This morning I sent the following message to the Wesleyan community:
Dear friends,
In the past few days a few Wesleyan students have received racist, threatening messages. This is completely unacceptable, and the University will fully support anyone targeted by hateful messages of this kind. We will also deploy our resources, including appropriate law enforcement agencies, to discover who was responsible for sending any threatening messages. There will be accountability.
The public sphere in this country has been for months polluted with an outpouring of racist, misogynistic, and xenophobic rhetoric. The pain of targeted groups is real because the threats are real, and we must acknowledge those threats and work to stop them from infecting our lives and our campus. We must fight to protect people of color and religious minorities from violence driven by socially sanctioned scapegoating and bullying. We must ensure that our friends in LGBTQ communities are not marginalized by newly empowered narrow-mindedness taking control of our legal system. And we must ensure that our campus is free from threats emerging from vile ideologies and hate-filled hearts.
Wesleyan will never retreat from our mission of creating an inclusive and equitable community. We are open to debate, to challenging ideas, but we will never back down in the face of crude bigotry.
If you know of people who have been targeted, please support them and urge them to report online HERE.
This is a challenging time in our country and on our campus. By looking out for one another, taking care of one another, we will find ways to cultivate the values that sustain our educational community and protect the people who have made it their home.
Sincerely yours,
Michael Roth
President
“…. taking care of one another”
very interesting quote.
Thank you for reminding.
I am appalled by this behaviour on our college campus as I have been appalled by the racism expressed in the UK after Brexit.These are troubling times internationally.We must all remain vigilant and supportive of all minorities everywhere,they need to be supported with compassion and the strength of our convictions!…from London,Wendy Davis’80.
President you are way out of line. You hurl hateful rhetoric around like this was the second coming of some “evil empire.” Maybe you should spend more effort figuring out how to spread the Gospel or has that been diluted down to just a social agenda. You seem more enthralled with starting a fight, than being about peace! Maybe you needed your 15 minutes of the limelight. How about abiding by the laws of the land. People that are here illegally and siphoning funds from our country is very wrong! Best Wishes! A Servant of the King, Brother Bob Mead
So everyone in the world is welcome to move onto your campus? Ever heard of the sinking lifeboat theory? A ship is sinking,; everyone tries to fit into the single lifeboat which can safely hold only 50 people. The 50 people on the lifeboat feel guilty so they allow more people to get in. Then the lifeboat sinks and the all drown. Such a sad story. It should be learned by your delusional president. We are a separate country. Why not put your efforts toward uplifting other countries instead of ruining ours?