Wesleyan Community Demonstrates Against Hate

Demonstration

Professor of Physics Narendra Jaggi speaks at a gathering on the Quad.

March 27, 2012

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — Nearly 200 Illinois Wesleyan faculty, staff and students gathered on the Eckley Quadrangle on Tuesday, March 27 to express disapproval of recent national events seen as hate crimes.

The event, "Hoodies or Hijabs: The Hate Has to Stop," was staged in response to two events:

— The bludgeoning death in California of an Iraqi-American Muslim woman, Shaima Alawad, who was left to die with a note, according to reports, asking her to go back to "your country."

— The killing of Trayvon Martin in Florida, whose apparent crime, according to event organizer Professor of Physics Narendra Jaggi, "was to wear a hoodie while being black and young."

Members of the campus community were invited to wear hijabs or hoodies to show solidarity.

Contact: Ann Aubry, (309) 556-3181