Bias incidents at U.C. campuses raising alarm of bigotry

Friday, March 12, 2010 | by christina hoag

An ugly spate of bias incidents has crossed several University of California campuses over the past month, causing consternation, outcry and fear that bigotry is alive and well among the young and educated.

Students have protested and administrators have condemned, but the question remains whether these incidents — which range from jeers and epithets to noose and swastika graffiti — reflect a growing climate of insensitivity or simply the existence of a bunch of immature kids yearning for attention.

“My guess is some of all of those things,” said interim U.C. Provost Lawrence H. Pitts. “I’d like to believe it’s really an extreme minority.”

At U.C. San Diego, black students were offended by an off-campus “Compton Cookout” party that mocked ghetto stereotypes, a noose and KKK-style hood found on campus and a student making racially derogatory remarks on a student-run TV station.

At U.C. Davis, swastikas cropped up and the gay and lesbian center was vandalized with graffiti. At U.C. Santa Cruz, a picture of a noose was scrawled. On the Irvine campus, Michael Oren, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, was heckled to the extent that he was forced to end a speech early. Eleven students were arrested.

While some people were shocked that such incidents could happen at centers of intellectual enlightenment, others noted that universities are microcosms of society at large, and that includes hatemongers.

Upticks in hate crimes are often seen in times of economic malaise as people seek scapegoats, noted Jack Levin, a Northeastern University sociologist who has studied hate.

Still, surveys show that prejudice among today’s young people is at a low and interracial and interethnic marriages are at an all-time high, said Tom Smith, director of the general social survey at the National Opinion Research Center. Studies also have long found that education increases tolerance of different groups, he added.

Minority students said that’s why they’re galled that fellow students would even think that hanging a noose in a library is funny or acceptable. The San Diego school paper later published an apology from a female student who wrote that she had only been playing with a rope and accidentally left it in the library and did not mean to offend.

Experts point out that some racist incidents are likely sophomoric pranks as students cross the bridge from adolescence to adulthood.

Although students are expected to behave as adults, some still possess a teenager’s impulsiveness and desire to impress peers, which can lead to boorish behavior.

Then there are the copycats who enjoy the ensuing uproar and media attention. “It’s the jackass phenomenon,” said Brian Levin, director of Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at CSU San Bernardino. “Most are not hard-core bigots, but some are.”

Levin and others note that bias incidents occur on campuses all over the country, and college hate crimes are likely vastly underreported.

U.C. Davis psychologist Gregory Herek said gay and lesbian students tell him they are regularly harassed. “The truth is there are many acts of intolerance,” he said. “This is a day-to-day experience.”

Whatever lies behind the bias incidents, university officials are stepping up efforts to make underrepresented groups feel more included on campus. U.C. San Diego, for one, is working with the Black Student Union to establish diversity curriculum requirements and recruit more minority students and faculty.

On March 5, U.C. President Mark Yudof appointed a special adviser to assist San Diego on tolerance issues.

Pitts said chancellors will be evaluated on increases of student-body diversity. “This is a reminder,” he said, “[that] this is a battle that’s never won.”