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Hate Crime Hit Close To Home
By Mary Annaïse Heglar
DePauw University is located in Greencastle, Indiana. On DePauw’s
campus on October 7, 2005 a student from Oberlin College was harassed,
physically and verbally, while attending the annual Student of Color
Leadership Conference.
This student would prefer to remain nameless. Therefore, for the rest
of this article, s/he shall be referred to as Student. Student, clearly,
is a person of color.
The first evening of the conference, Student became acquainted with
a female student from DePauw. “She seemed really nice and sweet,”
s/he said. So Student did not hesitate to accept the invitation she
offered to show him/her around DePauw’s campus.
However, Student shortly found him/herself in a hostile environment
with several other students from DePauw. Upon finding out that Student
was from Oberlin, these people called him/her a “dirty fucking
liberal” and a “faggot.” In the midst of this, objects
were thrown at Student.
Though Student did not intend to “make a big deal” out of
this occurrence, a complaint was made to the administration of the conference
on his behalf. No one from DePauw seemed surprise that such an incident
occurred.
*A hate crime, also known as a bias crime, is a criminal offense
committed against a person, property, or society which is motivated,
in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against a race, religion,
disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin. www.fbi.gov
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