Director of Tam Institute Speaks Out Against Recent Bias Incident

To the Emory community:

As one of the faculty members who stood before you two weeks ago at the "Teach-In Against Hate" and declared the values of the University to be opposed to hatred and bigotry in all forms, I cannot refrain from expressing my shock and outrage at the recent taunts directed toward Emory students of South Asian background during a sporting event on campus.

As my colleagues and I expressed at the teach-in on Oct. 15, hatred directed toward members of any group undermines the basic foundations of our university community, and therefore an attack on any one of us needs to be understood as an attack on all of us.

Expressions of hate should have no place at Emory or in our society, and we all need to do more to oppose them forcefully when we encounter them.

Even more importantly, however, I want to emphasize that condemnations of hate are not enough – we need to begin to work in more substantial ways to change the everyday culture of our university and to build programs and alliances that will create an atmosphere of greater respect for the dignity of all people.

I am not yet sure how we can accomplish this, but I know that I will be reaching out to colleagues and friends in the coming weeks to begin thinking about how we can start to move from words to action.

Eric L. Goldstein Judith London Evans Director Tam Institute for Jewish Studies