On the night of Saturday, September 22, I received a telephone call from a certain sorority, inviting me to a party. After a short conversation in which I explained I had too much work to do, and that I was tired after a hard day, I said no. I was then verbally assaulted by a brother of Tau Kappa Epsilon, who came on the line, which included but was not limited to, calling me a particular racial slur that it is this newspaper’s policy not to print.
I do not consider myself to be of any nationality except an American. I am a citizen of the United States, born in the state of New York. I was raised here; I have no accent. I went to a normal high school with normal friends, and now I go to RPI. I am not perturbed by the fact that someone attempted to insult me by calling me such a name. I am, however, shocked and amazed by the use of such a word, so casually and without regret.
When I came to Rensselaer, I found it was a diverse and tolerant campus with a wide variety of people and cultures. Through my first and now into my second year, I have had no prior major experience with any kind of racial harassment. But it came as a brutal surprise to me, that at a nationally prestigious school such as this one, such an event could take place.
What does this mean? Is it an upsurge of racism in this country, with racial profiling on the rise, and hate again on the upswing at institutes of higher education? Or is it merely an error in judgment on the part of an overly “enthusiastic” fraternity brother? I think the latter, but in any case, the situation needs to be addressed. This sort of thing must be checked, so it does not run out of control and become a normal, acceptable thing. Accordingly, action must be taken immediately, firstly by an investigation by the IFC, and by Public Safety.
I have nothing against greeks—every semester I’ve rushed, finding fraternities to be composed, for the most part, of understanding, courteous people who could never be suspected of any type of harassment. This semester, I pledged.
In my time at RPI, I’ve never experienced any kind of hate or anger against me. I never expected to, as in this day, age, and locale, people are tolerant and generally respectful of others. While I understand this incident may be an isolated case, I feel it must be addressed, if not by the Institute, then by the student body itself, in order to stop any and all future harassment before it starts.
