Fri 21 Dec 2007
This morning a stick-figure drawing of a lynching was discovered in a CCSU men’s restroom. In a letter to students and faculty, CCSU President Jack Miller called the drawing a “racial insult” and said the incident would be treated as “a hate incident.”
The past year has been a rocky one for CCSU and Miller’s administration. Miller recently survived a no confidence vote after anger over his handling of other racist and sexist incidents on campus. For a refresher on these incidents, see Undercurrents coverage here, here, and here.
The organized challenge to Miller may have had an effect. The CCSU police have begun an investigation into the lynching graffiti.
What I’m unclear about is how is this drawing different from the racist and mysoginistic one found in CCSU’s Recorder? In that drawing, a teenage Latina is held captive and urinated on. Like the restroom drawing, it too was an anonymous drawing. Does the “institution” of a newspaper protect these actions? How is the depiction of violence toward people of color permissible in a newspaper, but not on a restroom wall? Why is it convenient now to “stand against intolerance and hate”, as Miller states in his letter?
Below is the full letter from President Miller:
Response to Racist Drawing
To the members of the CCSU community,
On Friday, December 21, at approximately 8:15 a.m., a stick-figure drawing of a lynching was discovered in a Barrows Hall men’s restroom. Since the hanged figure’s “face” was blackened, the drawing was clearly intended as a racial insult, and it is being treated as a hate incident. The university police were immediately alerted and are investigating. The drawing was removed as soon as the police had conducted their investigation of the scene. Anyone with information about the drawing should come forward to speak with the university police.
While I do not want to disseminate the hater’s message further and thus increase its power to hurt, I do believe that we must confront such acts of hatred and condemn them. They assault treasured members of our community and they assault the core values of our community. Such hate has no place here. To those who have been targeted by such hate-filled messages, I too am pained and angered by them. But I am also heartened by the fact that we as a community stand against intolerance and hate and that we will continue to work together to make this university a welcoming place for all.
Jack Miller
President
December 21st, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Josh - I sent the president an email and ask how this was different from the Recorders actions. I am so angry right now.
i encourage everyone to call the school or write if they can!
President’s Office
universitypresident@ccsu.edu
860-832-3000
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:56 am
I go to CCSU and frankly, it’s just a damn cartoon. I’m a person of color and I could care less about a damn cartoon that was drawn on a bathroom stall. I’ve seen gay-bashing comments on there too, should I alert the president about that too. I swear this is getting a bit silly. some Marginal person who doesn’t represent CCSU as a whole community makes big news becuase of his drawing. I’ll bet you he’s laughing it up now. What would people want now, cameras in the Hallways as well as the bathrooms of CCSU, it could’ve been done by some random person who doesn’t even go to CCSU. I’ve been there at night and people can go use the bathroom, ANYBODY, as long as they’re behaving.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:58 am
Oh, and on that same note, I do think that the president is kind of doing things after the fact when it comes to this, although the Recorder incident is much different. That should’ve been dealt with as the post states
December 23rd, 2007 at 12:59 pm
Miller’s first thought after having learned about the graffiti must have been “How will this effect my athletic fields?”
The former editor of the Recorder, (now a staff writer for the ever-so-progressive Hartford Advocate) has helped to create an atmosphere on campus that fosters these cowardly racist acts. If women, gays and Latinos are publicly attacked in the university newspaper, what’s wrong with attacking African Americans in the relative privacy of the men’s restroom? Each successive act has to ratchet-up the hate from the previous act to get noticed. Eventually this will lead to physical attacks against minority students.
Or does it explode?
Furthermore I find it interesting that Cap’n Jack says he’s going to handle this as “a hate incident.” What exactly does that mean? More cameras in the racially segregated cafeteria? The only actions ever taken at CCSU against these incidents are initiated by students… and we’ll do it again.
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Going after every yahoo who writes sexist, racist, homophobic drivel on public bathroom stalls could prove to be an endless battle.
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:12 pm
However, there are people who post racist, homophobic, and sexist drivel on their blogs who are not anonymous. I won’t name names, but if you click around on a few names leaving comments, you’ll find it soon enough.
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:57 pm
Some bloggers seem to get off on letting their yahooism hang out for all to see. I wonder if they are such dimwits in person.
December 27th, 2007 at 4:19 pm
I hear Mark Rowan didn’t attend his graduation ceremony this month. Just as well - could you imagine his parents having to hear him being booed and cursed so loudly that “Pomp and Circumstance” is completely drowned out?
His inbox is probably growing cobwebs from the lack of interest from potential employers.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:59 pm
it’s JUST a Cartoon
December 28th, 2007 at 4:27 pm
It’s just a cartoon, now appearing in your local public bathroom stall. Attend the opening, where you can meet the cartoonist and you can ask him, “What the fuck were you thinking?”
December 28th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
I love how easily such deeds get blamed on the public, like random people come off the street to write shit on bathroom stalls in colleges.
The “cartoon” might not have been intended as racist, but it’s damn stupid. If a person is gonna bother with graffiti, he should be courteous enough to either do something thought provoking, or at the least, supply a phone number.
I don’t understand the defensiveness over this “cartoon.” If a person is offended by it, then it’s offensive, at least to one person. Even when someone who is part of a minority population comes forward and claims he isn’t offended, that does not mean others have no right to be bothered by the drawing or comic strip or article or act in question.
December 28th, 2007 at 10:44 pm
I think it’s hugely problematic for people to find writings such as this as just pranks or examples of stupid people doing stupid things. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t but in the context of rising hate groups (the Southern Poverty Law Center recognizes seven in connecticut: http://www.splcenter.org/intel/map/hate.jsp?S=CT&m=5) and given Peter G’s recent post about a white nationalist group planning an organization meeting in Meriden, and the stuff that happened in Plainfield stupid people shouldn’t be doing stupid things and little pranks take on much more significance. In an environment where hate groups are growing stronger, bolder and more numerous little “jokes” like this are hard to ignore as they imply that those who write them or who find nothing wrong with them are too disconnected (or disintereted) from how they fit in among these broader trends in racism, bigotry and prejudice.
I mean come on now. We have two presidential candidates who are either heavily supported by white nationalist groups (see Ron Paul) or are inciting their own racist rhetoric (see Guilani). That’s got to say something about the current climate of racism.
see:
http://tpmelectioncentral.com/2007/12/rudy_surrogate_stands_by_remarks_about_muslims_and_adds_more.php
and
http://www.rachelstavern.com/?p=851
December 29th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I agree, Steve. I think it was racist, but even if it wasn’t, it was a stupid thing for someone to do. Stupid enough that I can’t comprehend anyone defending the action.
December 30th, 2007 at 8:26 am
As a queer it is sometimes rather creepy to see on stall walls writing that threatens my life. Should I stay and finish or should I get the hell out of the place fast, just incase the writer or any of his buddies are lurking around. I agree with Steve that these writings are not just little pranks and do indeed fit into the broder base of homophobia, racism, bigotry and prejudice. If we dismiss these writings we give the writer and others the idea that it is okay, and I wonder will the next step be a hate crime against a person? We know from history what happends when unruly haters are allowed to roam freely.
Certainly crimes against humanity start somewhere and many times within what appears to be a “small” and then the “small” becomes the “big” and rolls us over.