The female students behind a community-wide email at Pitzer College which instructed white females to “take off” their hoop earrings are now claiming a student newspaper report on their email has exposed them to harassment and threats.
Alegria Martinez, Jacquelyn Aguilera, and Estefania Gallo-Gonzalez are the three female students at Pitzer College that sent an email to the community asking white females to “take off” their hoop earrings. In addition to the email, the students wrote, “white girl, take off your hoops” on a free speech mural on campus.
According to the blog Latino Rebels, the three women suffered after the article:
The article, “Pitzer College RA: White People Can’t Wear Hoop Earrings,” published by The Claremont Independent (a conservative student-run intercollegiate newspaper), takes the situation out of context, sensationalizes the mural and puts young women of color in danger. It seems that their writer has released students’ emails and identities to the larger community, violating their rights to privacy as students. Also, the publishing of students’ names and affiliations has endangered the students outside of the institution. They now are facing harassment from ultra right-wing groups and individuals, including a death threat through Facebook messenger.
According to the online campus watchdog site, The College Fix, The Claremont Independent did not publish the student’s email addresses, and Gallo-Gonzalez isn’t mentioned at all. Aguilera and Martinez are mentioned in the report because they mentioned themselves in the community email that The Independent included in their reporting.
Despite this, Pitzer College President Melvin Oliver released a memo to the study body on March 9 accusing The Independent of igniting “a cycle of violent hate speech that threatens the safety and well-being of every member of our community.”
Writing in National Review, Kat Timpf argued that it is irrational for the students to expect their communications to remain private after electing to send an email to the entire community: “Think about it: If you are going to e-mail the entire campus about an issue, why would you then turn around and slam the campus newspaper for covering it? … Sending an e-mail to an entire institution with your name on it, and then suggesting that you intended for that e-mail to stay private is a completely absurd line of thinking.”
Last week we reported on an incident in which a Hampshire College student allegedly assaulted a basketball player from Central Maine Community College claiming her hair braids were also cultural appropriation.
Tom Ciccotta is a libertarian who writes about education and social justice for Breitbart News. You can follow him on Twitter @tciccotta or email him at tciccotta@breitbart.com
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