One Step at a Time

Originally Posted:November 23, 2015

Rini Sampath, the first women elected as student body president in nearly a decade at the University of South Carolina, shared an upsetting story that exemplifies why female and minority leadership is so desperately needed in communities like USC’s. On Sunday night, Sampath posted on Facebook:

"Last night, as I was walking back from my friend's apartment, a student screamed out at me through the window of his fraternity house, "You Indian piece of shit!" before hurling his drink at my friends and me. Once his fraternity brothers realized it was me, they began to apologize. This stung even more. Today, as I try to unpack these events, I couldn't quite figure out why their after-the-fact apologies deepened the wound. But one of my friends explained it to me the best this morning: "Because now you know, the first thing they see you as is subhuman." And that's the first thing some students on our campus see when they look at anyone who looks like me. I'm still in a state of shock. There's an indescribable hollowness in me, but I'm going public with this because this can't continue. Some people don't believe racism like this can happen on our campus. Some people continue to doubt the need for safe spaces and the need for expanded cultural resource centers or the need for gender neutral bathrooms or the need for diversity in our curriculum or the need for diversity in our professors or the need for diversity in dialogue. And to those who continue to believe we're just playing the "race" card, I ask you this — what's there to win here? A sense of respect? A sense of humanity? A sense of love and compassion for others regardless of how they look like?This isn't an isolated incident. It happens everywhere. Last week, individuals in a pick-up truck yelled racial slurs at Mizzou's Student Body President, Payton Head. Who knows what will happen to someone who looks like me today?"

In an interview with the Washington Post, Sampath says the USC officials and students have been supportive and the offender apologized but it was too little, to late. "Apologies don't fix these deep wounds," she told the Post. "[The slur] was a verbal assault on my identity — on who I am as a person." Because USC has a zero tolerance policy for these hateful remarks, the Dean of Religious Life Varun Soni asked Sampath to file a formal complaint with the school in order to investigate the case and determine the appropriate course of action.  She wants to create a dialog and spread the word that this type of hate should not be accepted, no matter what. 

Rini Sampath is an immigrant that struggled with her body image and learning english which made it that much harder to fit in so being targeted because of her skin color and race was not fair. She doesn't want the first thing to be seen to be skin color but rather the wonderful knowledge the person acquires or other great talents the person may have. Would you let someones skin color effect you? 

xoxo, Kaila