Oberlin College et des incidents racistes: journée de solidarité

 On croirait assister à des évènements d'une autre autre époque, une époque révolue et peu glorieuse de l'histoire américaine. L'Oberlin College en Ohio a suspendu ses cours hier pour permettre à tous à toutes de réfléchir aux derniers incidents. Une histoire folle de gestes racistes et de messages contre les Juifs et les gais. On aurait même aperçu quelqu'un portant les tristement célèbres cagoule et robe blanche du Ku Klux Klan. L'Oberlin College situé en Ohio a une longue histoire d'ouverture et de tolérance. L'Université était même un des arrêts de l'Underground railroad, le réseau clandestin qui aidait les esclaves noirs à fuir les plantations avant la guerre de Sécession.

 "The report of a person in a costume meant to evoke the Ku Klux Klan added a more threatening element than earlier incidents. The convocation with the president and deans, originally scheduled for Wednesday, was moved overnight, to Monday. “When it was just graffiti people were alarmed and disturbed. But this is much more threatening,” said Mim Halpern, 18, a freshman from Toronto.

 There were few details of the sighting, which occurred at 1:30 a.m. on Monday, Mr. Wargo said. The person who reported it was in a car “and came back around and didn’t see the individual again,” he added.

 Anne Trubek, an associate professor in the English department, said that in her 15 years at Oberlin there had been earlier bias incidents but none so provocative. “They were relatively minor events that would not be a large hullabaloo elsewhere, but because Oberlin is so attuned to these issues they get addressed very quickly,” she said.

 Founded in 1833, Oberlin was one of the first colleges in the nation to educate women and men together, and one of the first to admit black students. Before the Civil War, it was an abolitionist hotbed and an important stop on the Underground Railroad.

 http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/05/education/oberlin-cancels-classes-after-series-of-hate-related-incidents.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130305&_r=0