Department of Public Safety, The Daily Orange show discrimination, racism

Monday night the student body received an email warning of the dangers of associating with “non-students.” This follows articles in The Daily Orange that “teenagers and gang members” are encroaching on the East neighborhood.

These events are contiguous with a long history of email alerts about criminals who are often described stereotypically as 6 feet tall, black males. These efforts by the paper and the school are at least discriminatory and perhaps implicitly racist.

Heeding the advice of The D.O. and the Department of Public Safety, students may put two and two together and avoid contact with black males and any “non-students.” I thought Syracuse University was attempting to bridge the gap between Syracusans and students, not extend it.

Syracuse locals depend on the great wealth generated by SU in a number of ways. This school is the No. 1 employer in the city. It is a hub of social, cultural and intellectual activities for all youth in the area.

Unfortunately, the criminal elements of the city rely on the university, too. Student and university wealth make the area profitable for petty thieves. We need to reflect on some of the phenomena that make us targets for criminals.

This “spike in crime” is happening just as the university finished a $1-billion fundraising campaign. A majority of these so-called “philanthropic efforts” was reinvested directly into the university. While commendable, this is another instance of the huge disparity of wealth in Syracuse that perpetuates these crimes.

We must remember, it is not the supposed “teenagers and gang members” who invade the “East neighborhood,” but the students who invade the city. We must also remember that most poor, inner-city youth work hard to improve their situation; many become students.

Other frustrated individuals strike back at the university, which symbolizes the systems that perpetuate their poverty. Every weekend on the Hill is a display of students’ abundant leisure time and second-generation wealth.

For those Syracusans who get done with a shift at Ernie Davis dining hall but still can’t find enough money to pay their bills, the fat wallet of an inebriated student may just help ends meet. The crimes against students will continue as long as there is widespread poverty across I-81 and an annual shipment of Land Rovers and arrogance to the Hill. For an astute observer of the situation, it is difficult to know where to place the blame.

Jason Newton

Fourth-year graduate student

History department