RACIAL incidents tend to cause tempers to flare. Such is the case with the vandalism of fourth-year Amey Adkins' car. Reportedly, someone wrote a racial slur on the hood with an unknown substance. Following this incident there has been nothing short of an uproar about both the administration's response and the coverage in The Cavalier Daily. Both entities acted as they should, and this subsequent outcry has become nothing more than sensationalist propaganda.
Setting aside the high emotions, the facts of this alleged incident are few and far between. Essentially, at an unknown time before Sept. 8, in an unknown location, an unknown person or persons wrote a racial slur on the hood of the car of a student. This is certainly an awful crime, and no doubt upset Adkins, but it in no way warrants the attention it has been getting.
Looking at this incident from the standpoint of reporting the news, it is not difficult to see why The Cavalier Daily declined to write a story on the subject. Editor-in-Chief Chris Wilson explained the decision in an article in this paper: "The foremost reason we decided not to run the story is that there are hard and fast principles in journalism which require information be confirmed by two sources" ("Students question response to vandalism report," Sept. 23). Without any corroborated, substantive facts to report, the newspaper would have been left simply reporting that a minor act of vandalism had occurred -- an event that regrettably occurs often even in a city as safe as Charlottesville.
The administration, as well, responded properly. Patricia Lampkin, vice president for student affairs, purchased an ad in the paper to publish a letter to the students. A mass e-mail was not sent out because the incident did not meet the criteria to do so. Virginia Carter, the director of external relations for student affairs confirmed the policy: "We send out mass e-mails when there is an imminent threat to the students' safety and this did not fall into that category. We did not have a name or a description of the perpetrators."
While the incident was admittedly more sinister than writing "wash me!" on the hood of a car, it posed no imminent safety threat to any of the students of this university. The administration's obligations to the student body as whole must rest primarily in ensuring their safety and not in apologizing for the acts of one racist who may or may not be affiliated with the University in any capacity.
According to Lampkin, the administration follows a strict procedure when a student is a victim of a crime. This policy focuses on reporting the crime, supporting the victim and evaluating the safety threat to other students. It makes sense that once a non-violent crime has been reported to the police and the administration has made sure that the victim is well cared for, they have no obligation to send mass e-mails or publicize such a minor crime.
After seeing Grounds papered with flyers referring to a "serial racist," I attended a town hall style meeting entitled "Zero Tolerance for Ignorance" that was organized by the Black Student Alliance. Unfortunately, the event seemed much more focused on criticizing the administration and criticizing The Cavalier Daily for not publicizing the incident than on ways to reduce racial tensions at the University. It appears as though the quest for attention has overshadowed this entire event. Even those who looked forward to focus on future events only spoke of the proper way to publicize a response.
Adkins was given an opportunity to opine on the incident in a guest column on these very pages. But sitting at a meeting designed to promote zero tolerance of racism, I only heard ideas to further publicize this one minor incident. There were calls for President John T. Casteen, III to publicly condemn the incident (unnecessary) and calls for national news coverage (unlikely).
Instead of papering Grounds with incendiaryflyers and demanding apologetic mass e-mails be sent, we, as a student body, must work together to stop racism within our community. Such a goal cannot be achieved by polarizing the community, but by uniting against the very notion that the color of our skin separates us. Only a society that recognizes individuality far above skin color can truly reject such racist acts.
I certainly do not mean to belittle what Adkins must be feeling right now, nor do I seek to treat this incident as something less than a crime of vandalism, but the sensationalist hype surrounding the coverage of this incident does not bring us together to fight the common enemy of racism. The sad fact remains that there are racists in this world who chose to commit such acts. Only by leaving behind the archaic divider of skin color can the rest of us truly hope to one day achieve a society where such incidents could not possibly occur.
Daniel Bagley is a Cavalier Daily associate editor. He can be reached at dbagley@cavalierdaily.com.
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