Perspectives on UMass-Amherst Hate Crimes

Amherst, MA -- We would like to re-frame this public, online discussion around the hate crimes that ocurred at UMass on February 3rd, 2008 and not the names/concepts that legal system uses (they become the default/norm terms that mainstream media uses to report the incident). We want to put YOU, the reader, in Mr. Vassell's shoes, just for a brief moment. When we talk about, write, or work from the idea of Jason Vassell as an "attempted murderer" who stabbed two men with a dangerous weapon ("allegedly" in self-defense), the events quickly transform. The tone automatically points to Mr. Vassell as a culprit and not a victim.

And when we work from Mr. Vassell "allegedy" defending himself against only one attacker and not two (especially when the incident report cites two racist attackers) the events take on a different character (even though they shouldn't). Further, we would like to emphasize the point that agressive, blatant acts of racism and hatred instigated this incident.

According to the Amherst Gazette, "the incident was sparked at 4 a.m. when two women visiting Vassell’s dorm opened a window and found a man’s face pressed against the window staring back at them. When Vassell asked the man (allegedly Bowes) to explain himself, the man went into a ‘loud tirade of racial invectives and violent threats directed at Vassell,’ the report states. Vassell then told him to go away, but instead of leaving, the man allegedly began kicking the window. The women then left the room and the police were called. While waiting for the police to arrive, Vassell called a friend for support, the committee claims. When Vassell opened the door to let his friend inside, Bosse and Bowes also entered the lobby. One of the men then assaulted Vassell, breaking his nose, the report said. Following this, Bosse and Bowes were stabbed."

The re-frame is in order: a man is staring into your window, utters "a loud tirade of racial invectives and violent threats directed at Vassell"/you; starts kicking in your window; you see he is with another individual or maybe you knew there were two racist, angry men together the whole time; you are in the middle of small-town Western Massachusetts surrounded by some towns that still have an active KKK; you are on a campus where police constantly harass you and where you don't have a sizeable community or an in-tact response system if "something goes down" because of the lack of "minority" students on campus...

Continuing... the two men who called you all kinds of names that white people have been calling you and your ancestors for 500 years have now broken into your building; the two white men who told you they wanted you dead are now illegally inside of your home and are breaking your nose. You have been beaten and nobody is able to stop the two white men. It appears you might just die as those two white men hoped. WHAT DO YOU DO? It is 2 crazy white dudes vs. you, a student, whose window and nose were just kicked in. You let them beat you until you die? Or do you fight back, do you use the object you have in your pocket just in case "something goes down" in the middle of nowhere, where cops will arrest you for looking at someone the wrong way or for just being somewhere "at the wrong time"? I think the answer is obvious: you fight back. And what happens? You are the first one to get arrested, you are put on trial for murder, the legal system forgets it was 2 vs. 1, forgets that two ignorant white hicks from kkk-ville New Hampshire, just over the state line, had kicked your window in and beaten you silly.

Now you have to explain why you couldn't have just "taken on" the one white guy without stabbing him. You have to explain that there were two racist hicks and not one. You have to explain why you defended yourself to people who don't understand what it means to be in a school that is 90% or more white, that allows its police force to constantly harass you, that does nothing to make you feel comfortable on a campus with a bizarre geographical position and increasing racial tension (see Haloween costume incident), close to NY and Boston, but still in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, you are on trial for murder, and the money to pay for this legal system that put you in this position is running out.