Posted: 12/06/07

Phony Hate Crimes

Kerby Anderson

It's bad enough there is so much hate in the world. We don't need people going out and creating phony hate crimes as well. But there seems to be a rash of it, especially on college campuses.

The one that got lots of attention this fall took place at George Washington University. Students awoke to a campus blanketed with posters that blared: "HATE MUSLIMS? SO DO WE!!" The posters depicted a "typical Muslim" with "lasers in eyes" and "venom from mouth" and a "suicide vest" and "peg leg for smuggling children and heroin."

The poster said it was an advertisement for Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week sponsored by the Young America's Foundation in conjunction with David Horowitz's Freedom Center. Well the president of the YAF chapter was brought before the inquisition and asked to explain the posters.

But he could not. His group didn't put the posters up. In fact, if someone in the administration had read the small print, they would have seen that they were put up by a group called "Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness" and posted a link to an antiwar video on the Internet. The posters were an attempt to mock conservative students on campus. Seven left-wing students admitted responsibility the next day and were shocked that some didn't understand that they were trying to vilify conservative students.

In the past there have been a racial epithets written on the walls of Old Miss and a supposed "Say Yes to Racism." Turned out those were done by black students. And racial and anti-Semitic messages were scrawled on the walls of a college in Ohio. But administration dropped the matter when it turned out that they were written by a group of left-wing students led by a Black Studies major.

Students will often do immature and even hurtful things to get attention. But I would recommend that university administrations and the media at least wait 24 hours before reacting. Many of these stunts turn out to be nothing more than phony hate crimes. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.

By Kerby Anderson Click here for bio and archived articles