By the Rev. Scott M. Kershner University Chaplain
Our community has a problem.
Did you know that since September there have been 20 incidents of bias and hate on campus reported to Public Safety? Who can say how many others have gone unreported?
Some of these recent incidents have been responded to with a statement to the community.
Others have not. Many of us are aware of some of these events, but few are aware of all of them.
On April 11, we had a solemn reading of the incidents at the fountain outside Degenstein Campus Center. Hearing faculty and staff step to the mic and read them one at a time felt to me like a gut punch.
Some members of our community go through their days with limited knowledge of these events, or feel they have little relevance or impact on their lives. Some—especially students of color, LGBTQ+ students and Jewish students—are intensely aware of these events.
They tell me how they are haunted by them, making them feel unsure of their safety on their own campus and like outsiders in their own community.
These events reveal that experiences of life on this campus are not equal. Students, faculty and staff from non-majority groups often experience a vastly different campus and community than those from the majority.
I do not know what motivates a person to be hateful in this way, but I do know that these acts weaken our communal bonds and diminish us all.
It is time for everyone of good will—which is the vast majority of our campus—to recognize how damaging these acts are and how pervasive they have become.
Whether or not you are a member of a certain targeted group, creating a campus where every human being is regarded with dignity and value is vital work for which each one of us bears profound responsibility.
Issues of bias are never simply the concern of the targeted group; they are about the integrity of our community as a whole, and they are everyone’s business.
I believe it is time to move beyond the language of tolerance to the higher calling of love of neighbor.
We demonstrate our love and care for one another by confronting bigotry and intolerance when we encounter it. But perhaps even more important than that, we demonstrate our love and care for one another by rallying around those who have been targeted with care, support, solidarity and the unwavering affirmation that we see them, value them and walk shoulder to shoulder with them.
Love understands that we are all in this together.
As Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “What affects one directly affects all indirectly.”
Chaplain’s Corner reflects the views of an individual member of the religious field. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire university. The content of the Forum page is the responsibility of the editor in chief and the Forum editor.
