Don’t threaten violence against hate speech
Jane, your column on the act committed in the Free Expression Tunnel is completely full of hypocrisy and ludicrous presuppositions.
To begin your article, you insinuate they are all male. How do you know they are all males? Do you have some inside information about these “naive boys” that we do not. I do not believe the identities have been revealed yet.
I do not mean to defend what was done by those people, but you threaten them with violence multiple times in your article. You claim that responding to their violence with violence of your own by whooping them is wrong. However, I must beg the question, have they actually committed an act of violence? Last I checked, hate speech was NOT synonymous with committing an act of violence. Are their threats to Barack Obama any worse than your threats that these people should “thank their lucky stars that cruel and unusual punishment isn’t around anymore?” Perhaps YOU should be put under investigation for your threats to them.
Stop implying that everyone thinks we are an entire campus full of close-minded idiots. The actions of four people should not and do not represent the attitude of our entire campus. Nobody in their right mind thinks our entire campus is full of white supremacists, and this one act is not causing people to reconsider coming to N.C. State for fear of racism. Stop blowing this out of proportion. Our University’s reputation has not been destroyed as a result of this event.
Ben Hackney
senior, engineering
Don’t look to punish — address diversity
Perusing through the WRAL Web page this evening, I came upon a quote by Amina Turner, the N.C. NAACP Executive Director, stating that, “we have to hold all of our institutions accountable” for managing hate crimes cases by implementing “a system-wide policy on hate speech.”
Is N.C. State really to be held accountable for implementing and enforcing this proposed policy? NCSU should begin to promote diversity awareness with more fervor following this incident. However, I think that calling upon the University to implement a “system-wide policy” enforcing a moral code is an irrational expectation from outside this University.
Instead, we should continue to build ties with the community, including the NAACP, to address the issue further. The NAACP open forum on Nov. 11 was a step in the right direction towards this goal. However, must an incident like this arise before these festering conflicts are addressed? My proposal is this: If the state NAACP organization wants to see our academic institution develop “accountability” in responding to these incidents, then they should first help us develop more accountability in “preventing” them.
More programs to promote diversity and hate crime awareness must come before legislation is passed for prosecution, and they must come without hateful events to precipitate them. We cannot punish these students “ex post facto,” and we can especially not persecute them without having previously extended them a helping hand. To do so is simply passing on the hate.
Garrett Swindlehurst
senior, engineering
Let’s move on
Like so many students, I was annoyed by what happened in the tunnel last week. And like so many students, even more annoyed by the University reaction the past week.
Yes, the fantastic four should be punished to the correct extent. However, it continuously irks me to read some of the crazy things I’ve read in this paper. You’d think that these losers committed murder! I was baffled when I read the quotes “Terrified to go to school” or “Act of terrorism (personal favorite).”
Although the term terrorism is (sigh) technically correct, come on! These guys were idiotic, self-centered bigots. They obviously couldn’t think of anything better to do when the man they didn’t want to win the election did. I’m in no way trying to downplay what they did that night and it was absolutely 100 percent wrong. They’re stupid, and rest assured, they’ll pay for their actions.
However, my question is this: by expelling these students, what will we really solve?
The answer is nothing. If anything it’ll only instill more hatred and racism in each and every one of them. I’m a proud supporter of the African-American community, and even prouder that this country has finally elected an African-American as President. However, it says a lot to the rest of N.C. State when the NAACP gets involved, and wants nothing less than for these guys to get kicked out instead of exploring other options. How about University sponsored counseling? Whatever happens, let’s seriously move on.
Vince Taylor
sophomore, environmental engineering
Give four students a second chance
The four individuals who wrote the hate speech in the Free Expression Tunnel should be undoubtedly dealt with. We must remember though that adolescents make mistakes. Everyone deserves a second chance either here or at another university, expulsion would make that impossible because an expulsion at any of the universities within the UNC system means that you are ineligible to attend the others. These kids have already ruined their lives at N.C. State — the University should not be the judge of whether or not their lives are ruined forever.
Chester Wells
sophomore, political science
