At Boston College, blatant racism and sexism not only exist on campus but are also normalized. When someone on campus uses a slur or other bigoted language, the issue is often not their willful ignorance or the damage their words have done. Rather, it becomes the fact that when someone points it out “too strongly,” the blame is shifted onto them. Suddenly, they’re too angry, too sensitive, too political, or too divisive, while the harmful words of the person who made such an insensitive comment are disregarded entirely. It is deeply frustrating how the offense is always softened, but the response to it is scrutinized. 

What makes this especially bitter at Boston College is the university’s self-image. BC presents itself as a place of moral seriousness, rooted in Jesuit values: cura personalis and the formation of  “men and women for others.” If the people who make up the campus community don’t hold themselves to even half of that standard—to truly better themselves not just academically, but personally—what are we doing here? Why should we even attend Boston College? 

I want to stress this point: Political conservatism and bigotry are not interchangeable. To pretend they are is to make excuses and evade the real issue. There are people with conservative politics who do not use those beliefs to degrade others. The problem is when a broadly conservative campus culture gives cover to harmful behavior, making racism look like bluntness, sexism look like humor, and cruelty look like “just how people are.” 

One student, who wishes to remain anonymous, described their reality. After what was supposed to be a fun game night, they said, “I messed up, which is normal. But to the person I was with, it gave them an opportunity to call me a racial slur over something so small and unimportant. I was surprised why he felt the need to say something like that, and if he really understands the history of that word and why it’s considered offensive.” Cruelty and ignorance like that do not come out of nowhere. It emerges from an environment where people feel comfortable using slurs and making racist jokes because the social cost of blatant bigotry is so low. 

I, too, have had so many moments where I was too afraid to speak up, not because I doubted what I had heard or seen, but because I understood the social consequences of naming them. Silence is not always agreement. Sometimes it is an act of protection. Sometimes it is knowing that the social penalty for telling the truth can fall harder on the person calling out the harm than on the person who caused it.

This is especially true regarding how some men speak about women on this campus. The language alone is revealing. Women are talked about as “crackable,” as if they are objects, something to be ranked like products for public consumption. It is degrading. So often, it’s brushed off as immaturity or joking, but at the end of the day, it is not harmless. The broader context of this is not hypothetical. In 2024, there were 5 rapes, 7 fondling offenses, 7 dating violence offenses, and 8 stalking offenses on our campus. The evidence is not rhetorical; it exists alongside real harm. It belongs to the same environment that teaches women on campus never to leave drinks alone and to carry pepper spray just in case.

There is nothing overly sensitive about refusing to normalize hate in any capacity. The real problem is not that some people are too sensitive. It is that too many people have become comfortable with cruelty.

Sarah Pham

+ postsBio

Comments