CMU Hate Speech Victim Speaks Out

Jace Parker is a transgender male and resident assistant at Central Michigan University. In the past two weeks, he’s twice been the target of hateful words and threats.

He wasn’t comfortable with going on camera but did allow us to record our conversation.

“This isn’t just what I am,” says Parker, “I have a lot more character than just being a transgender man.”

On November 20th, somebody left a hateful message on Parker’s whiteboard. Then just Friday night, another note was left in a basket on his door.

“It feels like this person kind of just took down and invaded my home,” says Parker.

The note had hateful things like “rot” “kill” and “die” scribbled across it. A much more menacing threat.

“Definitely it hurt more just because it felt like more of a personal target than just somebody taking a whiteboard and messing around,” says Parker, “It took time. It took energy.”

These threats come just a couple weeks after a black student had racial slurs left on her door. A disturbing trend on campus that has people waking up to the reality of these thoughts.

“We’re happy that people are bringing things forward,” says CMU Chief Diversity Officer A.T. Miller, “So in one sense it’s a sign of a healthy community so when this happens people know exactly how to report it to turn it in.”

“It’s just kind of the right thing to do to make sure people know that this is going on,” says Parker.

While the school admits, they can’t stop every single verbal attack, they are trying to send messages of unity, strength and acceptance.

“This contradicts the values of acceptance,” says Miller, “It’s one thing to state your opinion or to disagree about issues but personal attacks are just completely out of bounds.”

Parker applauds the work done by the school to make him feel welcome and cared for and wants the campus to learn from these attacks and not let it become the school’s reputation.

“It’s literally like a slap in the face,” says Parker, “I chose CMU because it was literally the most welcoming community I’ve ever been a part of.”