Fostering Interracial Understanding
The Multiethnic InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Northwestern University is responding positively to a challenging situation.
A freshman student, Xander Saide, recently reported that he was the victim of two hate crimes on campus in the beginning of the month of November. Some members of the student body reacted by staging a protest on at The Rock on November 12th.
During this time of heightened awareness, the Multiethnic InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on campus initiated a series of forums for students to discuss issues of race.
The Multiethnic InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Northwestern University is responding positively to a challenging situation.
A freshman student, Xander Saide, recently reported that he was the victim of two hate crimes on campus in the beginning of the month of November. Some members of the student body reacted by staging a protest on at The Rock on November 12th.
During this time of heightened awareness, the Multiethnic InterVarsity Christian Fellowship on campus initiated a series of forums for students to discuss issues of race. These were well received and even endorsed by a November 18th article in the school paper, the Daily Northwestern. One columnist wrote, “Intervarsity Christian Fellowship has started holding forums designed for students to ask not-so-politically correct questions about other ethnicities. Students should take advantage of opportunities like this to break down a stereotype.”
In an unexpected turn of events, Saide’s claims of racial slurs on his dorm door and a threat with a knife, were both found to be fabricated. He maintains that he concocted these incidents to provoke campus discussion about racial issues. He has since been charged with 2 counts of federal disorderly conduct and is not currently in school.
Many students were confused, and some, indignant. Though the events that Saide invented were a hoax, other circumstances are quite real, from swastikas on campus buildings and in the dorms, to use of derogatory racial slurs among students. In the midst of these tensions, InterVarsity continues to hold programming reported by the Daily Northwestern on November 20th as, “fostering communication among students and improving diversity.”
Praise God for this opportunity to not just underscore interracial understanding within the InterVarsity chapter, but also to bring healing to the campus at large.