COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In an effort to clamp down on hate crimes on campus, a U.S. Congressman announced plans Thursday to introduce a bill that would deny federal financial aid to colleges and universities that don’t develop adequate plans to respond to hate crimes. Institutions of higher education would also be required to educate students about what makes hate crimes unique from constitutionally protected speech.
Rep. Anthony Brown, D-Maryland, made the announcement here at the University of Maryland, where last spring Lt. Richard Collins III — an African-American student from Bowie State University — was allegedly stabbed to death by a University of Maryland student with ties to White supremacist groups.
Brown said the killing of Collins was caused by the same forces of hate that led to the killing of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville, Va., earlier this month while she was protesting a White nationalist rally that started out the night before at the University of Virginia.
“These incidents were not tragic, random acts of violence,” Brown told students here at the University of Maryland. “They were heinous, despicable and unprovoked crimes of hate.”
Brown linked the rise in hate incidents on campus to the presidency of Donald J. Trump, citing a recent statistic that shows hate watch groups have tracked 150 racist incidents on college campuses in 33 states since last fall.
“I think you’d have to be purposely obtuse not to see a direct correlation between the rise of Donald Trump the candidate to the Oval Office and the emboldening of these perpetrators across the country, both on and off campus,” Brown said.
“Something this year is different,” Brown continued. “These groups had not been highly engaged on college campuses in years past, but this year something has changed. The fact is that these issues reflect the complexities of race and prejudice in this country, issues that we’ve never fully worked through, a part of our nation that we’ve not yet perfected.”
