By TENZIN DORJEE
Instead of moving forward with the times as 2013 comes to a close, a case of an African-American being racially discriminated appears. Towards the end of the month of the turkey, it was discovered that three students from California’s San Jose State University had been harassing and abusing their African-American roommate. The unnamed victim, 17, was bullied by Logan Beaschler, 18, of Bakersfield; Joseph Bomgardner, 19, of Clovis; and Colin Warren, 18, of Woodacre.
The severe harassment began in August and through to October. The victim was said to have had a bicycle locked clamped around his neck and forced to reside in a room which was decorated with a Confederate flags, Nazi symbols, photos of Adolf Hitler, and a white board with a racial epithet. The 3 students are even accused of nicknaming their fellow classmate “Three-Fifth” in crude reference to the The Three-Fifth Compromise of 1787 that stated that slaves are counted as “three-fifths of all other persons.” The victim of course objected to the horrid label, which unfortunately result in another harsh moniker, “Fraction.” The terrorizing got so bad to the point he sometimes even locked himself in his room to escape the harsh cruelty.
Action against the 3 students have been made as they have been charged with misdemeanor hate crime and battery. President of San Jose State, Mohammad Qayoumi, spoke up and expressed that he was “outraged and saddened by these allegations,” and that they were “utterly inconsistent with [San Jose State’s] long cherished history of tolerance, respect for diversity and personal civility.” Along with the charge, the 3 teens were suspended from the university.
The 3 excommunicated students are looking at a maximum sentence of a whole year in a county prison if found guilty in court. District Attorney Jeffrey F. Rosen stated that he couldn’t “believe in the year 2013 that we’re talking about an African-American student being treated this way,” and that they are “taking this case very seriously.”
