Time to Clean up "The House"

For the past week, my free time and some of non-free time has been utterly consumed by a local incident that has rocked the Black Gay community of Atlanta. The details of the incident vary depending on who you talk to, but what is clear is this. A student was violently beaten by another student while taking a shower in a Morehouse College campus dorm. The victim required emergency surgery to relive a build up of pressure on his brain. Initial reports indicate that the attacker was motivated by his perception that the victim had peeked into the shower stall at him while he was showering. Words were exchanged and the attacker left the shower returning with a bat and assaulting the victim with several of the blows striking the victim in the head.

Here are a few links to various versions of the incident:

Google Search Results

While the incident took place on November 3rd, there was no official statement made from the College as of week later.

Early on, there were reports that the victim was Gay and that the attack was motivated by the attacker's hatred of Gay men. The victim has since stated that he is straight and that he himself does not believe the attack to be one that would qualify as a hate crime. I disagree. Based on the reports of the incident, the attacker clearly was under the impression that the victim was Gay and his anger (read fear) was motivated by this fact - thus a hate crime was committed.

I initially was unclear just how I would involve myself, if at all, in this matter. For years I have heard of the duality of the Morehouse campus and how the administration flat out denies that homosexuality exists at "The House". This same excuse has been used to justify why there is no need to have any specific sensitivety training or policy to protect students who identify as anything other than straight.

I attended a campus forum on Monday hosted by the campus' Omega Psi Phi chapter. The event had been planned for over a week and many were under the impression that the purpose was to discuss the incident the took place on November 3rd. A panel comprised of students and members of a recently convened ad hoc committee would field questions from the moderator and the audience. Upon arrival, the moderator announced that the campus supported meeting had been cancelled that day by the administration but that since we are allowed to lawfully assemble, a discussion would continue on the topic of homophobia at the AUC (Atlanta University Center comprising Morehouse, Spelman and Morris Brown Colleges). Any attempts to discuss the attack would not be tolerated. The administration had given strict orders to the organization that if they attempted to use the forum to discuss the attack, their campus charter would be revoked. Talk about intimidation and censorship.

Even before the meeting could get started, it was met with turmoil. An audience member stood up and announced that "anyone with a camera or that who was not a student or concerned citizen should get up and leave now." He approached the local Gay news paper reporter and photographer and began demanding that they leave. He then stood on a chair and demanded the audience ask them to leave. This went on for about 30 minutes resulting in the representatives deciding to leave on their own. Other local media reporters were allowed to stay without question. This same person would interrupt and disrupt the meeting several more times during the evening, contradicting his very statement on what he had hoped to accomplish.

For the next several hours, several hundred (so it seemed) students and community members attempted to have a meaningful discuss of the issues of homophobia, heterosexism, and tolerance. Unfortunately, due to poor planning and an unexperienced moderator, the process could not hold together long enough for any meaningful conversation to take place. Instead of discussing issues and views, many people were resorting to making comments to personally attack others who had spoken. Realizing that nothing was to be gained by continuing the forum, the moderator ended the forum and asked that everyone clear the building.

While attempting to exit the building, a few incidents of verbal assaults and shoving took place but were quickly put to rest. Unfortunately, some feel that members of the very group holding the forum were involved in these incidents. Fortunately, all was not lost. Outside of the building, smaller groups began to have meaningful and cooperative discussion crossing lines of sexuality and gender. Many of these discussion lasted for several more hours without incident. Many people were angry, hurt, and scared about the incident and what it meant for them. I must state that from what I could see, no adminstration or faculty were present at the forum as if all had been forbidden to attend.

I listened to various testimonials from students, some who broke down into tears as they spoke.

"From the first day on this campus, I have endured daily verbal and sometimes physical attacks for being who I am. Reports to the administration and campus police result in little or no action. I just don't feel safe at a place that is supposed to be my home for now"

"While sitting with a group of my friends, who are out and proud of who we are, we had a faculty member from the athletics department walk past us, shake his head, and mention to two other students passing by that ' someone needs to kick their sissy asses'. He didn't know that the two people he said that too where friends of ours"

"I've been chased, threatened, followed, and punched in the face just for walking past a group of people because I was perceived to be Gay."

"I was told by my faculty adviser that I needed to apologize to the advisors of the math department because I broke down and started crying during a presentation. The reason I was to apologize was because real men don't cry and I need to learn to control my emotions"

These are just some of the statements that I heard from some of the victims. I can only imagine that there countless other untold occourances that will go silent as many students fear that are not safe to voice their experiences in public.

Rollback to Saturday. A group of students and community members met on Saturday to determine how to organize a response to address the issues that have long been ignored by the college and created an environment that allowed such an incident to take place. Out of this was born an Ad Hoc committee:

ASSEFA: An Amharic Ethiopian name meaning "they have increased our family by coming into this world."

AFRICAN AMERICANS for SAFE SPACE EVERYWHERE FOR ALL

OUR GOALS

1) To bring awareness to Morehouse & the AUC about its culture of violence, misogyny, homophobia and sexism.

2) To demand appropriate and immediate action from Morehouse and AUC authorities for those perpetrating acts of violence.

3) To encourage Morehouse and the AUC to evaluate, deconstruct and; dismantle its culture of violence, misogyny, homophobia and sexism

This committee issued a press release and held a press conference today echoing these goals and the intent to hold the College accountable. All but one of the local television news outlets were present and have committed following the progress of the committee through to the end. We are also seeking support from national organizations, leaders, and political representatives to voice their concerns and demand an appropriate response from Morehouse.

But I am having a difficult internal struggle. While I understand the need to ensure that this incident is handled as a hate crime, I also recognize that the reality is that there are two victims. The attacker is a victim of being ill equipped to deal with his own homophobia and anger, both fueled by the overwhelming atmosphere of an anti-Gay administration and its policies. How do we as a society take responsibly for creating the very demons that we fear? Its easy to just write a sentence and send a young man to jail. Who should bear the responsibility of ensuring that the root cause of this young man's actions are reconciled? His family? Certainly there had to have been some prescedent set with the family of origin. The College? Clearly the environment already said that its ok to put "faggots" in their place. Now it says.. oops, just don't use a bat when doing it. The courts? Should the problem be shifted to the courts to determine a process for rehabilitation that the State of Georgia would ultimate be responsible for enforcing? I just don't have the answer and am unsettled knowing that another victim in this situation may have already lost his life, not physically, but emotionally and figuratively.

Posted by mesprime at November 13, 2002 11:09 PM
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