Last week, the NCC community had received yet another email from President Troy Hammond about bias incidents on campus. The email stated that since the start of the spring semester, the number of incidents reported on campus increased noticeably, ranging from “homophobic statements and actions directed towards students to displaying an unauthorized flyer that promotes white supremacist propaganda.”
The email continues to say that the College is “committed to fighting racism, bigotry, homophobia and bias in all of its forms.”
Likewise, Student Governing Association President Elizabeth Ekerty said she was “saddened” when she received the email from Hammond. “To me, North Central has been this beautiful melting pot of so many different kinds of people. It hurts my heart to hear that certain individuals have not been respecting that pot,” Ekerty said. “This period of COVID has been the hardest to live through for so many individuals, please show each other grace and kindness.”
Words of hate
One of the bias incidents regarded a flyer found in the Boilerhouse Cafe. The flyer was titled “Never Forget That They Hate You.” It was covered in a collage of hate messages directed towards white people.
Most of the messages were from Twitter. They described, among other things, the desire to rape and kill white people.
One message read, “#FuckWhites, today at work at mcdonalds, I spit in all white peoples food #YesAllWomen getting back for slavery.” Another said, “Are white people genetically predisposed to burn faster in the sun, thus logically being only fit to live underground like groveling goblins.” Still, another said, “Sorry, I just… I get really excited about white genocide. It’s gonna be the best genocide ever. I made a pinterest board for it.” And the messages keep going. The source of the flyer is unknown.
Complex, layered intent
Assistant Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Rebecca Gordon said, “that flyer is not a conversation … it’s trying to come off as a statement of fact.”
After school officials review the bias incident, they try to determine the intent of the person who created it. It was determined that the poster was trying to say that white supremacy is under threat.
“The content used in the flyer is consistent with the framework used for white supremacist propaganda,” said Gordon. “White supremacist propaganda sends misleading messages that reinforce stereotypes, white victimhood, fear and hate intended to resonate with like-minded individuals and create divisiveness based on race or other social identity group.”
The intent of the flyer was complex and layered. In other words, it appeared to draw out existing racial tension to put students on edge.
Tweets from NCC professor
Two of the tweets included on the flyer were from Adam Kotsko, visiting assistant professor in the Shimer School.
For example, they read, “Whether or not your individual ancestors owned slaves, you as a white person have benefitted from slavery and are complicit in it. Sorry.” and “We should commit mass suicide.”
Kotsko responded to The Chronicle and said he posted the tweet over five years ago. He intended it as a joke, “to mock oversensitive white people who believe that anti-racism means that individual white people should feel guilty or even deserve punishment simply for being white.” He thought it would be obvious that his proposal for all white people to kill themselves was not serious.
While Kotsko responded to one individual, he said conservative outlets published his tweet. This led him to receive thousands of comments telling him to commit suicide, often phrased as “you go first.”
“While I regret making a remark that was so easily misconstrued and taken out of context,” Kotsko said, “I do not regret mocking those paranoid views, which are truly unfounded and ridiculous. The point isn’t to make individual white people feel guilty or punish them, but to work together to dismantle oppressive systems.”
NCC’s response
Regarding NCC’s efforts to address bias incidents, Gordon describes a “difficulty in addressing climate issues with a population of students that change.”
The College tries to teach students about implicit bias, bystander intervention and hosts programs for faculty, students and staff. A strong aspect of NCC’s campus, Gordon notes, is that students report incidents such as those above.
Below are resources for students who witness a bias incident.
- Contact Campus Safety by calling 630-637-5911 or make an anonymous call to the Campus Conduct Hotline by calling 866-943-5787.
- Report a bias incident here.
- Access the NCC Bias Incident Resource Guide.
- Connect with support at the Dyson Wellness Center.
- View campus community Bias Incident Data.
- Learn more about the College’s ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion efforts here.
