America
Racial abuse on US campus against Indian-origin student fuels debate
New York, Sep 24
The University of Southern
California (USC)-Irvine has condemned racial slur made by a fraternity
member against an Indian-origin student leader that sparked debate on
the campus and on social media, media reported.
Last week, a USC
fraternity member hurled a racial epithet -- "You Indian piece of s**t"
-- and threw his drink at Rini Sampath, student body president at the
university, the Los Angeles Times reported on Wednesday.
Sharing
the incident later on social media that sparked buzz on the campus,
21-year-old Sampath also lambasted racial abuse being experienced by
other students from different ethnicities.
This prompted the
university officials to distribute a letter on the campus when students
gathered to express "sadness, anger and dismay" over the incident.
"The
USC Inter-fraternity Council also issued a statement condemning the
actions, standing 'in solidarity with Rini' and other victims of bias
and supporting the unnamed fraternity's decision to suspend the
offending student's membership and eject him from the chapter house,"
the report added.
Sampath's move to raise the issue on social media received support messages from users from India and Denmark.
Her post was even shared by Junot Diaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"This story is really not about me," Sampath was quoted as saying.
"It
is about what the greater community goes through on a daily basis. I
hope this creates a national conversation about race relations on
campus, because these kinds of things do not just happen at USC," she
emphasised.
Sampath said the weekend incident brought back "a
flood of memories" of racism in her life. She remembers when white girls
would tell her she could not play with them because of her skin colour.
According
to her, when she ran for the student body president, she received
racist messages such as: "A vote for Rini is a vote for Al Qaeda."
"My
intention of making this public plea is so we can move forward, come up
with solutions and come together as a community," she urged.
Meanwhile, some defended the racial slur as free speech while others argued that the incident should have been handled quietly.
Sampath was born and raised in India, Singapore, Arizona and the Bay Area before moving to Irvine in Orange County, California.