Read the comments on the Hartford Courant article. Read the recent shout-box banter. Here are two examples:
“I hope each of the students arrested winds up with a felony conviction that ruins their hopes and chances of gainful employment after graduation.”
“Not all of us are silver spooned rugrats and probably come from similar environments as you do when we didn’t have the same privilege as others. But guess what. We weren’t crunching on potato chips and managed to pass algebra I as well as excel tremendously to get to Wesleyan. Don’t hate us.”
What the Fountain incident has highlighted more than anything is all the resentment, disrespect, and tension between us. The comments from residents make me sad, but the comments from students make me sick. I am more disappointed than I have ever been with Wesleyan when I read these. Several students at the forum yesterday said that we should be unified with Middletown residents, who also suffer (no doubt on a much more regular basis, since they don’t have PSafe as a buffer) from state violence. Was it too naive to think that something, anything, could bring us together? Too idealistic to think that we could take something positive away from Thursday night and finally begin to heal old wounds?
Except you overlooked the fact that the poor black and Latino residents are the ones harassed by MPD, not the white middle-class residents who live closer to campus and who wrote nearly all of those posts (probably no more than 3 of them at that).
Except you overlooked the fact that the poor black and Latino residents are the ones harassed by MPD, not the white middle-class residents who live closer to campus and who wrote nearly all of those posts (probably no more than 3 of them at that).
i totally disagree i think it is completely unfair for middletown residents to feel happy that wesleyan students are abused because of a ridiculously untrue stereotype that we are all rich. plus fucking everyone knows that website comments don’t mean fucking shit so basically my point is: this is one stupid fucking post. congrats.
i totally disagree i think it is completely unfair for middletown residents to feel happy that wesleyan students are abused because of a ridiculously untrue stereotype that we are all rich. plus fucking everyone knows that website comments don’t mean fucking shit so basically my point is: this is one stupid fucking post. congrats.
Honestly, it just may be too idealistic. I wish I thought it was possible but the amount of hate that has been spewed at us by the news, and its commentators (just look at the shoutbox) makes it very hard to create a unified response. While I feel the “don’t hate us” comment you posted by a Wesleyan student isn’t very nice or the best way to handle this, I don’t fault that person for what I’m sure was an emotion-fueled post. (I know that while I don’t usually speak or think like that I find it very hard not to when I’m being antagonized) I’m sure they’re extremely upset and angry that they are being stereotyped as a rich snob who deserved whatever they get. I mean, as long as people are taking pleasure in the fact that Wesleyan students were hurt, there are going to be students reacting just like this.
Honestly, it just may be too idealistic. I wish I thought it was possible but the amount of hate that has been spewed at us by the news, and its commentators (just look at the shoutbox) makes it very hard to create a unified response. While I feel the “don’t hate us” comment you posted by a Wesleyan student isn’t very nice or the best way to handle this, I don’t fault that person for what I’m sure was an emotion-fueled post. (I know that while I don’t usually speak or think like that I find it very hard not to when I’m being antagonized) I’m sure they’re extremely upset and angry that they are being stereotyped as a rich snob who deserved whatever they get. I mean, as long as people are taking pleasure in the fact that Wesleyan students were hurt, there are going to be students reacting just like this.
No, you were not too naive. Yes, a lot of tension exists between Middletown residents and Wesleyan students, and it always will, because the stereotypes of the ivory tower and rich, liberal students will never fully go away, no matter how much positive engagement we have with the community.Yet, the comments, especially on the Hartford Courant’s page, are reflective more of general anger combined with Internet anonymity. Such comments are actually common on all the local newspapers’ websites that I’ve seen.On my local papers’ websites, anything about town government or the schools or immigrants or arrests or drugs draws all the angry anti-everything people out of the woodwork to comment.
No, you were not too naive. Yes, a lot of tension exists between Middletown residents and Wesleyan students, and it always will, because the stereotypes of the ivory tower and rich, liberal students will never fully go away, no matter how much positive engagement we have with the community.
Yet, the comments, especially on the Hartford Courant’s page, are reflective more of general anger combined with Internet anonymity. Such comments are actually common on all the local newspapers’ websites that I’ve seen.
On my local papers’ websites, anything about town government or the schools or immigrants or arrests or drugs draws all the angry anti-everything people out of the woodwork to comment.
Any time you get a story on the internet about claims of police brutality, or general abuse of power by government officials, you get authoritarian assholes who are sure that the victims deserved what they got. This goes double when the group of victims are a group conservatives love to hate, like a bunch of college students at a liberal school. I wouldn’t read too much into it; my guess is that 99% of them live nowhere near Middletown, and 100% of them have never suffered state violence themselves.
Any time you get a story on the internet about claims of police brutality, or general abuse of power by government officials, you get authoritarian assholes who are sure that the victims deserved what they got. This goes double when the group of victims are a group conservatives love to hate, like a bunch of college students at a liberal school. I wouldn’t read too much into it; my guess is that 99% of them live nowhere near Middletown, and 100% of them have never suffered state violence themselves.