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Harvard Law Students Angry Over Official Response to Racist Emails and Texts

Harvard Law Students Angry Over Official Response to Racist Emails and Texts

“My first initial reaction was this is like a gut punch”

Shouldn’t it be easy to identify the senders of these messages? This incident happened back in December.

The College Fix reports:

Harvard Law students irate officials didn’t respond ‘properly’ to racist texts, emails

A quartet of Harvard Law School students is miffed that school administrators did not “take meaningful action” regarding a series a racist and sexist text messages that were sent to them dating back to December.

The messages, “which included racist taunts and insults about female students’ physical appearances,” were sent to a “small group” of first-year law students, according to The Crimson. The students took the matter to administration after “reaching out to faculty members and filing police reports.”

Mohamed “Mo” T. Light received a message which stated he’d only been accepted to Harvard due to affirmative action. “My first initial reaction was this is like a gut punch,” he said.

Christina Volcy, another message recipient, said those affected have been “aghast” at officials’ “just unfeeling and just inappropriate” reactions. Volcy managed to arrange a meeting with Law School Dean Marcia Sells; following that, however, the school’s investigation “did not sufficiently address the incident,” she claims.

Dean Sells said in an email statement that the Harvard Police Department has worked with an “outside law firm” to investigate the messages, but thus far with no results.

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Comments

Shouldn’t it be easy to identify the senders of these messages?

Why would they want to?

the Harvard Police Department has worked with an “outside law firm” to investigate the messages, but thus far with no results.

“Worked with an outside law firm” is the clue that Big H is hoping that nothing at all will happen until long after these students have graduated.

Somebody sent them meanmail and mommy and daddy didn’t even get mad about it. It’s just wrong! SOMEBODY has to DO something to make them feel better!

Poor babies.

The Friendly Grizzly | July 29, 2019 at 9:23 am

Back in my college days there was no email. Instead, we got strange literature stuck under windshield wipers, or taped to our dorm doors, or slid under them. Everything from harmless like the you-re-going-to-hell Chick comics, to “the crosshairs are on your back!” warnings from a group called The Minutemen.

Our response was to toss that stuff out and go on with our lives.

johnnycab23513 | July 29, 2019 at 1:26 pm

These students are not mature enough for law school!

My “first initial reaction” is that Harvard should help find the “message delete” button in their email applications.

Publius_2020 | July 29, 2019 at 4:23 pm

“Shouldn’t it be easy to identify the senders of these messages?”

They’re text messages. It is trivially easy to use a prepaid disposable phone (a “burner” phone) to send text messages without any traceable evidence. The phone number is assigned online, and has no (accurate) identifying information associated with it.

The real story hear is the silliness of the students’ complaint that Harvard didn’t take “meaningful” actions. There aren’t any actions that Harvard could take (assuming that the sender was technically competent, which appears to be the case).

SeekingRationalThought | July 29, 2019 at 5:23 pm

So if I hire a Harvard Law graduate over the next couple of years, I could be hiring one of these cowardly morons? Why would I hire someone without the courage of their convictions as a lawyer? Or for anything else? I’ve long been skeptical of Harvard and Harvard degrees as those I’ve known or dealt with tend to be syncophantic careerist. Bright in the sense of intellectual horsepower, but sadly lacking in terms of achieving results and doing the right thing.

    SeekingRationalThought in reply to SeekingRationalThought. | July 29, 2019 at 5:26 pm

    Replying to myself as I see a logical flaw in the previous comment as written. It assumes that the senders of the texts are members of the student body. That may or may not be true. My apologies for making that assumption.

    SeekingRationalThought in reply to SeekingRationalThought. | July 29, 2019 at 5:26 pm

    Replying to myself as I see a logical flaw in the previous comment as written. It assumes that the senders of the texts are members of the student body. That may or may not be true. My apologies for making that assumption.

You obviously where referring to the law students who worried about rude texts.

    SeekingRationalThought in reply to ConradCA. | July 30, 2019 at 12:01 am

    Unfortunately – No. I was referring to the students I assumed had sent the texts anonymously. Those receiving the texts display different problems that don’t portend well for their professional futures. I’m not sure that I want to hire someone who can’t take a punch as soft as a text. More importantly, I’m don’t why they think the University has an obligation to do anything unless the texts originated from the University or the phone numbers leaked from the University I’m not sure I want to deal with a lawyer who doesn’t reach this conclusion on their own. This is why I wrongly assumed that the texts came from within the University. I assumed that a Harvard Law student would see something this obvious.

Do they really want to find out who sent the “racist messages” when 75% of the time the sender turns out to be the recipient himself or another member of the same minority trying to gin up victim status?

The people who have left comments so far are uninformed about what is really going on. Read the top comment on the article about this in The Crimson. Awful, awful administrative misconduct.

thecrimson (dot com) /article/2019/7/27/hls-students-racist-texts/

SeekingRationalThought | August 4, 2019 at 10:54 am

I reviewed the Crimson article and have to assume you are being sarcastic. The students got nasty emails and think someone (else) should protect them. No one has suggested what the school should or can do. If the texts were, in fact, sent from within the law school or university, the school can take action. If they were sent from elsewhere, there isn’t much that they can do other than notify authorities or go to the media. Neither the story in the Crimson or the instant article suggest that the University has or could determine who sent the texts. If they had, I might, somewhat, agree with you. The Crimson article indicates that some of the students “think” they know who sent them. Are you suggesting that the University take the student’s thoughts as true and punish someone based upon that? Or ask Antifa to beat them up? Where is the fairness and due process in that? I’m not saying that the University responded perfectly or timely but, based on currently known facts it wasn’t “Awful, awful administrative misconduct.” These are not children. They are law students. As lawyers, these students may well face unfair, vicious criticism at points in their careers. Often from their own associates and partners. :)Some of the criticism may be racist. Ask Alan Dershowitz. They need to learn to deal with it, address it, and move forward toward their goals and justice. Thats true of all law students regardless of race. It isn’t fair. It isn’t right. It is just true.

SeekingRationalThought: I said read the COMMENTS on that article in The Crimson, especially the top comment. READ. THE. COMMENTS.

    SeekingRationalThought in reply to Per Son. | August 5, 2019 at 8:25 pm

    I did read the comments and they disclose a horrendous situation that should be addressed. It just isn’t relevant to the four receiving the texts. I get that the response to the four may be skewed by the investigation into the other situation, but that isn’t relevant to my points about the students receiving the text. Should you show me that the college had information it could share with the four and failed to do so, my opinion would most likely change. I have limited time which prevents me from closely parsing the comments, so I may be missing something. Give it to me in words of few syllables.