News-Record.com

... a Guilford College official .. write a letter only to students of color.

Yea .. bad idea. He must have failed Comminication 101 and therefore never qualified for any more advanced management courses.

REALLY sad when you consider failing a 100-level course - in a Community College.

Who is the Guilford official and what was in the letter? Does anyone know?

Carol, the letter from the Guilford College offical:http://tinyurl.com/3ydree

And here:

January 21, 2007

Students of Color and/or International Students:

By now, most of you have heard about the situation that occurred on Friday night between some football players and Faris Khader, Osama Sabbah and Omar Awartini (a student from NC State). Faris, Osama and Omar were defending themselves against students (and possible perspective students) that were attacking them physically and simultaneously verbally with phrases like “sandnigga”, “terrorist”, etc. The incident was a hate crime.

We must be united as people of color more than ever. What happened to these three young men could have happened to any one of us. This is the reality of racism and no institution, including Guilford, in this country, is free of it.

We are concerned about your safety and your mental, spiritual and emotional health. If you feel unsafe, need to talk, or anything else, please do not hesitate to contact us. In addition, we will have a gathering to discuss how this is affecting you/us/people of color Monday, January 21, 2007 (tomorrow) at 9pm in the International House. This meeting is ONLY for students of color. This affects us in a different way than our white allies
and we only need to have a safe place to discuss how we are feeling.

I have included cell numbers for myself and Jorge Zeballos, International Student Advisor and Latino Initiative Coordinator. We have been working with Faris, Osama and Omar are meeting continuously this weekend. If you have any questions or concerns, we will be able to answer them. In addition, if you would like to reach out to other Multicultural Education staff members, I have included their information as well.

Thanks and I see you on tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Sekinah Hamlin
Director of Multicultural Education

Boy,

I bet they'd love it if a bunch of white folks decided to have a meeting on campus that was ONLY for white people. After all, this affects us differently than our black allies.

Thanks for the link. What a disgusting letter. The writer should be dismissed and forced to write a letter of apology, imo. He should also be given a grammar lesson. "I see you on tomorrow"

I hope the college officials will deal with this individual.

Carol, are you serious? While I believe in the coreness of Guilford College; at this level it is "political" in nature. And to "relieve" such a person as Sekinah would invoke a discrimination lawsuit not seen before!

I recall hearing on the news about this said gathering of "people of color." What a shame and disgrace for this to happen at Guilford. I am saddened that my offerings to my YM help to support such shameless atrocities.

Maybe I will bring this to the attention to my MM & YM! It never hurts to have discussion and dialogue!

Shalom

That's an unfortunate letter. This whole incident is a call not only for justice but also for virtue. For me, I cannot make any real comment about what allegedly occurred without more factual information. I don't know really what happened. I know what I read and hear but....? I wish that a formal/official resolution and response would be forth coming as loose ends leaves alot up for grabs and most of it non-productive.

Guilford College will not weather the storm. These days, thanks to the internet, storms are everlasting.

*****

The only established fact about what happened at Guilford is that a bunch of guys got into a fight.

That fight has morphed into a commentary on race relations. It has prompted debate on just about every communications medium in the world. It has spawned leaps to judgment spanning yawning chasms of hearsay (sorry), backhanding due process, neutering the Constitution.

It has also done indeterminate damage to Guilford College and Greensboro itself. Damage that cannot be undone.

Why can't it be undone? Because it has been YouTubed. It has been MySpaced. It has been digitized.

Enter "Greensboro North Carolina" in YouTube and the first thing you see, thanks to the Truth and Reconcilliation Commission, is video of a 70s-issue gunbattle between those paragons of Gate City virture, the Klan and the Communist party.

Next, you'll see news video about the "ethnically-charged" thumping at Guilford College.

Now and forever, these will be the world's perceptions of our beloved chunk of the planet. We are now viewed by millions, if not billions, as that sad little corner of the world where Mayberry meets Baghdad meets Watts.

Ten years from now, when a prospective student Googles 'Guilford', proud elms, red bricks and verdant spaces will yield to "racism", "ethnic attack" and "hate crime". When a corporation decides to relocate, someone on the board is bound to say, 'I don't think so. They have race riots there.'

Why? Not because sticks and stones broke bones that night in the quad at Guilford, but because 20 year olds got into a fight, and when 20-year-olds get into a fight, they call each other every name in the book, plus a lot of names never put in the book. TIVO "COPS", count the beeps, each beep representing a verbal ugliness that, in the sober light of dawn, becomes an atrocity.

And the "atrocity" becomes the storm that, merited or not, never ends.

We know there was a fight at Guilford College. Fights happen.

To pervert Rodney King: "Can't we all just not get along?"