EDMUND BURKEIn November 2019, racist and anti-Semitic graffiti began appearing in bathrooms and other places on the Syracuse University campus. In one incident that occurred late at night, a group of about a dozen men outside a fraternity house hurled a racist slur at an African American woman student passing nearby. The perpetrators of the last incident were identified. Two turned out to be Syracuse University students; the rest were from other colleges. The Syracuse students were charged for violating the Code of Conduct, and Syracuse notified other colleges of their students’ behavior. There were, to the best of my knowledge, no incidents or threats of physical violence that occurred at any time. Nevertheless, students initiated a sit-in to demand, among other things, that Syracuse’s chancellor resign for not promptly warning them about the graffiti and that the University hire more public safety officers. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo got into the act by also denouncing the University administration. The campus then spiraled into fear and panic. Students said they were afraid to leave their dorms, and classes were cancelled. I watched one student tell Anderson Cooper on CNN that Syracuse University is a “racist institution.” What follows is a letter to Syracuse students from an alum.
Dear SU Students,
You may think of this as a letter from your future self. It’s not exactly that, of course. We are different people, shaped by different experiences.
Yet we have some commonalities. I too sat in classrooms in Maxwell, the Hall of Languages, and HBC; read the Daily Orange; and ate pizza at the Varsity Restaurant. We both faced existential threats during our time at Syracuse – threats resulting from the failures by our parents’ generation. You are facing the prospect of a planet thrown into disarray by climate change (and another challenge I will get to shortly). We faced the Vietnam War.
We thought we knew a lot, but on April 26, 1967 we got punked. George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama, came to Syracuse University and spoke at Manley Fieldhouse, then the largest venue on campus. How was it that this vile racist came to speak at Syracuse? We were told he was invited by a fraternity whose members waved a Confederate Flag from their seats during the speech.
Wallace was on the threshold of launching a presidential campaign. In retrospect, it is clear what he wanted: a big splash on newscasts and in the newspapers about appearing at a well-known Northern university. He didn’t expect a friendly crowd. Wallace expected – in fact, counted on – a hostile audience. He wanted to show his supporters he would take his campaign into the North and courageously stand up to opposition.
We should have boycotted his speech. Wallace wouldn’t have liked cameras filming him speaking to an empty house. But Manley was filled to overflowing. Most of us were there to boo and protest. Wallace taunted us. When African American students walked out in protest, Wallace said, “There go the agriculture students.” Along with many others, I jumped up shouting and stormed out. A television cameraman ran after us, filming the scene. All of which, I realize now, is just what George Wallace wanted.
So here it comes: You got punked too.
When purveyors of hate scrawled racist and anti-Semitic graffiti in bathroom stalls, could they have hoped for more than generating not only disgust but cries of fear leading to chaos and institutional paralysis?
I fully understand the concern about white supremacism and gun violence. As it happens, I have devoted a large portion of my career to the issue of gun violence. But if there was any incident of physical violence or credible threat of physical violence, I am unaware of it. I also know how disturbing hate graffiti can be. Several months ago, swastikas and anti-Semitic slurs were scrawled on 75 headstones in a Jewish cemetery in Fall River, Massachusetts, including those of my family.
But is the best response to succumb to fear or to refuse to be intimidated? Is the best approach to tell the national media that Syracuse University is a racist institution and ask that classes be cancelled, or is the best approach to proclaim, “This is our University. We will not yield it,” and insist that classes go forward as usual?
How would heroes we admire – people such as Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and the Freedom Riders – have reacted to what you faced?
Think about this because racists and anti-Semites have not disappeared. They are, of course, at Syracuse – and every other university and community of significant size. And we live in a time when purveyors of hate are more emboldened.
I am not making light of anything that happened. It is disgusting. And it is anxiety-producing. I hope the perpetrators are discovered, prosecuted, and expelled. What I am asking you to consider, however, is: How does decency win?