L E T T E R S T O T H E E D I T O R :

Respect and understanding are vital
Dialogue about Partridge essay may help build larger movement
Black does not equal heterosexual

Respect and understanding are vital

To the Editors:

My concern in writing this is to address some of the issues raised by recent campus discussions about hate crimes in the US. It is important to recognize that hate crimes, as currently defined in this country, are crimes which have an additional element of ethnic/racial/gender/sexuality animosity expressed in them, often giving the crime a deeper cultural resonance because it threatens all members of the group of the victim. As such, the victims of hate crimes have many and diverse faces.

Regarding the events around the Mathew Shepard case it is important to make several distinctions. First, this was the first time that this kind of LGBT focused hate crime was publicized and commented on by the national media. There have been many such crimes in the past, but they have not attracted the attention of the mainstream media. Second, as tends to be characteristic of these kinds of crimes, the murder of Shepard was marked by its viciousness. He was tortured, set on fire, fastened to a barbed wire fence and left to die. Law enforcement officers have commented on the extreme cruelty of these kinds of crimes. Third, this viciousness reminded some commentators of the lynching of African American men in the South, so cruelly reenacted in the dragging death of the African American man in Jasper, Texas. Afi-Odelia Scruggs, the Cleveland Plain Dealer writer made this point in a recent column. Finally, during this year, we have seen a concerted effort by conservative figures to once again re-cast homosexuality as a disease, led by no less a figure than the Majority Leader of the Senate, Trent Lott. And, once again, a fear campaign about the homosexual menace filled the coffers of the right wing in the run-up to the just completed election.

One of the characteristics of the campus discussion is that it often reveals the lack of knowledge of the experiences and situations of others. We are moving rapidly into an intensely diverse world, but without the skills to reach out to or learn about each other. Without understanding and respecting each other, it will be difficult to form the kinds of coalitions which will protect our diverse, and converging interests.

-William Norris, Professor of Sociology

Dialogue about Partridge essay may help build larger movement

To the Editors: I am writing this letter in response to John Partridge's letter in the Review last week, "Matthew Shepard and the True Implications of Hate Crime" which I so irresponsibly and regrettably endorsed. It was irresponsible of me to endorse such a letter and I truly want to apologize to the people it hurt. Partridge's letter is homophobic, divisive and thoroughly destructive of any goal to build solidarity between those who are trying to fight against homophobia and racism. Outrage around Matthew Shepard's death is a moment to begin to connect these two forms of oppression and the communities who are resisting these forms of oppression. Partridge's letter fully silences the queer community and queer activism as a whole, and particularly denies the experience of queer people of color. This letter, by not addressing the experience of queer people of color, is setting up a dichotomy between race and sexuality in which queer people are assumed to be white and people of color are assumed to be straight. This dichotomy silences the experience of queer people of color and is something we should constantly be struggling against as activists who are fighting against racism and homophobia. We also need to problemetize at what moments, as activists, we choose to critique other activists and movements. Partridge's letter does not acknowledge the position of queer community in response to Matthew Shepard's death. Over this past summer there have been increased attacks on gays and lesbians, from Trent Lott, to the "ex-gay" ad campaigns to the brutal murder of Matthew Shepard. Not only is the queer community under attack right now it is also in mourning over the death of yet another victim of scapegoating, bigotry and homophobia. To attack them at this moment is not only demoralizing, but it silences the experiences and struggle of queer people on this campus. Everyday acts of hate, violence and bigotry happen without the public outrage and response they deserve. The huge response to Matthew Shepard's death is a moment to further connect the liberation movements of queer people and people of color. We must acknowledge the deep divides between these movements and find ways that we can better act in solidarity together on this campus and nationwide. This means we have to look deeply at the homophobia and racism that persists in our various organizations. It also means we need to further understand the diversity of experience that our moments of action and inaction come out of. The individual who painted the rock on Tappan square with words, "Now hate crimes have a face" silenced other communities, particularly communities of color, who have also been the targets of hate crimes and bigoted violence. While we need to critique the ignorance that motivated that particular statement, we also must acknowledge the pain, outrage, and resistance to homophobic violence that motivated that statement and find how we can be in solidarity with that resistance. Many activists are outraged at the inadequate response of anti-racist organizations to the death of Matthew Shepard. While we must critique this, we also must acknowledge the outrage that comes out of the inconsistency in response to the death of James Byrd and Matthew Shepard. Both the actions of whoever painted the rock and the inaction of anti-racists activists deserve critique and understanding in order that we may ultimately build a movement that doesn't silence either community. The dialogue that came out the reactions to this letter is vital and will help us build such a movement.

-Eva Owens, College junior

Black does not equal heterosexual

To the Editors:

No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a person of substance, offlesh and bone, fiber and liquids- and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. -Ralph Ellison

To John Partridge:

The exclusion in your letter of the existence of queer folk of color was duly noted. (You may not see us, but we see you.) We deal daily with the problems racism and homophobia bring to our lives. "Gay" does not equal "white" anymore than "black" equals "heterosexual."

Please make peace with your whiteness before you'd defend our blackness. The overcompensation has got to stop. Because it's okay to be Anglo. Really it is.

But we still got love for you.

To the "Undersigned:"

Do any of you remember Jim Jones? Not since the days of "Jonestown" have we seen so many different people of color and sexual identities follow a white man so blindly. You guys might want to wait a while before licking the Kool-Aid from your lips-traces of cyanide might be present.

To the Oberlin College G/L/B/T community:

The struggle continues. Let's not kid ourselves into believing racism and sexism don't exist in the Queer community. They do. If Matthew Shepard was instead "Maria Shepard," a Latina lesbian, would we have cared so deeply? We hope so, for all our sakes.

To ABUSUA:

"Why black people always be the ones to settle? March through these streets like Soweto."

To the Oberlin Black community:

Pain recognize pain, y'all. And the pain we felt concerning the lack of black representation at the candlelight vigil was deep.

One last thing: for anybody that didn't know before, we EXIST.

-Khary Polk

-Ryan Canty

-Tyrone Rogers

-Star Perkins

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