At Claremont McKenna College, somebody vandalized a professor's car, breaking the windows, slashing the tires, and spraypainting racial epithets on it. Here are some pictures of the car.
AP reported this yesterday:
CLAREMONT, Calif. - Students rallied and teachers canceled classes Wednesday at a group of colleges where a rash of hate incidents has been reported in recent months.[rest of article cut -- last paragraph:]
At Harvey Mudd College, a group of four students set fire to an oversized cross used in an art project in front of a dormitory in January. They were put on probation by the college and required to perform 100 hours of community service.
Emphasis added above. Boy, that's really what all current and past Claremont Colleges students want to hear -- "a rash of hate incidents" at the 5 C's. Maybe I'll start pretending that my degree is from a community college. Thank you also, AP, for making it sound like all four cross-burner idiots were Mudders (they weren't) and for making it sound like they got a slap on the wrist for a hate crime (the administration apparently determined that the students actually didn't know what a burning cross signifies in our culture). Thanks, AP.
Reuters reports today that the FBI is now investigating, and that:
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was working with college police to investigate the vandalism as well as several other incidents that are being reconsidered as possible hate crimes.
My take on this: In four years at Mudd, I never witnessed a single overt act of racism -- by which I mean, not even somebody using a racial epithet in private in the dorms in the evening. I find it hard to believe that a climate of acceptance to racism exists at HMC. I don't know much about the other colleges, but it seems unlikely to me.
In any case, I fervently hope that the person(s) responsible are caught and prosecuted, and for the sake of the 5C community, I hope that the culprit turns out to be a lone, bigoted asshole.
I worry that the students who voluntarily came forward in the "cross-burning" incident in January (see here and herefor my take on that) will have their case re-opened by the FBI, and will be even more severely punished for what I continue to believe was an act of monumental ignorance.