2008 Woodie Awards
Together for tolerance
Jonathan T. White and Derek Pierre
Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: Editorial
It cannot be overstated the time, energy and commitment required to run for student body president. In these last two weeks we have given up our day-to-day in order to put ourselves out there, put our names into your minds, and plaster our signs all over campus. Typically in a student government election the candidates spar at the debates, fight to woo voters and do everything they can to position themselves above the other. Until last Friday this was a typical student government election.
Derek Pierre:
Early Friday morning around 9:00am I left my dorm feeling prepared and ready to tackle the days task. As I was walking past the Rec Center I noticed all of my campaign signs were torn down. I then walked over to pick them up and noticed that the signs had the word "Nigger" and "White Power" spray-painted on them. Right then as my heart sunk to my stomach, I felt a huge trembling sensation run down my spine. This was something that I was neither prepared nor ready for. I felt lost and scared as if I was in a foreign place were I did not belong. I was at a loss of words and felt ostracized. Naturally I walked over to the EOP office, a place where I felt safe and protected from the hate and discrimination. Right away Joyce Chong (the Director of EOP) was there and helped contact the appropriate authorities on campus. I do not see myself as a victim in this situation rather I see myself as a survivor, a rock. In order to only grow from this experience I cannot let this penetrate through me.
Jonathan T. White:
I got the news at work. Someone had defaced our election signs with racist, supremacist words. We had been targeted in an act of hate. I do not know what it is like to be black, but as an openly gay man, I know what it is like to be queer at Sonoma State University. I know what it is like to be part of a vanishingly small minority. This is not the first time I have been the target of hate.
Pierre & White:
We met later that evening and we embraced. Immediately, we shed two weeks of competitiveness, two weeks of anxiety, two weeks of stress. We introduced ourselves to one another for the first time. Derek is the first in his family to go to college. Jonathan is a high-school drop-out. We had a lot in common. Neither had had an easy path to Sonoma State. We confessed the admiration we each held for the other.
Derek Pierre:
Early Friday morning around 9:00am I left my dorm feeling prepared and ready to tackle the days task. As I was walking past the Rec Center I noticed all of my campaign signs were torn down. I then walked over to pick them up and noticed that the signs had the word "Nigger" and "White Power" spray-painted on them. Right then as my heart sunk to my stomach, I felt a huge trembling sensation run down my spine. This was something that I was neither prepared nor ready for. I felt lost and scared as if I was in a foreign place were I did not belong. I was at a loss of words and felt ostracized. Naturally I walked over to the EOP office, a place where I felt safe and protected from the hate and discrimination. Right away Joyce Chong (the Director of EOP) was there and helped contact the appropriate authorities on campus. I do not see myself as a victim in this situation rather I see myself as a survivor, a rock. In order to only grow from this experience I cannot let this penetrate through me.
Jonathan T. White:
I got the news at work. Someone had defaced our election signs with racist, supremacist words. We had been targeted in an act of hate. I do not know what it is like to be black, but as an openly gay man, I know what it is like to be queer at Sonoma State University. I know what it is like to be part of a vanishingly small minority. This is not the first time I have been the target of hate.
Pierre & White:
We met later that evening and we embraced. Immediately, we shed two weeks of competitiveness, two weeks of anxiety, two weeks of stress. We introduced ourselves to one another for the first time. Derek is the first in his family to go to college. Jonathan is a high-school drop-out. We had a lot in common. Neither had had an easy path to Sonoma State. We confessed the admiration we each held for the other.
Be the first to comment on this story