Those beautiful faces

It's a terrible tragedy with all the elements of homophobia, wreckless invasion of privacy, technological toys, and leftover high school prank. All Freshman, with their feet barely set down on the college campus, and now one is dead and two have been charged with a hate crime. Why is it that what caught my eye and haunts me are the three photos splashed across the front page?

They are the face of diversity. This could have been an example of successful efforts to have a diverse student body on campus. This could have been an article on the changing face of a generation. It could have been a hopeful moment. In my mind I can't help but think that I would not have reacted the same way to a tragedy like this involving young people, though still disturbing and regrettable, if it had been what we have become accustomed to: a white boy shooting at classmates in a high school cafeteria or white fraternity brothers rampaging through campus after a late-night party or white, blond, rich girls reporting date rape. 

I recently listened to a presentation by Dr. Elizabeth Englander on bullying. She was speaking to law enforcement officers in Massachusetts where public schools are now required to have a curriculum on bullying. She said that the difference between bullying in person and cyberbullying is that 25% of cyberbullies are also victims. If placing a camera to capture a private act and sharing it over the internet is cyberbullying, then could it be that these two bullies have also been victims? It's not an excuse to release them from responsibility. 

It is a compelling question in a world where the historic victim of racial microaggressions may now have a tool with which to retaliate. In our effort to protect the victim and stop the bully we may have overlooked the fact that with technology in hand and the invisibilty of cyber-acts we have now armed both the bully and the victim with  a lethal weapon. Is this what we intended?

Finally, this happened at Rutgers, the college I watched because they rose to women's basketball fame under the guidance of an amazing coach. It's also the college where the basketball team stood up to racial slurs uttered one morning on a radio show. It's a reminder that embracing diversity may be beautiful, but it isn't easy.