Amongst the talk of creating diversity on campus, Athens County was in the national news this week for a racial hate crime threatening the lives of Black students.
In what Dean of Students Ryan Lombardi vaguely referred to as an incident at Hocking College, someone vandalized a bathroom stall to say Black students would die Feb. 2.
Odd as it is, that's probably the same day you're reading this column. I pray to God nothing transpired.
When I heard news of the threat, a deep sense of sorrow and fear came over me. BET's story about the threats included news that Ohio University's campus is on alert because Hocking College is only 14 miles away in Nelsonville.
I am from inner-city Cleveland. When I looked at colleges, I sought to move as far away as possible from the constant threat of violence. It is unsettling to think these harsh threats can follow you wherever you go. This fear also exists in a collegiate setting; a place where we expect more from those seeking higher education.
It is even more unsettling that this is a threat aimed directly at Black people. The Black community of OU feels a distinct connection with those at Hocking College, as they often travel to Uptown Athens to take part in our nightlife. We identify with their role as non-majority people, and we feel their fear.
I'm writing about this in a very personal way because this is a deeply personal matter. I am not sure if my audience, which falls in the majority, will understand this message any other way. All too often we get caught up in this idea of living in a post-racial society.
We have an idealistic way of looking at the world, believing we have come so far that people should accept others for the content of their character and that hard work should be rewarded through meritocracy. Everyone should accept us all on some individual basis. Electing Obama did not achieve this equality.
What some fail to understand is that 46 years after the Civil Rights Act passed, and only months after the Matthew Shepard Act was enacted, we haven't come far. We still aren't a postracial society. Sure, we integrated schooling and offer fair housing. Yes, it has been considered a hate crime since last year to scrawl inflammatory remarks anywhere.
We still have events like this one we all want to wipe from history books. They stay ingrained in the minds of those struck with fear, such as the Black students who withdrew from Hocking College this week.
Have you ever had your life threatened because of your race?
Race is such a phenotypic thing. It is something we cannot hide; we cannot wrap it away like a religion. We cannot hide it under a hat like our hair color and cannot wear contacts to modify it. When someone seeks you out because of your race, what are you to do? Every Black student cannot run for the hills. We cannot all hide under our beds or transfer to other schools because of this fear. So, what can we do?
What can you do when your life is threatened?
This is something none of us wants to think about ever, right? Well, it's real. This happened 14 miles from here, and now we must decide what we are going to do. You tell me, where are we supposed to go from here?
Aisha Upton is a senior studying African American Studies and columnist for The Post. Feel free, regardless of your cultural identity, to send her rants, raves or anything in between at au173107@ohiou.edu.
4 Opinion
Aisha Upton
