The recent surge of racially charged crimes in the UNM community is bad news for the University. This month alone, three disturbing developments have given UNM a poor reputation that its public relations staff may have a hard time undoing.
The first involved the harassment of Miss Indian UNM at a football game. Though the incident happened in front of 41,033 people, the perpetrator walked away without having to answer for his actions.
It took 23 assaults on Indian students and a year to lapse since the attacks first began before the man behind the assaults was finally arrested. Moreover, three vigilant international students risked life and limb to help the police arrest the suspect.
The most recent episode involves the desecration of the Mexican flag by a UNM student. He was purportedly unhappy the flag was flying with no U.S. flag in its vicinity, which prompted him to take it down and tear it up.
The frequency with which such incidents have been occurring is alarming. But more disturbing is the absence of a University mechanism to deal with such issues. The much-vaunted office of institutional diversity lacks just that - an office - and the tolerance-education initiative has just come face-to-face with its first hurdle. While the University has regularly threatened that such actions would not be tolerated, it seems to have no impact on stopping the hate chart from soaring.
While it is important to have a system in place that takes care of the logistics of bringing the perpetrators to justice and provides much-needed support to victims, a better starting point would be to address hate crimes as such. There is considerable resistance at the administrative level to admit that a hate crime has occurred in the first place - probably because of the enormous public relations work it would take to repair the damage. Such an attitude has led those at the helm to exhaust all other options before they consider an incident a hate crime. This not only delays the justice process considerably but also sets a precedent that may keep victims from reporting a hate crime - or any crime, for that matter - in fear of having to wade through exhausting bureaucratic processes before they can get a hearing.
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Creating a task force to address hate crimes or setting up a panel would be the easiest way out. But problems such as hate crimes are deeply rooted and have no quick fixes; they deserve a more long-term response and demand fundamental changes in the system. Admitting hate crimes occur could open a dialogue that would sensitize the UNM community to their ramifications.
There are many reasons why people choose UNM. While some opt for it because the education is affordable, others come for the diversity. The University needs to keep this asset intact, irrespective of what it takes to do so.
