Reporterâs Note: It is the view of this journalist that those behind the incidents described are a vocal minority in the OWU and Delaware communities. Nevertheless, these incidents are relevant to the entire community and need to be acknowledged and addressed. This article contains quoted slurs used against minority communities.
Racism
As an African-American student walks down the street, a car slows next to him as a passenger rolls down the window; ânigger!â the passenger yells before the driver speeds off.
Several members of Ohio Wesleyanâs African-American community, male and female alike, report having been victims of this kind of racist drive-by harassment.
Senior James Huddleston, co-president of Black Men of the Future (BMF), said he was walking down a street with five or six other African-American students when âa car drives past, and they (the passengers) just (yelled), âdamn niggers!ââ
âI wasnât trying to judge OWU for that, but that makes me look at the world different since (then),â Huddleston said. âThat kinda changes the way you feel about the area or the society (youâre in).â
Senior Nicole Lourette, a member of Sisters United (SU), said she knew of two former students, both African-American women, who had ânigger bitch!â shouted at them as they walked down Sandusky Street.
âPeople donât walk up to you and do something, but theyâll do it in the way they can (get away with it),â she said.
Senior Andrew Dos Santos, BMF co-president, said these things have happened to him âfour or five different times.â
â(As I cross the street) a car just drives by â and I know this happens to everyone in (BMF) â and the driver yells âHey, nigger! Nigger!â and they speed off…Theyâre in the safety of their carâI canât really do anything, I canât run to the car and knock on their window and say âHey, you really shouldnât call me that.ââ
Dos Santos said heâs heard of many other instances of racial epithets being shouted at black students, but students arenât the perpetrators.
Junior Lehlohonolo Mosola, resident adviser of the House of Black Culture (HBC), agreedâhe said most of the insults heâs heard have come from Delaware residents.
âIn defense of the school, Iâve experienced less racism from the school and from the people who go here than probably any other school or place that Iâve been in for a long period of time in my life,â Mosola said.
âNow, the town around Ohio Wesleyan, itâs pretty bad, Iâm not going to lie. Iâve certainly had obscenities screamed out of cars at me more times than any other place in my entire life. It makes no sense, because Iâve been in supposedly stereotypically way more racist places than this. Thatâs kinda against Delaware, but the school â Iâve had much less trouble here than I have in the past.â
Senior Nginyu Ndimbie has had a different experienceâhe said another student called him a âniggerâ at a Halloween costume party.
âI wanted to slash him with this styrofoam sword that I spent all day making, and I just looked at him, and Iâm just like, âNo, thatâs not cool,ââ he said.
âTo a degree, I wanted to scare him. I wanted to take him somewhere and tell him, âYouâre lucky that youâre saying this to me and I donât really mind this word, but the fact that you find it funny is not okay.â
âI truthfully did not have it in me; it ruined the whole party, just the idea that this kid felt so insulated that that word is a joke to him, was really bizarre to me.â
Lee Yoakum, Delawareâs city coordinator for Community Affairs, said in an email that these incidents are ânot representativeâ of the Delaware community, and that the Delaware Police Department has received no complaints about racial slurs being shouted at OWU students.
â(W)e want to know about (such incidents),â he said.
âStudents should contact OWU Public Safety and/or the Delaware Police Department.â
Legally, Delaware City Prosecutor Mark Corroto said in an email, authorities must âbalanc(e) between free speech and menacing (or threats).â
Section 2903.22 of the Ohio Revised Code (ORC) defines menacing as knowingly causing another âto believe that the offender will cause physical harm to the person or property of the other person, the other personâs unborn, or a member of the other personâs immediate family.â
An individual who violates this section would be guilty of a fourth-degree misdemeanor; according to Section 2929.24, this would be punishable by a jail term of ânot more than thirty days.â
ORC Section 2927.12, concerning âEthnic intimidation,â lists Section 2903.22 as one of several not to be violated âby reason of the race, color, religion, or national origin of another person or group of persons.â
A menacing conviction was also found to violate this section would become a third degree misdemeanor, punishable by ânot more than sixty daysâ in jail, according to Sections 2927.12 and 2929.24.
Corroto mentioned an incident several years ago where a black man was called the N-word by a Delaware resident and âpunched the caller in the mouth.â
Despite it being a clear assault, Corroto said the jury acquitted him.
âIt was, I must admit, a loss that I did not bemoan,â he said.
Several members of BMF described hearing more subtle racially-charged statements, sometimes even from roommates.
âI donât think people even realize theyâre being racist, but itâs just subtle undertones, itâs frustrating,â said sophomore Garrison Davis, a member of BMF and resident of HBC.
âI feel like people arenât as outward with their racism, but they find ways to do it,â Lourette said.
âOne thing that is a problem on this campus is stereotypesâstereotypes that people think black people do or are,â said sophomore Mariah Powell, president of SU.
She described having to watch âMadea Goes to Jailâ with several white students, who asked her if this was what all black women were like. She said without such movies and TV shows, they wouldnât have that image of African-Americans.
âSo they just have this view of all black people because theyâve seen âReal Housewives of Atlanta,â or âBad Girls Club,â or something like that, so they think I act like that too, and I donât,â she said.
ââŚOther people, if they donât know you, they donât really know how to take who you are, so they just put you all in one big bubble.â
Members of BMF also discussed how societal expectations affect their ability to react to the racial taunts theyâve suffered.
âI like to talk to people about it,â Dos Santos said. âSomething happens, they say something and Iâm like, âWhy do you think itâs okay to say that?â instead of getting upset, because as soon as I get upset, I fulfill the stereotypeâIâm the angry black man, and anything I say is nothing, so I have to be calm and logical.â
Senior Andrew Wilson said black students are âforced to reactâ this way when confronting racist actions.
âIf someone outright calls me a fag or a nigger to my face, I canât get mad at them because if I do, Iâm insinuating a stereotype, and then that builds and that validates that stereotype, and that validates that action again,â he said.
âThatâs not fair, but thatâs the social construct, thatâs the world we live in⌠I canât get mad because if I get mad Iâm going to be that angry black guy⌠We canât do anything but sit in these meetings and vent, every single damn meeting we have.
âAnd thatâs the purpose of BMF, SU, and SUBA, VIVA, VSA, Horizons (International), Chinese Culture Club, Hillelâis to vent about all these injustices that are imparted on us, but we canât get mad about them because itâs not socially acceptable for us to get mad. I donât understand that, and we donât have conversations about that in our classes at all, and we donât have those conversations with the people that we would like to have them with.
âWe all know that itâs not okay to do all this stuff, but for the people that arenât in this room, that wonât come to this (BMF) meeting⌠that donât even see any of us on this campus, thatâs who we want to talk to. Thatâs who we want to reach⌠Itâs cool to be politically correct and all that shit, but there comes a time, like Dr. Martin Luther King says, there comes a time when silence works totally against what youâre going for. Silence doesnât do jack shit; it actually makes shit worse most days.â
Sexism
âSexism is extremely prevalent on this campus,â said junior Jenna Culina, a resident of the Womenâs House (WoHo).
âPeople donât realize it ⌠This is a terrible thing to talk about, it hurts, but sexual assault on our campus is something that is still happeningâlike the amount it has happened and when you come back to or you come to Take Back the Night, it hurts your heart, because you realize how many women and how many men it has happened to on this campus.â
â…Then it finally brings you down to earth and you realize, âWow, sexism is all around meââŚI personally have never dealt with sexism, but that doesnât mean that I wonât deal with it later.â
Culina said many of her housemates have experienced sexism, especially in their job searches.
âMy mother, actually, was denied a job because a man had the same qualifications but they didnât think she had the physical strength that he (did),â she said.
Culina said her mother worked in a hospitalâs emergency department and would regularly help move bodies from one gurney to another, while wearing âskirts and suits.â
âShe has been (in the medical field) for 25 years, if she canât lift a body off a gurney then sheâs got some shit wrong,â she said. âIt makes me so mad.â
Senior Lauren Dudley, a member of SU, said men often donât take campus programming around âwomenâs issuesâ seriously.
âI know that weâve had some instances where weâve had programming about serious things, for example weâve had a serious discussion here about rape, and there are film series or discussions or awareness events that people put on,â she said.
âI think for people who I hope just donât really understand how serious that is, thereâs a lot of inappropriate joking I think, and then sometimes you feel harassed when youâre putting out fliers and people are laughing about rape, and you just feel uncomfortable.â
Culina said during last yearâs Take Back the Night march around the campus, an unidentified student in Welch Hall shouted âWeâre coming to get you!â from a window.
She said yelling also took place during SlutWalk, a fall march that raises awareness of victim-blaming in regard to rape.
Culina also said the 1984 Take Back the Night event was marred when students firebombed WoHo. Due to this incident people, usually fraternity brothers, guard the house during Take Back the Night.
A May 17, 1984, article on the WoHo fire says two students came forward and pled guilty to first-degree misdemeanor charges of criminal damaging-endangering shortly afterward. They âvoluntarily withdrewâ from the university within two weeks of the incident.
The article, however, makes no mention of whether Take Back the Night was occuring âearly Sunday morningâ when the fire took place.
The first Take Back the Night at OWU was on a Wednesday night in 1980 following three reported assaults, according to an article in The Transcript.
The 1984 article does not mention how the fire was started or why a university official described it as âaccidentalâ and a âjoke that went awry.â
A letter to the editor published in the May 24, 1984 edition said the cause of the fire was âa smoke bombâ thrown into the house.
âWomenâs reactions to the fire that destroyed the Womenâs House are a mixture of praise for the university and students and disappointment at comments made by others,â the May 17 article reads.
It also includes quotes from resident Liz Phelps â84, who said students were standing around making ârude commentsâ and jokes as the house burned.
The May 24 Letter to the Editor said these ârude commentsâ included male students standing around the burning building drinking beers and laughing, saying âthe dyke house is burning down.â
âEven if you choose to ignore the basic anti-women issue involved here, you must at least acknowledge the lack of human compassion shownâŚ(J)ust passing the charred remains of the Womenâs House stands in mute testimony to the deep emotional devastation experienced by these women,â the letter reads.
On the recent spring break mission trips, one woman student who requested to remain anonymous said she was surprised to encounter subtle sexism.
âWe were doing a lot of like heavy labor, like deconstructing houses, minor construction work, and I was surprised by some of the males on my mission team, who I considered like friends or pretty progressive,â she said.
ââŚThey didnât take me seriously, and there were times where the tools were taken out of my hand when I was doing a fine job by men who thought that they could do the job better, and I guess that really surprised me. âŚme and a few other girls got together after the end of the day and voiced our frustrations to each other.â
Homophobia
âIn the past year thereâs been one specific event on campus, towards the LGBT community, where a person of our community was attacked verbally and had beer bottles thrown at them,â said Culina, the president of PRIDE.
The incident occurred in October 2012 and was the subject of The Transcriptâs Oct. 26 editorial âThe opposite of ordinary: Striving for tolerance for all walks of life on campus.â
Senior Anthony Peddle said the perpetrator was one âuneducated member of a house on campusâ who is not necessarily representative of their peers.
âIt was not an organization or a set of persons with beliefs attacking another set of persons with beliefs, or actions, or identities,â he said.
Peddle, the president of PRIDE at the time of the incident, said the administration took action the next day, but how it handled the situation wasnât clear to students.
âI think their reaction to this event was appropriate, and appropriate as a learning experience, for the student community as well as the administration, to better adapt to things like this,â he said.
Culina, however, said she had been unaware that the university took any action to address the incident.
âI understand how the university would not want to call attention to something that could be damaging, you know, but at the same time I think it would make a lot of us feel more safe if we had understood that (official action had been taken),â she said.
Aside from this incident, Culina said she doesnât think homophobia is a problem in the OWU community. Peddle said he feels it is âa represented problem,â but might be âunder-representedâ in comparison to other similar colleges.
âWhat I mean by that is, no matter where you go, no matter where you are, youâre going to face some sort of discrimination and difference bias based on a plethora of things,â he said.
âI think as a whole OWU is very accepting,â said sophomore Hannah Sampson, PRIDE secretary.
Freshman Courtney Austin, a member of PRIDE, said OWU is âreally way more acceptingâ than his high school. Austin, a member of the black community, said he comes from an area where the Ku Klux Klan is active.
âComing here was like, âOh, let me say these things, I donât have to filter, well, most of what I say,ââ he said. âThat was just amazing in its own way.â
Culina said she only knew of two incidents of homophobia at OWU, including the October incident. She said the other involved a Facebook argument, which was told to her during a PRIDE meeting when she asked whether any members had been discriminated against because of their sexual orientation.
A member, whom Culina did not name, said sheâd seen a post from a former friend of hers suggesting lesbians just hadnât had sex with the right man yet. When she asked him politely to take the post down because it was offensive, he refused.
âI cannot look at them the same way,â Culina said about the individual who posted the offensive remark. âI will never â I have never spoke to this person again (since then), simply because it happened again, and this personâs ideologies never changedâŚ.Other than that, Iâve been extremely comfortable (at OWU).â
Peddle, though, described an incident that took place âa month (or) a month and a half ago.â
âI was walking to my house, from HamWill (Hamilton-Williams Campus Center), and I have a rainbow on my backpack, and a townie rolled down their window and screamed, âHey faggot, watch out!ââ
Austin mentioned a similar incident where he and other runners were practicing outside and âone guy (yells) âFaggot!â and then drives off.â
âI just want to point out, though, that in the Delaware community, we have had a queer church, and weâve had a gay-straight Christian alliance, thatâs still going right now,â Culina said.
ââŚthatâs momentous, for a city of this size and a city of this ideology.â
She and Peddle also said Delaware residents â including University President Rock Jones and his family â regularly take part in Columbusâs annual Pride Parade.
âThere are extremely uneducated people in Delaware, and thatâs what it is, but at the same time thereâs that side where thereâs a community of queer people â thereâs a larger community of queer people in Delaware than people think,â Culina said.
Peddle said he thinks it should âtake(n) into accountâ that OWU and Delaware residents participate in the Pride Parade as a Methodist college in a predominantly Christian community.
âThese are pretty momentous things, and they may seem like nothing to pay $65 to march in three-mile long hot ass parade, but it means something, and I think that not many students see that because theyâre not here in the summer,â he said.
âWe only get the experience of August through May; we donât get to experience the outside culture of Delaware, to understand, you know, weâre stuck in our sub-world.
âItâs a bubble, and I think weâre on the right way to pop it, but itâs going to be a hell of a long way.â