We recently received a question from a potential future student, and we thought that we could serve them best by providing them with the community’s advice. Their question:

“I would like to attend this school someday… I’m an African American and I’m not racist. I fear racism, actually. I’m a freshman in high school haha, but any tips on how to deal with racists?”

Do you have any advice you’d like to share? Feel free to share here.

Here are the community’s thoughts so far:

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Dealing with racism is very similar to dealing with homophobia (for me). It depends a lot on the situation, but if it’s merely verbal, you simply have to be the bigger person and realize they’re a bigot and stuck in the past. It’s obviously upsetting, but try to ignore it. One thing I love about Ohio State is I have never witnessed “real life” homophobia or racism. Most people don’t say anything bad here because they know they’ll get teamed up on, so they cowardly tweet about it instead.

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Well to tell you the truth, racism is actually hard to deal with especially when racism is express through non-verbal microaggressions. There are also verbal microaggressions but you can deal with that easier since there are words being use and the point is clear but there’s been times I’ve dealt with verbal microaggressions and people just refuse to understand and stick to their views and that is frustrating. But non-verbal microaggressions are hard to spot and may take a long time to spot.

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As a white person, I don’t feel I can help with the prospective student very much. I do know we have multiple sororities and fraternities for African American students, and I’ve never heard of my friend being the target of racism. The best I can say is that there is a community here that can support you.

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Being Asian, I understand the fear of racism. But it came to an end when I came to this revelation in my last year in high school. People who are fueled by hate build their own doom. It degrades their humanity. Love doesn’t. People fueled by love aren’t alone and have no need to be afraid. It isn’t simply ignoring them; it’s denying them the chance to satisfy their sad gluttony for attention. Never forget: You are better than them, because you can love others. I hope this helps.

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There are certain classes you can take that talks about the struggles of oppressed identities where you can do projects about yourself and the struggles you experience in your lifetime thus far. This helped me a lot because I was able to tell people to stop using microaggressions. It’s hard to tackle non-verbal microaggressions verbally because it can easily be passed off as something else thus making you look foolish. I hope my advice has helped you understand how racism works in modern time.

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We recently received a question from a potential future student, and we think we could serve them best by providing them with your thoughts and advice. Their question:

“I would like to attend this school someday… I’m an African American and I’m not racist. I fear racism, actually. I’m a freshman in high school haha, but any tips on how to deal with racists?”

Submit your thoughts here. We’ll create another post with all of the comments coming in.

On Wednesday, October 24th, The Lantern published this quarter-page ad in the Arts and Entertainment section. Since then, The Lantern was asked to apologize for the ad by over 400 people in a petition linked here.

Does the ad deserve a place in The Lantern, or should The Lantern apologize for publishing it? What do you think about the ad?

Let us know here. We’ll update this post with all of the comments coming in.

Here are the community’s thoughts so far:

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they are ultimately responsible for screening the content of their ads, but with that being said, who made the Lantern the barometer of good taste? get that ad revenue! let the racists come out of the woodwork, let us see them in all their unapologetic glory, so that we may avoid and/or engage them at will (and take their money while we’re at it).

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Although I find the ad by flame distasteful, incorrect, and unsympathetic to the individuals who are being profiled because of a misconception due to being closed minded of their religion, I do not believe the ad will cause irreparable damage as long as the lantern apologizes and gives an explanation for the reason behind why the ad was published. Furthermore, the lantern should take precautions against any ad of demeaning content from appearing in the future.

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A newspaper should never allow publishing of material that generalizes accusations against an entire population. Journalists should know better. The only explanation for allowing this to happen, therefore, is the personal hatred of the lantern staff. They can check whether they are being biased or not by asking themselves a simple question: Would we allow an ad that laments Christianity as a violent religion, incompatible with western values, based on the violence inducing text in bible?

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Here’s a different perspective. What do you guys think? Here are the community’s thoughts so far:

Hi, I was reading blog from blog and I ended up here. I’m an Asian from France, and everytime I read this kind of racist post, I’m really shocked about it because this just can’t happen in France.

First, due to American history, there’s a strong ethnic separation. As I studied for one year in Canada, it seems totally normal to have African association/Asian association/Iranian assoc etc. In France, on the opposite we don’t, we even strongly reject this kind of community thing, for instance the Chinese government offered a Chinese “door/arch” to Paris but it was refused because that would have created official communities while we want integration.

Second, from what I’ve seen so far in  America, many ppl feel Black/Asian/[…] before American, but what is being American? America is a young country built by immigrants and diversity and that makes it rich culturally. But the pb now is accepting differences and talk about it, not just posting a stupid tweet. It’s totally possible to feel both without any struggle!
I can go on and on but it will be just a bigger mess and sorry for my English.

ps: you’re doing a really great jobs, your answers are really neutral and well explained!

“Why are you doing this? …”

- Our ultimate goal is to provide awareness to the hate speech that’s occurring online. OSU Haters believes that awareness is an important first step to tackling the issue of hate speech. By increasing awareness, not only will the victims take part in the effort to be rid of hate speech, but witnesses will also be compelled to do so. This way, we can increase the effectiveness of the student groups and university organizations working on this problem by providing evidence of their necessity, and help people decide to take part in those efforts.

We expose all forms of hate, not just racism. Prejudice and promoting stereotypes fall under that category as well.

The discussions and dialogue about hate speech we have been seeing is amazing. It’s important that we talk about these issues and grow together into better people, and make this university an even more diverse and happy place. Please remember to be civil – spread love and understanding.

Don’t succumb to hate or harassment – that defeats the purpose. In the end, hate cannot solve hate. As adults, especially mature college students, let’s avoid confrontation and accusations. Instead of stooping down to that level, let’s bring everyone else up. Let our ultimate goal be of inclusion and learning, through intellectual discussions.

As long as there is hate speech at OSU, we will continue to expose it. Once OSU becomes the model of diversity and inclusion, OSU Haters will have accomplished its goal.