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Fraternity Shut Down Over Racist Attack On Black Student
This is so effed up… A black student at Cornell was hospitalized Friday after an incident where he was called the N-word and beaten repeatedly.
The student, a junior at Cornell, spoke to The Sun on the condition of anonymity from Cayuga Medical Center, where medical personnel were determining if he has a concussion, he said.
The junior told The Cornell Sun that he was walking home on Eddy Street in Collegetown around 1 a.m. on Friday when he attempted to break up a fight in his front yard.
The student said he saw several people who do not live at his residence shoving his friends, and he shouted at them to leave the property.
As a group of four or five white men began to leave the driveway area of the student’s residence, the student said, they repeatedly shouted expletives and racial slurs at him.
“They said ‘Fuck you, ni**er,’ over and over, as they were leaving,” he said.
When the junior confronted them, “four or five of the guys came up and started punching me in the face repeatedly,” he said.
“I was pretty bloodied up.”
Damn. Can you imagine going to college to get a degree and facing THIS level of racism? Would you even want to stay at that school?
The Cornell junior wasn’t the only victim of these thugs either.
Another student who spoke on the condition of anonymity told The Sun that he was also called a racial slur about an hour later on Friday morning by one of the same students who had assaulted the junior.
In a video obtained by The Sun, two men can be seen confronting another student who is not shown in the video.
“You might be a sand-nigger black, but you’re not black” one man says in the video, later adding: “Come fight us, nigger.”
One man repeats the first phrase at the end of the video. Ithaca Mayor Svante Myrick said Ithaca Police had reviewed the video.
You can watch the video below:
Police responded to 306 Eddy St. at 1:38 am Friday, according to a press release from Ithaca Police Lt. John Joly. After taking several statements, police arrested one person on a misdemeanor charge of assault in the third degree.
“There were no significant injuries reported as a result of this incident,” Joly said in the release, adding that the department is investigating all aspects of the complaint, “including any racially biased motivation.”
The Sun spoke with a supervisor at the jail who said no one entered the jail Friday as of 6:30 pm, meaning the suspect likely posted bail before being processed through the jail.
And in the meantime, it appears the culprits have been identified.
Ryan Lombardi, vice president for student and campus life, confirmed the incident in an email to students and said the students involved in the assault may have been members of a “currently unaffiliated fraternity.”
“The university has launched an immediate investigation into the full circumstances of the incident,” Lombardi said.
Black Students United at Cornell University said in a statement that the people shouting the racial slurs were members of the Chi Chapter of Psi Upsilon, which had its recognition revoked by Cornell in May of 2016. The former president of Psi Upsilon, Wolfgang Ballinger ’17, pleaded guilty in February to forcible touching and was sentenced to probation.
“Pending the outcome of the investigation, the students responsible will be sanctioned and the ability of the fraternity to return to campus will no longer be considered,” Lombardi said in the statement.
The Washington Post has since identified the suspect as 19-year-old Cornell student John Greenwood. While Psi Upsilon Executive Director Thomas Fox said Wednesday that no one matching Greenwood’s name is a member, President Martha Pollack said this week that pending an investigation, the university would not reinstate the fraternity.
Sex assault one year and hate crimes the next? Sounds like they don’t have any place on a campus.
According to the Washington Post, Cornell said Tuesday that Psi Upsilon’s alumni board of governors notified the university that it plans to close the Chi chapter on the campus and convert the fraternity house into a space for use by other student organizations “that are dedicated to promoting a diverse and inclusive student community.”
The junior who said he was attacked told The Sun from the hospital that the incident is “just another reminder” that assaults of this nature occur in the United States.
“I can’t say I’m very surprised, with the political climate in our country and [things] like this happening all around,” he said. “I already know this happens, but it’s just another reminder.”
The student said he had spoken with his family and that they are “worried” about his safety and condition.
Black Students United, in its statement, said that “a young, hopeful black man was robbed of his dignity, safety, and identity” on Friday morning.
“The aftermath of the incident on Friday serves to remind the black population at this school that we are nothing but tokens, paraded around yet never protected,” the organization said.
“What eludes this campus is true equality among students of color and their white counterparts, impeded by superficial conversations about modern racial politics at a predominantly and historically white university,” BSU said.
Damn. Damn. Damn. We can’t even send our kids to school (PWIs) without some kinda racist BS happening.
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