Earlier on Thursday, Dean Huang sent out an email to the students detailing a supposed attack on the 5 C gay community. The story is further explored in the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin by Wil Bigham with the misleading headline of "Gay Help Center Target of Vandals."
Here's what happened. Somebody used a "most of a [fire] extinguisher" in the kitchen of the Queer Resource Center of the Claremont Colleges.
This isn't a case of vandalism.
Cynthia Peters, a spokesman for Pomona College, did not even have details on what specific items were damaged or vandalized.
Is there any reason to think that the user of a fire extinguisher "targeted" the gay community?
Only at the end of the article do we discover that no, there isn't.
There have been no confirmed hate crime incidents this academic year at Pomona College toward gay students, Peters said.
Me thinks some people are disappointed that there hasn't been an attack. Keri Dunn, anyone?
Saturday, February 2, 2008
The Pomona Gay Attack That Didn't Happen
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5 comments:
I agree Charles, in fact, when the email came out I was also thinking "What makes this an attack on the gay community?"
A humble suggestion, as you move on into the greater blogging world (congradulations):
Usually when an incident like this happens, it's customary to express, or at least fake , your regret that it took place. A disclaimer along the lines of "While it's unfortunate that this incident caused a major headache and distress for a number of my fellow students..." is generally appropriate. You can go on to make whatever point you want.
Also, neither the article nor the email claimed that this was a hate crime, just that it was vandalism. (Maybe the headline implied otherwise, but then, so does yours.) Do you have other information or an alternate theory?
Look...this is quite possibly the most ridiculous post i've seen in a while. How can you not see the attack on the gay community? Several individuals used a fire extinguisher in the Queer Resource Center, you think they just happened upon the building and didnt realize what it was? Of course they did. They looked for and found the Queer Resource Center and chose to attack and destroy property of said center. These individuals most certainly did not go out that night looking for any old building to attack. No, they went out looking to humiliate and bring down the gay community of the 5Cs and more specifically Pomona College.
What evidence is there, if any, from that article that would make you think that this is an "attack" on the gay community? Couldn't it just as plausibly be that some people were just clowning around?
There's no writing, no gay slurs, and no evidence that the attackers -- assuming they were attacks in the first place -- intended to harm the gay community. In fact, as far as I know, there's no evidence that the attackers weren't gay.
If you have any further information, I'd love to hear it. Forgive me for being skeptical at a school where writing "Hillary is a foxy lesbian" becomes a "bias-related incident."
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