BUZZ
Key Takeaways
- An antisemitic hate crime occurred at Syracuse University when a student threw pork at the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity, leading to charges against two students for hate crime and criminal nuisance.
- The group Black at Syracuse University reacted by criticizing statements made by the district attorney, claiming they reflect systemic white supremacy, and drew attention to perceived historical injustices faced by Black individuals.
- Their response highlighted a broader narrative about racial tensions and the need to reject white supremacy while asserting that Syracuse University has failed to protect all its students from various forms of hate.
ANALYSIS
A black student group at Syracuse University decided to make a recent antisemitic hate crime all about them … and “white supremacy.”
On Tuesday evening, an 18-year-old Syracuse student entered the “historically Jewish” Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and “threw a clear plastic bag containing pork at a wall.”
The suspect then ran out and jumped into a jeep driven by another 18-year-old student. The pair were charged with “burglary as a hate crime in the second degree and criminal nuisance in the second degree,” The Daily Orange reported.
In a statement posted to Instagram, the frat said “This was an attack on our home, our values, and our safety, as well as every Jewish student on campus […] Zeta Beta Tau does not stand for antisemitism or any form of hate within our community.”
Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said the incident “is not a foolish college prank and will not be treated as such.”
But the group Black at Syracuse University, whose Instagram page purports to be for “Syracuse-based Black & Indigenous people to share experiences of racial bias” and features the hashtags #ReparationsNow, #LandBack, #FreeCongo, and #DefendBlackWomen, complained on the platform that it was “beyond the pale” that Fitzpatrick stated “We fortunately rarely have Hate Crimes [sic] to investigate or prosecute” in the county.
The group then claimed “three Black men have been found hanging over the same overpass” in the county. Fitzpatrick’s statement, according to the group, “is systemic white supremacy in action itself.”
The Daily Orange and Syracuse.com, however, reported that just one (black) individual was discovered hanging from an overpass in the town of DeWitt, and a spokesperson said “preliminary findings are consistent with suicide.”
Nevertheless, Black at Syracuse University went on to claim that in the past not all students involved in incidents similar to that at Zeta Beta Tau had been “treated the same,” and that the Board of Regents “profits off of revising our shared history.”
“This is how racism works,” the group’s post continued. “Local leaders try pit us against each other by creating the conditions for anti-semetic [sic] harm to downplay the anti-Black harm they are enacting against us systematically.
“We must reject white supremacy in all its forms […] yet Syracuse University has a long history of failing to protect their [sic] students, all their students, from anti-semetic [sic], anti-Black, anti-Indigenous, and anti-Asian hate crimes.”
MORE: Syracuse students face hate crime charge for tossing pork at Jewish frat
