Racial Vandalism/Kellner 1
RACISM FLIES UNDER THE RADAR AT K
By Jamie Kellner
KALAMAZOO, Mich. -- Kyle Lincoln is not a happy man. A sophomore at K, the Beaners barista is not pleased about the changing of the powerhouse coffee franchise’s name from Beaners to Biggby, a phonetic play on the franchise’s logo. According to Beaners’ CEO Bob Fish in a press release, “We ultimately felt we would be condoning the use of a disparaging term if we chose to do nothing.” Around campus as many people are aware of the word "beaner's" use as a slur as not.
“The name itself seemed sketchy,” said Lincoln, who said that once he realized that nobody seemed bothered by it, he stopped worrying about it. Though he agrees that the change is “something that they need to do,” he admits that he does not like the new name, referring to it as “stupid.” After interviews with a number of randomly selected students, it became clear that many shared a similar thought process to Lincoln, deciding that there was nothing wrong with the name if nobody was complaining. Ignorance and complacency are part of the reason that K students don’t remember many instances of racial vandalism. When asked they usually remember one, if any, from last year.
Kara Brinkman, K ‘08, was in her room in Trowbridge one night during spring quarter of ‘07. Of the still unknown artist behind the swastika drawn on her door Brinkman could only give an incredulous, “This person is really bad at discriminating.” Neither Brinkman nor her former roommate were especially offended by the easily erased graffiti. Nothing else in their hallway or building had been reported as being vandalized that night, though there may have been a connection to swastikas drawn in Dewing around the same time.
Though Brinkman and her roommate were not offended, the history major would soon find that her opinion on the matter was not universal. Upon mentioning the incident during a class a member of the JSO advised that she take action. “I felt bad that I didn’t pursue it further,” Brinkman said. Someone did pursue it further. Within days of the incident blaring yellow fliers stating, “This is a Hate-Free-Zone” were put on dorm room doors. Some can still be seen in the Student Development Office in the basement of DeWaters Hall.
Ezra Kaplan, currently one of the four heads of the Jewish Students Organization remembers the incident well. “Everybody was pretty pissed in the JSO,” said Kaplan. Trowbridge Hall as a community, according to Kaplan, was surprised, but paid little attention. “We definitely addressed it in the chapel,” he said. The publicity the incident gained from the chapel caused the K College community to take notice.
This incident was widely known around campus, but it seemed that few could name any other incidents from last year or that had occurred this year. If we are to believe that there is only one case of such vandalism per year why does the longest training seminar for Resident Assistants address issues such as these?
When asked if there was a disconnect between the number of incidents reported and the number that remain unreported Dean Karen Joshua-Wathel responded, “Its not necessarily a disconnect, but its picking your battles.” Students experiencing such attacks, much in the same way as sexual assault, must decide for themselves whether or not its worth the hurt that comes with the probing that the school must do in order to take action. “For someone else to get it, you have to relive it,” Joshua-Wathel said.
“The sad part,” she said, “is that it has become a norm for people in underrepresented groups.” The reason that the seminar on racism is the longest during RA training, in Dean Joshua-Wathel’s estimation, is because most of Kalamazoo College’s Resident Assistants are white, and she believes it isn’t natural for issues of racism to come up amongst white students, but with “students of color”, any student that isn’t white according to the dean, “[racism] always comes up.”
When Dean Joshua-Wathel came to K she was told of an incident that had happened a few years prior to her arrival that has remained with her throughout her career as K's Dean of Multicultural Affairs. “Someone took the time to write the N-Word in the snow on top of Trowbridge,” she said, holding up a picture of the six foot tall letters made by shoe-prints in the snow. Shortly thereafter a young African-American man’s room was set on fire. Theories ranged from arson to a fire that the room’s resident set himself to draw more attention to the vandalism. To this day nobody knows exactly what happened in that room, because it was left to lie, and everything was cleaned up. “It was left like that and nobody came back,” said Dean Joshua-Wathel of the school’s reaction. Nowadays, she says, the reaction is much swifter, but the school can only react if they know about what’s happened. “The school takes these things very seriously,” she said, “We act immediately so everyone is protected in the process.”
According to security director Tim Young, there were nine instances of “malicious destruction of property” in 2007, which covers all kinds of vandalism. “If we had a situation where we believe there is a hate crime we have it investigated by KDPS,” Young said, “If we knew we had a suspect that had drawn the swastika and it was pointed at you, that’s a different situation.” In the latter situation an internal investigation would take place and formal action is taken by the school. Young claims to have never even heard of the incident in which the N-Word was written in the snow, but says that if he had been called out to deal with a situation of that nature the police would’ve been involved.
The idea that racism has become a norm seems to have been ingrained into Dean Joshua-Wathel’s mind, “You’ll get people who are racist. That’s just the nature of living.” As for Beaners, Joshua-Wathel says she will never again be a paying customer of the franchise, saying, “If the students don’t stand up people won’t think anything is wrong.”
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