NYC, Columbia University to host Day Out Against Hate

Elysia Glover Assistant News Editor

On the front steps of New York City Hall on Nov. 1, New York City Speaker Christine Quinn announced a citywide “Day Out Against Hate” set for Nov. 29. This initiative is being spear-headed by a diverse coalition of New York governmental, law enforcement, religious and advocacy communities looking to lend their voice to the campaign for tolerance. The day will be celebrated in each of the city’s five boroughs and will conclude on the Columbia University campus with leaders looking to engage their communities in speaking out against discrimination.

In a general e-mail sent to members of the Columbia community, Columbia University President Lee Bollinger announced the inclusion of the campus in the activities and urged students and staff to continue their protest against the discriminating acts. “In recent weeks, we have witnessed unspeakable acts of prejudice intended to intimidate members of our communities,” he wrote. “While we have met these incidents of hate with forceful expressions of protest and a shared determination to defend our deepest values of tolerance and empathy towards others, we welcome further opportunities to do so again.”

The announcement of the Day Out Against Hate came in response to the recent slew of racial and religious hate crimes in New York City over the past two months. In September, the city’s Jewish community received a disturbing reminder of lingering religious intolerance with the discovery of 27 swastikas painted on the walls of a Brooklyn Heights Synagogue. In October, a professor at Columbia University’s Teachers College was targetted when she arrived to work Oct. 31 to find a swastika painted on her office door. City police are still investigating the events and no arrests have been made.

Equally disturbing acts of racism involving the noose, deplored as a symbol of lynchings in the Old South have occured in both the New York area as well as in Washington D.C., Colorado, Wisconsin and other cities in the past two months. A noose sent to an African American professor at the Columbia University Teacher’s College campus on Oct. 9 garnered national attention. At George Washington University, seven swastikas have appeared on students’ doors, leading to a student’s arrest and his subsequent ban from campus.

In New York City, authorities have been faced with numerous copy-cat hate crimes including a letter that read, “White Power Forever” sent to a black principal at Canarsie High School in Brooklyn, and the Oct. 12 discovery of a noose hanging from a lamp post outside the Church Street Post Office near ground zero. Quinn condemned each of these crimes as “assaults against our communities, [that] necessitate a vigorous response from all New Yorkers.”

In a Nov. 1 press release issued by the City of New York Council, Quinn said that such actions were unacceptable, especially in New York City, a city recognized and celebrated for its attitude toward diversity. She went on to add, “Be it swastikas in Brooklyn, nooses in Manhattan, terrorizing someone because of their sexual orientation, New Yorkers will not stand idly by while threats are made against someone based upon their identity. Our Day Out Against Hate will be a chance to bring this message directly to communities in all five boroughs.”

While details of the activities have yet to be confirmed, the event will be led by a number of key elected officials, community leaders and advocates. An interfaith breakfast, bringing together community religious leaders including the Reverend Al Sharpton, will kick off the day’s activities. Planned discussions in schools, senior centers, and after-school programs will be hosted by Quinn and other City officials from all five boroughs.

Associate Director for Campus Life/ALANA Programs Greta Franklin supported Columbia University and the City of New York’s efforts to address the issue at a community level.
“It is naïve to believe that these issues are coming from certain pockets of the community. It’s a societal issue, it’s an institutional issue and it has to be addressed on an institutional and community level.”

Franklin hopes that the dialogue will continue.

“The Vassar community is a microcosm of society and therefore we have those same issues here and we need to address these issues in a sustained way,” said Franklin. “I do hope we do something as an institution here at Vassar. There is a definite need for that symbolic show of our community values.”