Bee Opinionated: Hate crimes on campus + Biden’s loan relief helps Black, brown students
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Hello again from Robin Epley with The Bee Editorial Board. Unfortunately, we need to talk about anti-Semitism.
A string of anti-Semitic incidents took place at least three college campuses in the Sacramento area recently and deeply affected and affronted members of our board. For the last two weekends in August, hateful banners were apparently flung over the Highway 113 bicycle overpass near the UC Davis campus. Swastika graffiti was discovered in multiple places on Sacramento State and American River College’s campuses.
Metro columnist Melinda Henneberger wrote that “since education is the natural enemy of fascism, it’s not too surprising that Nazi adherents and admirers would target universities.”
“This isn’t the first time that UC Davis has been subjected to antisemitic messages,” she continued. “In 2019, neo-Nazi and white supremacist flyers were posted at various locations on the school’s main campus. A year earlier, flyers calling Jews “anti-American” were passed out in at least three lecture halls.”
Opinion Assistant Hannah Holzer, who is both Jewish and a UC Davis alumna, wrote about her own experiences as a student during those incidents:
“During my years as a UC Davis undergraduate, anti-Semitic acts on campus left me and my Jewish classmates feeling despised, persecuted and endangered by our neighbors. Worse, when I and other student journalists exposed the shortcomings of the university’s response, the administration raised baseless doubts about our reporting.”
Holzer pointed out that every time a hate crime occurs on the UC Davis campus, the university “posts a similar response on its website: A photo of (UC Davis Chancellor Gary) May sadly gazing out a window is followed by an uninspired condemnation of said hate crime; a reference to the campus Principles of Community; and something along the lines of ‘hate has no home here.’”
And she is absolutely not wrong.
Stay Mad About It
Assistant Opinion Editor Yousef Baig weighed in on President Joe Biden’s announcement to forgive up to $20,000 in student loans, arguing that canceling student debt helps Black and brown people, and that’s why privileged elites are so mad.
“At its essence, canceling student loans lifts the U.S. higher education barriers that slow the progress of women and nonwhite students — because no groups have seen greater educational gains over the past 60 years, and no groups have been more disproportionately affected by college debt.”
Black post-secondary students have nearly tripled over the past 30 years, while Latino students have surged more than 14% over an 18-year span. Nearly two-thirds of Asian American children are attending college now.
“We wanted a chance at the supposed ‘American meritocracy,’” Baig wrote, “so we did what we were told to do.”
Opinion of the Week
“If we can figure this out, so can they.” — Sacramento City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela on the city’s efforts to ensure their enforcement of homelessness measures are humane and effective ... unlike Sacramento County.
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Have a great Labor Day,
Robin Epley
