College should be the time most people find themselves and carve out a place in the world, but three San Jose State University freshmen were poised to teach their Black roommate a history lesson themselves.
Students Colin Warren, Joseph Bomgardner, and Logan Beaschler, who are all 18, have been charged with hate crimes committed against their Black roommate. The three defendants shared an eight-person suite with the then-17-year-old victim and four other white male students.
From August to October of this semester, the unidentified student, who is now 18, reported that he was constantly taunted by his three roommates. They outfitted their suite with a Confederate flag and nicknamed him “three-fifths” and “fraction,” an apparent reference to how Black people in the 19th century were regarded in Congress.
Adding further humiliation, the students shackled their roommate with a U-shaped bike lock around his neck for five to 10 minutes, while refusing him the key. Other harassment include barricading the claustrophobic student in his room with furniture, installing Nazi posters, and writing nigger on a dry-erase board in their suite.
The racist acts continued until the freshman’s parents intervened by notifying the university’s housing authority, who then notified campus police. All three students have been suspended.
Deputy District Attorney Erin West filed hate crimes against the trio “because of the bullying, the symbols of hatred in the room, as well as the fact he was the only person of color in the suite and he was the only one targeted.”
Most of life’s valuable lessons require us to apply our textbook knowledge with real world experience. That sometimes comes with the price of fighting racism and discrimination headfirst.
[Image: Shutterstock]