Racist slur hurled on campus, before a drink was poured on her.
By Raif Karerat
The University of Southern California campus was left reeling in the face of flagrant prejudice after Undergraduate Student Government President Rini Sampath published a trenchant Facebook post detailing an incident over the weekend when she had racist slurs hurled at her from inside one of USC’s fraternity houses.
According to Sampath, someone leaned out of a fraternity house window and shouted, “You Indian piece of s—!” Then he hurled a drink at her.
“Once his fraternity brothers realized it was me, they began to apologize,” she wrote in her Facebook post. “This stung even more,” she continued.
“I couldn’t quite figure out why their after-the-fact apologies deepened the wound. But one of my friends explained it to me the best this morning: ‘Because now you know, the first thing they see you as is subhuman.’”
Sampath, a senior international relations major, told the Washington Post that she opened up about the incident on social media because she wants to call attention to racism on her Los Angeles campus and to encourage other students who have been victimized by it to come forward and share their own stories.
Some people continue to doubt the need for safe spaces and the need for expanded cultural resource centers or the need for gender neutral bathrooms or the need for diversity in our curriculum or the need for diversity in our professors or the need for diversity in dialogue,” wrote Sampath.
“And to those who continue to believe we’re just playing the “race” card, I ask you this — what’s there to win here? A sense of respect? A sense of humanity? A sense of love and compassion for others regardless of how they look like?” she imploringly continued.
Sampath, 21, was born in Theni, a district in Tamil Nadu, India, and moved to the United States when she was six-years-old. Growing up, classmates in Arizona asked whether her mom was from Mars, while others told her she couldn’t play with them, reported The Post.
Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni said the university has a zero-tolerance policy for such “cowardly and hateful remarks.” He said that he has asked Sampath to file a formal complaint with the university’s Bias Assessment Response & Support team, which will review the case and decide how to proceed.
In the meantime, for minority students, Sampath stated: “Racism is alive and well.”
Sampath’s post, reprinted in full:
Last night, as I was walking back from my friend’s apartment, a student screamed out at me through the window of his fraternity house, “You Indian piece of shit!” before hurling his drink at my friends and me. Once his fraternity brothers realized it was me, they began to apologize. This stung even more. Today, as I try to unpack these events, I couldn’t quite figure out why their after-the-fact apologies deepened the wound. But one of my friends explained it to me the best this morning: “Because now you know, the first thing they see you as is subhuman.” And that’s the first thing some students on our campus see when they look at anyone who looks like me.
This was the same fraternity that kicked out a peer of mine from their tailgate after calling him a “fag.” That’s sickening.
I’m still in a state of shock. There’s an indescribable hollowness in me, but I’m going public with this because this can’t continue. Some people don’t believe racism like this can happen on our campus. Some people continue to doubt the need for safe spaces and the need for expanded cultural resource centers or the need for gender neutral bathrooms or the need for diversity in our curriculum or the need for diversity in our professors or the need for diversity in dialogue. And to those who continue to believe we’re just playing the “race” card, I ask you this — what’s there to win here? A sense of respect? A sense of humanity? A sense of love and compassion for others regardless of how they look like?
This isn’t an isolated incident. It happens everywhere. Last week, individuals in a pick-up truck yelled racial slurs at Mizzou’s Student Body President,Payton Head. Who knows what will happen to someone who looks like me today?
“You Indian piece of shit” is the type of language attackers have used before brutally murdering someone. Just look at Inderjit Singh Mukker. “You Indian piece of shit” are words used to humiliate someone for who they are. “You Indian piece of shit” continues to ring so loudly in my ears I still can’t shake it from me.
Whether racism or sexism or homophobia or transphobia happens on the internet, or behind closed doors, or in a small group setting, or as “just a joke,” it’s not okay. It’s never okay.
I was surrounded by nearly ten of my friends when this happened last night. I’m glad I was, because I don’t know what I would have done if I was alone. They consoled me by telling me, “Whatever you do the next morning will be the right thing.”
Well, I really don’t know what to do. For now, this is my public plea. I don’t know if what I have written here is enough, because there aren’t enough words in the world to summarize the experiences of people who look like me and what they go through every, single day.
We lost a football game last night, SC. But I think there’s something bigger, much bigger that we’re losing here. And we have to get it back.