I, a Black woman, was repeatedly called the n-word by three white men in front of my dorm on Sept. 25. In light of recent events, I no longer feel safe as a Black person on campus.
I was walking back to my dorm Thursday evening when I walked past three white men. As I climbed the ramp up to Alliance Hall, one of the men called out “SYBAU” (which means shut your b—- a– up), followed by the n-word. Confused by the statement, I turned and found the three men laughing at me.
They continued yelling out this statement and when another Black person walked past them, they turned to him and yelled “f— you.” Unfortunately, I froze in horror at the statements that were spewed at me. It was not until one of my friends, who witnessed the interaction, checked in on me when I fully realized what happened.
During my time at Hofstra University, I have felt relatively safe in my racial identity. Even when I was covering President Donald Trump’s presidential rally at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum last fall, I was not verbally assaulted. This is the first time in my four-year career at this institution that something like this has happened. Unfortunately, I am not surprised by the timing of it.
After the assassination of Charlie Kirk, more students of color around the nation have been targeted. After the lynching of Delta State University Student Demartravion “Trey” Reed, the targeting of historically Black colleges and universities and the manifesto that was sent to New York University students, I am scared as a college student of color.
The worst part about my experience on campus was not the interaction per se, but the aftermath. I went to Public Safety to report the incident and was allowed to watch the security footage. To my surprise, there was no credible evidence. This was due to the lack of sufficient cameras on the North Side of campus. There were only two cameras that could have potentially caught the men. The first is by the hill in between Alliance Hall and the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center – this camera was the clearest but only caught the back of their heads. The second camera was facing the parking lot. Therefore, it only caught the street rather than the path the three men took to leave the scene.
If the camera had been angled just a bit higher, I could have potentially received the justice that is deserved. Instead, the camera only caught a small portion of the group leaving. With that, the men disappeared and so did my faith in safety on campus.
Personally, I think that if a campus is open to the public and anyone can access it, our university should be investing in more and better cameras. With the high rates of school shootings and the obvious targeting of Black students, I think it is crucial that Hofstra can capture any evidence of potential wrongdoing. The lack of adequate cameras alone makes me fearful for my safety. Not only were three random men able to racially accost me, but they can now walk free because of insufficient security.
With the current rise in harassment of people of color, I do believe that with a boost in Public Safety and the addition of more equipment, Hofstra could potentially become a safer place for its minority population. According to Hofstra’s website, approximately half of the entire student population and 51% of the undergraduate population identify as people of color.
A situation such as this should not be able to happen without consequence. This was not an event that happened at night. I was not walking alone off campus. I was walking to my dorm on a sunny evening surrounded by other people, and this is not a one-off situation. I do believe that more situations like this will happen if there are no known repercussions. Public Safety did what they could to help, but without the proper equipment, only so much can be done. Hofstra needs to invest more in the safety of its students.
