Oracle Online

Just four days earlier, unknown perpetrators defaced campus residence halls with messages of hate. The vandalism occurred at the end of the Jewish celebration of Passover and on the Christian observance of Easter.

But this is not simply a Jewish issue or a Christian issue. It is not even a simple case of racism or of ignorance. Yes, these factors are parts of the problem, but the presence of these images in our homes is symptomatic of something greater. The fact that the culprits have still not been found or turned in says something about the way we at Hamline establish and uphold what we believe to be just.

This is now about religion, race, class, oppression, social justice and much more. Now this is about community.

Yet during Social Justice Week at Hamline, Townes, a respected and renowned author and speaker from Yale University, came to Hamline with a message encompassing community, justice, gender, race, religion, class, and social standing čand last Thursday she spoke to a half-empty room.

Where were all those who believe that Hamline does not need to hear about the importance of multiculturalism in our community? Where were those who believe that some unseen force is unfairly pushing Hamline away from its ideals? Where was HUSC čthe organization that claims to be so dedicated to uniting the Hamline communityč after blatantly hateful and violent words attacking certain members of the student body were found blemishing dormitory walls?

They certainly were not standing in solidarity against hatred or social inaction with Townes or the group that was gathered. They were not uniting to lend their support to her presence or her message.

Last fall Carlos CortÄs told Hamline students that multicultural communities should seek to integrate multiple cultural elements such as language, national and ethnic heritage, and ritual into one unified society that values diversity. Obviously, those who defaced Peterson and Manor do not believe Hamline is (or should be) such a community.

Too bad. The fact is that Hamline, while not as diverse as it may sometimes purport itself to be, or even as some other universities of its size, is a community that wants to value diversity. Hamline is a community that wants to stand in solidarity against crimes of hate like the ones committed just over a week ago.

Messages like Townes’ are not a part of some great cabal or nefarious movement. They are affirming of the social responsibility that each of us has to engage in the creation of this community and the navigation of the traffic involved in that endeavor.

Already, groups across campus are uniting to speak against those messages of hate. One wonders, where is HUSC among them? Where are all those people who think we’ve heard enough about living together as a multicultural community? The words “solidarity” and “justice” are not on the lips of the silent.