Hate has no place here
USD campus community has moral obligation to confront hatred in all forms, especially now
Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista
Often when we hear about acts of hatred, they take place somewhere else, somewhere that, no matter the distance, seems far away. This distance helps us dissociate. Our response tends to be very abstract, denouncing hatred and declaring that it should not be present in any place. We have a great deal of practice expressing solidarity with groups affected by intolerant acts, and we have a great deal of practice denouncing intolerant acts from afar. Now, hatred has come knocking on our door. No longer is it happening somewhere else, and no longer can our response be abstract.
Last week, two hate-fueled acts defiled our campus. An unknown person called the Center for Inclusion and Diversity and bombarded them with racial slurs. This person tormented a group of people who work to make students feel at home on this campus, who make this campus community feel like a true community. Compounding the hatred, another unknown person vandalized the all-gender restroom on the fourth floor of the SLP. This person broke the sanctuary of a space for not only transgender and all gender-diverse students, but also for students with special needs, and even students who need a private restroom to feel safe.
People’s right to feel safe has been violated by these acts. People’s dignity and value have been damaged by these acts. These acts were meant to tell people that they are less than because they are different. These acts are harmful. Members of our campus community – our classmates and our friends – have been attacked by the perpetrators of these acts.
It would be easy to dismiss these acts as small, isolated incidents. It would also be incredibly dangerous to do so. Our actions will always speak louder than our words, and silence is one of the loudest actions. If we allow these acts to float silently into the past, we become complicit in them. Every time we brush off discrimination like it is not a big deal, we normalize that discrimination. Every racially charged joke, every joke about the LGBTQ+ community, every joke about people with disabilities sows the seeds of discrimination. When we tell these jokes, when we laugh at these jokes, even when we respond to these jokes with silence, we send a message. Every time we choose not to confront discriminatory rhetoric, we silently affirm it.
We have a moral obligation, not only as a changemaker campus or a Catholic university, but as human beings to confront the seeds of hatred and actions that normalize discrimination. Casting out hate is not an easy task. It does not happen simply because we want it to, it happens when we put in an unyielding effort. When we talk about love being the only thing that can drive out hate, we are not talking about a silent or passive love. The love that has the power to drive out hate is loud, spoken in every place. The love that has the power to drive out hate is active, spread at every opportunity. It is more than confronting discriminatory rhetoric, it is about actively affirming the value of all people.