Published 2002-02-20T00:00:00Z”/>

Carolyn Marie Lucas<br>Staff Writer

Among the empty scattered spaces and bent staples, the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. still remain on a piece of paper the size of an index card. Highlighted in neon yellow, it reads, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”

But in the early morning hours Saturday, the message was ignored. Instead, hate drove someone to vandalize a bulletin board about Black History Month.

This board, titled “Honoring the past that shaped my future,” was supposed to pay tribute to some of the most famous black people involved in the civil rights movement, not a space to pay homage to hate.

Instead, “Honoring the ass that aped my future” greeted resident adviser Cecile Spence as she walked into the third floor lobby of Whitney Hall. She loathed the message of yellow and orange letters that ran above a black and white photo of Martin Luther King, Jr. hugging his wife Coretta Scott.

“I looked at it and my heart hurt,” Spence said. “I had put so much effort to educate people about a real important movement in history that fought against hate and racism. But instead, it was like someone came to my door, smacked me in the face and reminded me that strong racism still exists.”

Spence views the message as a personal attack because of the incident’s timeliness. That same day, she and some other resident advisers had organized a Black History Day on the lawn between Shasta and Lassen halls.

The defacing of the board bothered others as well.

Tim Carhart, a visitor from Cal State Northridge, was outraged by the message.

Immediately, he began taking the offensive words down. Later, he refused to tell his god-sister Sarah Burgess what the words were.

“When he told me, I didn’t want to know. I knew it had to be something bad,” said Burgess, a Whitney Hall resident. “Honestly, Cece didn’t do anything to deserve this. It’s definitely sad that people our age feel the need to express their hate in such a childish way.”

As Kristen Bakken, hall council wing representative, headed off to work that morning, she routinely checked out Spence’s board. But instead of reading some cool quick facts, Bakken said saw something that was “clearly messed up.”

“It was insulting and disgusting to me that someone would do something like this to our floor,” Bakken said.

“I don’t think people understand that even though Cece gets really excited about all of her boards and puts a lot of effort in them, this one was different because you could just tell it meant something to her.”

Currently, there are no leads as to who vandalized the board. Usually, the residence hall staff members assume that the vandalism was caused by the guests of residents.

But Spence doesn’t believe this at all.

“Racism is prevalent on this campus, and it has been swept under the carpet,” she said. “Too many times has it been said that there are no hate crimes because none have been reported. I encourage every African American student on this campus to speak about their experiences and the injustices they’ve experienced here at Chico State.”

Although Spence plans on reporting the board to University Police and University Housing and Food Service, she wishes she could report her true feelings to the person or persons who destroyed her board face to face.

“Just know that it’s easy for you to vandalize a board, but you’ll never take the words imprinted in our heads,” Spence said. “So quit wasting precious time.”