by Alisha Rosas
Arts & Entertainment Editor
An informative rally was held at noon Monday at Sneaky Park, in result to an incident involving racist statements that were directed toward University of La Verne students by an unidentified man last Friday.
The rally, which consisted of both students and faculty members, had a primary goal of getting information about the incident to the ULV community.
Dr. Richard Rose, assistant professor of religion and philosophy, helped arrange the rally along with the Coalition for Diversity. After finding out about the incident on Friday, Dr. Rose questioned the witnesses as to whether they felt it was appropriate to inform the community about the occurrence — after students agreed that it was, he went toward planning the rally.
“We tried to make the University community aware of what has taken place, describe the individual and give some suggestions with respect to how students should react if something of this sort happens to them,” he said.
Catholic Campus Minister Elena Cardeña described the rally “It was a somber, sober rally. We were all there because it was a human issue,” she said. “We are not going to stand for this. The students, faculty and staff have a right to feel safe and to flourish in this environment.
“It is a very important thing to do. The reason it is important is to acknowledge that something has happened and that we’re not going to let it slide by. The power behind [the rally] is to not let it fall away or pretend that it was not even there.”
The event began when Dr. Rose introduced junior Kephayan Sheppard to the rally listeners. Sheppard had stepped forward as a witness to the racial incident and explained to about what happened to those who were uninformed of it.
He said that a ULV freshman was walking to class in the afternoon and was harassed by a middle-aged Caucasain male driving a blue Toyota Corolla. After threatening the female student with his car between the American Armenian International College (AAIC) building and the Barkley Building, the man began shouting racial slurs at the student, Sheppard said.
After he pointed at the man’s car, Sheppard said, the man starting making statements about how African-Americans do not belong in the city of La Verne. The man has not been seen since the incident.
Sheppard has a feeling that the man will return to ULV. “I think anyone who is brave enough to assault a young woman in broad delight is very capable of doing something stupid. I think he’ll be back – stuff like this doesn’t die out.”
Cardeña understands the concern, “One of the things that makes this scary for us is that we don’t know if this guy is just blowing off steam or being a jerk, or if this is someone who is tremendously dangerous to us as a community. We all need to just say that this is not going to happen again.”
John Lentz, director of Campus Safety and Transportation, informed students on various safety tips for this type of situation.
“Report all incidents to the police and protect yourself. Do not approach the vehicle and get as much information about the vehicle as possible,” said Lentz.
Dr. Rose stressed the importance of not retaliating in racial situations. “I do not think that it is appropriate to challenge these individuals that are harassing us, because all that will lead to is a confrontation where I don’t think anyone wins.”
Sheppard showed no anger toward the man and said, “This man isn’t going to scare anybody. Yelling [racial slurs] isn’t going to change anything. He should deal with it – we’re not going anywhere.”
Some students in attendance to the rally felt that more student opinion should have been voiced. Dr. Rose agrees; however his primary concern was getting the information out.
“My initial concerns for the rally was informative and to try and prevent students from acting in ways that could cause them to be hurt. I was not at the time looking for a way to solve all the problems that are associated with this sort of an event. It was more effective to get the information out that this event had occurred.”
The rally ended with Cardeña leading everyone in a prayer. Everyone held hands to form a circle as Cardeña prayed.
“I think that type of spirituality is helpful,” said Dr. Rose, “because it, again talks about our connectiveness as opposed to those things that divide us.”
Cardeña said that the prayer “grounded” those to what was sacred. “It was to remind us that as nasty as this certain incident is, that goodness prevails. We do have Campus Police, it’s good to have God also.”
