theme in America.
A dislike for those who are not like us. A feeling of resentment that maybe things are not the way they used to be, that perhaps our founding fathers idea of a melting pot – of equal opportunity for everyone – might actually be a little bit too realistic for some to handle.
Luckily, there is a lesson to be learned here, as there usually is. Students as well as the administration on the Radnor campus are rallying behind Vann and preaching a message of unity.
“This weekend, a Cabrini student came home to her residence hall to find a racial slur handwritten on her door,” read a statement on the Cabrini website. “This hateful comment is under investigation by both Cabrini personnel and the Radnor Police Department.”
Donald Taylor, president of Cabrini, was more direct.
“The comment was hateful and completely goes against who we are as an institution and as a diverse community,” Taylor said in a statement to the university. “Let me be clear, the Dean of Students Office and the Office of Public Safety are thoroughly investigating this matter, and we will do everything we can to identify the individual responsible.
“Until we know more, we encourage any students struggling with this incident or feeling unsafe to reach out to anyone on the staff or faculty. You are not alone, and we stand with all our students against hate and fearmongering.”
Luckily the campus is rallying around the student. The incident remains under investigation by Radnor police.
Ironically, a sign on the campus proclaimed, “Hate has no home here.”
Unfortunately, hate pops up just about everywhere, including our elite college campuses.
What would possibly make someone do something so ugly? This wasn’t just random graffiti posted on a sidewalk or building.
This was targeted, placed on the door of an African-American student. The intent seems clear. So does the resolve of the Cabrini community. Students on the same floor as Vann decorated the hallways with positive thoughts in a show of support for their fellow student.
The university community came together at a rally organized by the Black Student Union to show support for Vann. It was attended by both white and black students.
Unfortunately, several students indicated this is not the first time they had encountered hateful messages on the campus. A male student said he had a similar racial epithet written on his door last year.
No one should be surprised by what has happened at Cabrini.
Race remains very much an issue in America. College campuses are not immune. In fact, with the push to remove those covered under DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), and many campuses – Cabrini included – announcing themselves as sanctuary campuses, these feelings continue to simmer barely under the surface of society.
And in some cases, as the Cabrini community sadly has learned, above the surface as well.
America still has issues with race.
Maybe it’s time we got serious about acknowledging them, and coming together to seek answers.