Hate on Montana Tech’s Campus

Travis Eskelsen


A couple weeks ago I was walking into the South Campus for one of my late afternoon classes. With my arms completely full of books, I was rushing through the doors trying to make it to class on time. I was thinking to myself how heavy the books were, and why did we need so many books for just one class, when something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I stopped to take a closer look and could not believe what I saw. There hanging on one of the bulletin boards was a Phi Theta Kappa poster that someone had recklessly destroyed. This was not your average prank of drawing mustaches on the faces or such. Written on this poster in bold black marker was a message of racial hate and discrimination. I stood there for a minute in absolute disbelief, revolted by the markings on the poster. I could not believe that I was seeing this on Montana Tech’s campus.



There may be many of you out there that may turn a blind eye to such an incident, and there are many which do so. This is easy for many since they feel that this message was not directed toward them, so why should it be of any concern to them. This may be true, but what message is being sent by being ignorant to the situation? Today it might be just a single incident, and it needs to remain at that. If we give one group the power to infringe upon other groups rights, then who is going to stand up for you when someone else decides to infringe on your rights.
This wonderful country that we live in is built on the foundation that every citizen is granted freedom and civil liberties. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights have been written to safeguard our rights that we value dearly. I have great respect for our First Amendment which grants us the freedom of speech, but there needs to be a line drawn to ensure that other people’s rights are not violated. Similarly, in 1964, the Federal Civil Rights Act was passed. Through this law, it permits federal prosecution of anyone who "willingly injures, intimidates or interferes with another person, or attempts to do so, by force because of the other person's race, color, religion or national origin." In addition to the Civil Rights Act, in 1994 the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act was passed. The Violent Crime Control Act increases penalties for crimes committed on the basis of hate.
I was born and raised in southeastern Idaho, which in many ways is very similar to Montana in respects to the climate. The major difference I have noticed between the two states is here in Montana, you can be walking down the street and you will have complete strangers wave at you. It was this sense of community that made me fall in love with Montana and Butte. That is why I was so shocked about seeing such a blatant message of hate. I can understand having situations like this in the big cities, but never once did I expect it to hit so close to home.
Discrimination, unfortunately, happens every day in many forms. The university’s stand on discrimination is a no tolerance policy. Actions such as this have no place in any university system. This is why we need to band together as fellow students, and let everyone know that we are not going to tolerate discrimination and racial hate. Martin Luther King, Jr. stated, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” Let us spread the message of love throughout campus, and let the light of love drown out the existing darkness of hate.