We would like to bring an incident of racial profiling to your attention. In recent weeks, minority students at Amherst, especially African-American males, have been the victims of racial profiling. While in the past African-American students were only occasionally made to show their ID cards to police, this practice has increased since the beginning of the current semester. We as members of the Black Men's Group will not tolerate this practice. Many African-American students have experienced this practice first-hand and we refuse to accept the usual explanation that Campus Police is only making sure we are not intruders from UMass.
The following is an account of an incident that occurred recently: Two weeks ago, I, a member of our group, was in Alumni Gym playing basketball. Both courts were filled with students from Amherst and UMass and town youths, many of whom happened to be African-American or Hispanic. During the middle of the game the athletic director, Peter Gooding, walked into the gym. Seeing an unusually large number of students, he walked over to the court in Alumni Gym closest to the Fitness Center, where I was playing with a group of friends. Mr. Gooding asked during a stoppage of play, "Are all of you Amherst College students? If you aren't you have to leave." Those who were Amherst students, including myself, replied, "Yes." Those who weren't simply ignored him and kept playing. Mr. Gooding asked the question once more then exited the gym.
About two minutes later a Campus Police officer entered the gym. The officer scanned both courts quickly and walked to the far court. I was standing next to a friend of mine, who, like me, is also African-American.
The officer proceeded to say to my friend, "I know you go here, I've seen you before. But does he [gesturing to me] go here?" I replied to the officer, "Yes I do go here." He asked for my ID and I showed it to him. He walked over to another African-American male student and asked him the same question. The student was sitting on the sideline, next to a white student, and wearing an Amherst College T-shirt. I suppose that does not matter when it comes to picking out someone who does not "belong" on this campus. Before I got the chance to ask for the officer's badge number he exited as quickly as he entered.
Keep in mind that there were at least a dozen white, Hispanic and African-American students in the gym that afternoon from UMass and the town of Amherst. Yet they were not asked for ID or asked to leave. There are clearly inconsistencies in who gets asked to show his ID. If you are going to ask one person for identification, do not discriminate, ask everyone.
These incidents are not specific to the athletic complex; they also occur on the main campus. Just last week a group of male students-two African-American, two white and one Asian-were walking across campus. As they turned onto the street behind Fayerweather Hall a Campus Police officer drove by and then reversed his cruiser to stop them. He questioned the students, asking them if they attended Amherst. One student replied, "Why would you think I don't go here?" The officer replied, "You were walking like you don't go here." Once all the students presented proper identification the officer exited promptly.
As members of an institution that claims to be committed to diversity, we need to make sure our institution lives up to this lofty goal. Racial profiling is not the way to realize this goal. We know this is not the policy of the College. We simply want to raise awareness: African-American students, especially males, are stopped by Campus Police more than any other group on campus
It is evident that the gym is not enforcing its policy of checking everyone's ID. It is also evident that it's not fair to single out students who "look" like they are not supposed to be here. Simply stated, racial profiling is wrong. We propose that the athletic director make a consistent commitment either to check every person's ID upon entering the Fitness Center or to require no one show his ID. We hope this will make our campus more sensitive in this time of increased insensitivity.
Black Men's Group
Violence not a laughing matter
I consider myself a very strong woman and, until Saturday morning, I had never felt threatened in my two years at Amherst. That changed when I sat down to breakfast and started reading table tents. There was a table tent for RAD, the defense course for women offered by the College, with the slogan "Radically Changing Defense for Women." Only someone had decided it would be humorous to black out the "C," "Defense," and "For," so the table tent now read, "Radically hanging Women."
I cannot put into words the violation and anger I felt upon reading that. I grabbed the table tent so as not to make anyone else feel the pain I did. However, the words keep playing over and over in my head and I wonder how someone could see what they did as a harmless joke. Since when is threatening violence and death on half of the world humorous? If the table tent had been for a Hillel event or a BSU event, I doubt the perpetrator would have found it funny to write an anti-Semitic or racist remark. We need to realize that violence against women is just as serious as racist violence.
This weekend, Amherst College celebrated its 25th anniversary of coeducation. While we may have come a long way since the 1970s, it is now painfully obvious to me that we have quite a ways to go for us all to feel respected.
Erica Schmeckpeper '03