The other day on my way home I happened to run into the “No on Hate” rally working its way through campus and out into I.V. A few hundred students marched and shouted slogans all about how they want UCSB to be “hate free.”
As I was watching, I became a little disturbed. This rally was prompted by the recent incident where some members of the PIKE fraternity allegedly attacked two Asian-American students in a racially charged assault. But listening to the rally, you would think the Ku Klux Klan was having regular marches through the streets of I.V. Where is all this hate they are talking about? People are pretty peaceful around here. Whoever did the assault is probably going to be charged with a crime, and PIKE has already been forbidden from hosting the annual Fight Night. That is no small slap on the wrist. The administration took swift and severe action in response to this incident.
Now, if these protesters are consistent in what they say, they will be against all hate on this campus, not just hate that is politically correct to fight against. I am an outspoken and active conservative Republican on this campus and I also happen to be a very proud Iraq veteran. I cannot tell you how much vitriolic speech has been directed at me on this very campus because of this. I have been called every hateful name you can think of in my four years here (Nazi, Klansman, Fascist, rapist, baby-killer, etc). I was also spit on at a “peace” protest downtown when I ousted myself. That is an assault by the way, fueled by hate. Where is the rally against this kind of hateful expression?
And it is not just me. The ROTC regularly has hateful statements shouted at them by students passing by on the bike path. Recently, some students protested the ROTC with signs saying things like, “Careers in Killing and Torture.” They are not just talking about the ROTC, they are talking about me and my comrades. Last year, every student running for office under the Student Voice! platform told me that they were in favor of kicking the ROTC off of campus if they could. They were not only saying that the ROTC is not welcome in their opinion, but that I am not welcome either.
Furthermore, last quarter some students had a “White Guilt” board set up in the arbor where students were encouraged to write their feelings about white guilt. After only a few days, the board was covered with hate speech about white people. There were literally things like “F&%$ these white MFers” and other “kill whitey” type slogans. No one said a peep. It was left up for weeks!!
Why is there no outrage to this kind of hatred? This is much more widespread on UCSB than racially based hatred. The “hate crime” everyone is so mad about came from a fraternity. Much of the hatred against me, and all I believe in, comes from the classroom. It is fueled by activist professors and “tolerant” students.
I do not want to minimize the racially charged assault that happened recently. This is absolutely inappropriate. But if we want people to be real about stopping hate, then I want to see every single person who took part in that protest today to come out and join me the next time someone is spreading hate about the military, about white people, about Republicans or whatever. It is all hate, and it is all wrong. Otherwise you are only moral relativists who don’t really believe in anything.
Thank you for submitting this article. Oftentimes I feel like the only person on campus shocked at the hypocrisy of these so-called ‘tolerant’ groups… The situations you’ve described are particularly disturbing. Its sad it will all go unnoticed. Part of tolerance is respecting others’ opinions. Unfortunately we are not all masters of the universe and there really is no right or wrong. Too many times are people insulted or shut down for their beliefs against the ‘party line’. A great example of this was when those anti-MSA ads were ran in the Nexus by some old Jewish Republican. I was… Read more »
"I cannot tell you how much vitriolic speech has been directed at me on this very campus because of this. I have been called every hateful name you can think of in my four years here" Be honest, you dish a lot out yourself. Along with many of the other outspoken conservatives on campus. You go out of your way to antagonize people at rallies, waiting for some knee-jerk response so you can make some opportunistic moral statement about democrats, left, liberals, hippies or whatever all because you managed to pick one person out who was rude to you. Even… Read more »
Cry me a river
Ross my friend, you came to that rally with one goal in mind, to aggravate the protesters. This is the same thing that you did when you bought and ate pizza right in the faces of those who were having a hunger-strike against UC nuclear involvement. It doesn’t take somebody from intel to know that when you go out looking for trouble that’s exactly what you will find. Speaking of someone in intel, how was that nice air-conditioned room you stayed in during your time overseas?
I completely agree with Ross. I think what these responders are focusing too much on your intentions during the rallies. That is completely irrelevant. The fact that those people who spat on Ross RESPONDED to him, whatever what was said by him, with HATE makes them no less hateful because they were responding to someone else’s hateful words. An eye for and eye will make the world blind, right? That seems to be the logic these responders are employing. What Ross is saying that hate speech extends beyond the bounds of hateful words towards ethnic minorities or women. More types… Read more »
i think what’s more pathetic is that all of you preach something tolerance.
what do you think martin luther king jr. would say if you said that white people just need to tolerate black people?
I disagree realpolitik, intentions matter. The fact that Ross goes about looking to become a martyr is completely different than being jumped on the way home without any aggravation. Ross chose to go out and start baiting the protesters. If one were to just look at him, they would not be able to tell that he is a conservative veteran. On the other hand, Hong’s ethnicity made him a target. This is apparent from the racial slurs that the suspect and the others were shouting while Hong and his friend were beaten. The fact that Nolan would compare his situation… Read more »
Unfortunately for Lurchylurch…Ross is totally right. I have watched countless acts of intolerance towards whites, protestants, republicans, and males, but these hate crimes (yes, believe it, they are hate crimes no matter the victim) go unnoticed because we are not the "minorities." As for eating pizza in your faces during your hunger strike? Right on. I would have been right along side him–you see, it’s just another form of protest. You don’t like ours? Well we don’t like yours. Hate crimes in themselves are a load of bull–very few crimes committed are not committed out of hate. A murder is… Read more »
Ross, I’m confused at your intent in this article. You said you "do not want to minimize the racially charged assault that happened recently" and yet you respond to the No On Hate rally as though it were a waste of time and suggest that IV is mostly peaceful. However, you also mention that you have been mistreated for being a veteran. You insinuate that those marching in a No on Hate rally are the same people who have called you names or spit on you – what evidence do you have of this? Why do you assume that these… Read more »
Here is a perfect example of their moral relativism – The people from the "no on hate" rally came up to a group of my friends to ask us to sign their petition. We, in turn, asked them about how they felt about the hate towards veterans. We told them about the incident where Ross was spat on. The gentlemen responded by saying he thinks he knows who the girl was because he is friends with her. What kind of response is that? I wonder how he responded when she told him she spat on him. Did he condemn her… Read more »
real, you’re suggesting that a person saying they know or is friends with someone who assaulted another person is an example of moral relativism? Hell, we all know someone who has assaulted another person whether we like it or not. I’m not sure that is a sufficient example. i assume that by mentioning a "white pride" group you’re expressing frustration, along with lurch, about the prevalence of pride groups for people of color. Am I correct? Do I really need to explain how safe spaces or rallies in favor of rights for people of color differ from that of white… Read more »
Somehow I doubt the two Asians were assaulted FOR BEING ASIAN. Names get yelled back and forth in all sorts of altercations… Its all to easy to say PIKE members are rich white racist douche bags etc, I have no affinity for them but it sounds like the kids antagonized the situation and got a response. White kids (often the minority) in "minority neighborhoods" all across the United States are being jumped and assaulted EVERY DAY for simply being white. They are called all sorts of horrible things and left with no protection against the mobs of "poor helpless afflicted… Read more »
ThanksI just wanted to thank Chirpatyabird for proving my point. The same people who march for gay rights and say they are anti-hate are the same who turn a blind eye to those of us who get called "crackers" and "honkeys" because it’s just not important whether whites are discriminated against. I’m sick of the double-standard bullshit. I am calling for FULL EQUALITY, not just equality for blacks and gays. You don’t want to be called a fag? Don’t degrade me. It goes both ways. Since you bring up the KKK, this really makes me want to start a White… Read more »