By Mikayla Patel and Amanda Chisolm
About two weeks ago, racist comments were posted to the Smith Confessional targeting a Black student who helped organize an event hosted by the Smith College Student Event Committee (SEC).
The event was a Valentine’s Day party held in the Campus Center that featured a Build-A-Bear station. The SEC did not plan for the large number of students who showed up and ran out of bears, which caused several students to become upset.
Posts about the event filled the Smith Confessional criticizing the SEC for the mistake, some of them specifically targeting one student organizer and using racist and violent language. On Feb. 17, President McCartney sent out an email to the Smith community addressing the posts. “We write to condemn recent anonymous Internet posts that targeted a Smith student who is Black,” the email read, “The posts, which were linked to a party on campus, included racial slurs and intimidating threats.”
Aside from the Build-A-Bears, several students who attended the event reported that it was generally not well organized. According to Noelle Goerlich ‘22, the party started forty-five minutes late, due to the party’s DJ not being on time, and Goerlich and her friends waited in the Build-A-Bear station line for almost an hour. Additionally, students felt that SEC was not communicating about what was happening with the party. The Build-A-Bear station was the site of the majority of the chaos. Goerlich recalled that there was pushing and cutting in the line to get to the Build-A-Bears. She told The Sophian that after setting her bear down for a moment, someone took it and claimed that it was theirs. “So that’s how toxic of an environment it was,” said Georlich.
“I didn’t think it would take that little for Smithies to turn into animals,” said Ali Rosenthal ‘23, who was with Goerlich that night, said. “It was straight Lord of the Flies.”
The chaos escalated once individuals took to the Confessional to post the hateful comments targeting the student organizer.
The posts included racial slurs and threats of violence.
“Racial bias and intimidation have no place at Smith College,” McCartney wrote in an email to the Smith community, addressing the incident.
The email said that if the individual(s) who wrote the posts were identified as members of the Smith community, they would face the Conduct Board and other disciplinary bodies. “I think you could argue it’s a hate crime, what was posted,” McCartney told The Sophian, “I think many of us were shocked. It’s hard to know with the confessional, but that any member of our community would post something so vile … It’s shocking to me.”
As for the student who was targeted on the Confessional, several Smith community members are working to ensure that she feels safe and supported. The OSE advised the student not to speak with the media about the incident, in order to prioritize her mental health.
The incident sheds light on the negative impact that the Smith Confessional can have on the community, and has led to the questioning of the Confessional’s role at Smith.
“We haven’t locked [the Confessional] because I think we all believe in freedom of expression, but when freedom of expression becomes threats of violence…ya know, I’d love to know what the students think about this. I don’t think much of it, I can tell you that. I don’t think much of Smith Confessional,” said McCartney.
President McCartney suggested having the Student Government Association [SGA] survey students on whether or not the Smith Confessional should continue.
“I think as a community we need to think about social media outlets like Smith Confessional … I’ve had numerous students in my office because they have been targeted sometimes in ways that are extremely hurtful … I think every member of the community should be treated with a certain amount of respect.”
“I feel like [the Confessional] is a place for people to just put their most evil instincts into a place where you’ll never be found out exactly for what you say,” said Goerlich.
“I went on the confessional one time and I left because I scrolled through and I just felt terrible about everything on it,” said Rosenthal.
Smith College Campus Police is currently conducting an investigation of the situation. In order to identify the individuals who made the posts, McCartney said that the college would need to get a subpoena which would subject to the decision of the district attorney.
The college plans to keep the community updated on any further developments.
“We need to just keep educating people,” said McCartney. “I’m not sure that people who engage in this behavior understand how hurtful it is and that people sometimes have scars for the rest of their lives over these kinds of ugly incidents.”
