Hate crime at Rice unacceptable
Stephanie Brener is the Rice Jewish Club vice president and a Baker College senior
On
Many people do not understand why this graffiti is such an important incident. Over and over again I heard, “It’s not permanent, it can be washed off.” To those people, you must realize: The issue was not the vandalism of Willy’s Statue, but that this act was a hate crime. The writing may have been impermanent, but the weight of this symbol cuts deeper than any chalk on stone. A swastika symbolizes blind hatred towards my entire race and religion. It symbolizes the genocide of 6 million of my people. It symbolizes those that murdered so much of my family, forcing my grandmother to crawl out of the darkest parts of hell to find a way to live again. Whether this act was born of true malice or mere ignorance, it shows a gross lack of understanding of this horrible, twisted history and it cuts me in the deepest parts of my soul.
Now, almost two weeks later, I continue to grapple with thoughts of how this happened here and what we can do to prevent it from happening again. Incidents like these prove to us that we are a strong community, we are resilient and we are proud. We will not break down in the face of hate. Rather, we invite everyone to celebrate our culture and every culture on this campus. Rice has always been and will always continue to be a place of open-mindedness and understanding. Although two weeks ago an ugly past reared its head showing us that hateful sentiments have not been totally eradicated, we will continue to live with compassion and peace and hope that one day this type of discrimination ceases to exist.
More from The Rice Thresher
Do more to make campus bird-friendly
April is the month of many things: Beer Bike, a solar eclipse, the last day of classes and, perhaps lesser known, Earth Month. As Rice launches a series of Earth Month events, I would like to address our potential as a campus community to be more environmentally conscious, particularly in an effort to make this campus more friendly to birds.
Take time for yourself during the summer
The academic year’s close means this issue will be our last until the fall semester, which gave us some time to reflect on what our editorial for our last issue should look like.
Student activism is working – and fear-mongering cannot hold us back
S.RES 02, titled “Student Association Boycott and Divestment from Corporations Complicit in the Ongoing Genocide in Gaza,” was presented to the Student Association on March 25. This resolution proposes the creation of an Ethical Spending Advisory Board designed to ensure that Blanket Tax funds are not dedicated to corporations that are complicit in Israeli colonial violence and apartheid based on guidelines created by the BDS movement.
Please note All comments are eligible for publication by The Rice Thresher.