I applaud everyone who has written to The Sun to show support and profess their outrage regarding the sexual assault on an Asian student on our campus. However, I feel the true issues here are not being addressed.


People have been focusing either on the racial motivation of the crime (yes, sexual assault is a crime and the perpetrators, whoever they are, are guilty) or on the physical act of the assault and the resulting safety issues. I feel the fundamental issue that lies at the bottom of all this and encompasses both race and gender is about power.


A racial slur is intended to "put someone in their place." It is a mechanism of preserving the dominance that some people see as their natural right. It asserts that the recipient of the slur is somehow beneath the perpetrator merely because of the color of their skin.


It draws a line of division between "us" and "them" and reinforces the individual's status as either a power holding oppressor or as a member of the powerless oppressed.


When this young Asian woman had the courage to fight back, asserting her equality and refusing to be part of an oppressed group, the balance of power was disrupted.


The perpetrators lost their first bid for dominance and they resorted to their second strategy. They sexually assaulted the young woman and exerted their physical power and their power as men over women. They crossed the line from race into a broader, more primitive and ancient manifestation of power that transcends race and class: the power of men over women.


They asserted their status in the most brutal and crude fashion they knew. They denied her the right to her own body and degraded her in the worst way possible as a woman, and the racial overtones served to take away her pride in her identity.


Cornell has an important place in this event beyond the obvious fact that it was the setting of the crime. Cornell has the power of recognition and validation. I realize that this is not an isolated event of sexual or physical assault on campus, nor is this the only case of racism.


Both are serious issues that need to be recognized by Cornell and the student body. To my knowledge, there has been few physical assaults that are known to have been racially motivated and the response of Cornell is sorely disappointing.


Instead of downplaying the event, Cornell needs to reaffirm its stance on its "Open Hearts, Open Doors and Open Minds" policy. Unfortunately these types of incidents cannot be prevented. People's beliefs and actions cannot be controlled, but the University needs to make it clear (even if it seems to be stating the obvious) that it will not tolerate grotesque infringements on individual rights and liberties.


Cornell can do this by responding in a timely fashion, informing the entire student body (on and off campus), advertising the resources available to everyone affected and by publicly reaffirming their position, as an enlightened institution of higher learning, that these types of transgressions against any persons are not and will not be tolerated and perpetrators will be aptly dealt with.

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