UMass speaks out against hate

AMHERST, Mass.--An ad-hoc coalition of students at the University of Massachusetts (UMass) came together and, on a few days' notice, organized a "Speak-Out Against Hate" February 25 to protest a racist right-wing newspaper.

The Minuteman began appearing on campus earlier in the month. Published by a registered student organization calling itself "The Silent Majority," the paper has outraged members of oppressed groups on campus and their allies with its blatant racism, homophobia, sexism, transphobia and targeting of individuals involved in social justice organizing on campus.

"The Silent Majority," and many of the students involved in publishing the paper, are also members of the UMass Republican Club.

The front cover of The Minuteman (which is also the UMass mascot) features a picture of Jason Vassell, a former UMass student currently awaiting trial and facing a potential maximum of 30 years in prison for defending himself in his dorm from racist attackers.

The article, titled "Who's Paying Jason's Lawyers?...You are," alleges that Vassell and the Committee for Justice For Jason Vassell received assistance in the form of T-shirts from the UMass Student Government Association (SGA). On the back cover, there is a photograph of Malcolm X with the caption, "Is This YOUR SGA?"--a reference to a poster of Malcolm X that hangs in the office of the SGA, where a number of the representatives are progressive students and outspoken supporters of the Justice for Jason campaign.

The real outrage is that Vassell is being charged at all, and it makes sense that SGA would support a student assaulted and called a "nigger" by non-students while sitting in his dorm room.

If The Minuteman staff were truly concerned about "wasteful spending," they might have saved the cover for a feature on the hundreds of billions being handed to the banks and spent to kill Iraqis and Afghanis while UMass tuition is scheduled to increase by $1,500 next year.

However, the allegations of wrongdoing are simply a cover for racism and other forms of hate.

Inside the paper, an article by Ed Cutting entitled "Jason: Be A Man," begins with "Jason, if you were a real man, none of this would have happened." He goes on to blame Vassell for causing his attackers relatively minor injuries with a small knife--which Cutting believes was an unreasonable reaction from an African American man who was being attacked by two white men screaming racial slurs. Cutting ends his piece by giving his respect to all "the young men with enough courage to not 'go ghetto.'"

The paper is filled with hatred and has been aptly described by once local activist as tantamount to a "Klan rag." The Minuteman refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people as the "LBGTQWRSYZ community," and claims that "the only thing more queer than [openly-gay Congressman Barney] Frank's thinking on economics is his behavior in the bedroom."

The paper features an article presenting the supposed downside of a transgender civil rights bill (they put "civil rights" in quotes), illustrated by a stereotypical photograph of a "drag queen" performer. It begins with the sentence "What a drag!" and raises the specter of transgender people using bathrooms appropriate to their chosen gender.

The UMass Republican Club advertised their next event in the paper, which reveals their true agenda. It's called "Exposing the Malicious Myth of Liberalism: Hate Crimes." This is particularly outrageous given the recent history of hate crimes on campus.

ALL OF this is enough to make African Americans, LGBT people, women, immigrants and other oppressed people on campus feel attacked and unsafe.

That sentiment was expressed by the students at the speak-out, who represented a cross section of the student body, including members of those groups attacked by The Minutemen--people of color, LGBT people, women and their allies.

On top of attacking these communities, the paper singles out Dan Keefe, an organizer in the Justice for Jason campaign. The paper refers to him as "Danny the Tranny" and "Dan 'Prom Queen' Keefe," and features a photograph of him dressed in makeup and a skirt.

Keefe spoke at the Speak-Out Against Hate, which he co-chaired, and placed the attack in the context of a history of harassment from members of the Republican Club.

Last year, when Keefe was sitting in the campus office of the Radical Student Union (RSU), members of the Republican Club on numerous occasions gave him the finger and call him a "faggot" as they walked by the office. Keefe pointed out that putting his picture in paper was "like putting a target on me, saying 'Gay bash me.'"

After calling out the UMass administration for failing to stand up for him and others who have been the victims of hate on campus, Keefe ended with a message of hope. "This struggle is all of our struggles," he said. "We're on the same side."

Others echoed this sentiment--acknowledging both the fear of attack and the desire to stand up and fight back.

One woman stated that she felt unsafe walking alone at night. Another expressed her fear of police, saying, "Police don't necessarily mean safety...we are our own safety."

William Syldor, a member of the RSU and organizer with the Justice for Jason campaign, gave a moving speech that illustrated the role oppression plays in "keeping people divided and conquered":

If we ever chose to destroy our socially constructed selves, and join our being with other human beings, if we were ever to truly unite, then the glass that the system lays on will begin to crack. United rebellion is all the system truly fears, it is the Achilles heel...The only true end of oppression lies in the end of us, so we remain divided and small and weak.

Another speaker pointed out that these groups are often pitted against one another by the mainstream media and politicians, whether it's the 2008 election that raised the absurd question of whether Blacks or women are more oppressed, or the way some sought to blame Blacks for the passage of the antigay Proposition 8.

But by attacking so many oppressed people, The Minuteman has brought us together and created an opportunity for us to join hands and stand against all oppression no matter who it targets.

Organizers stressed that the speak-out was only a first step. Dozens of attendees signed up for an e-mail list, and there will be a follow-up meeting on March 2, at 7:30 p.m. in the Pride Alliance office in the UMass Student Union to talk about next steps. In addition, they pointed out that importance of electing progressive students in the upcoming Student Government Association election.

As UMass student and member of the International Socialist Organization Charles Peterson said, "We're the majority, so we need to not be silent, and talk to people and bring even more to our next event."