Racism is all fun and games until you have an entire police force out looking for you.
Over the weekend, a group of three Black women students at Ohio University were minding their business as they were walking on campus. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, they had two separate groups of men arguing with each other. That is not out of the ordinary, especially on a college campus where students can get Blackout drunk and yell some obscene things at each other. (As a Black man who went to a PWI, I have first-person knowledge of this).
Initially, the three Black women avoided any trouble and continued their walk on campus, until they heard some of the men hurling the “N-word.” That’s when one of the Black ladies could no longer hold her tongue and yelled at the group, “challenging” their use of the word, according to the Ohio University Police Department.
The response by the group in question was in no way positive.
One of the groups left the area while the other, comprised of three white men and one biracial Black man, started to follow the group of Black women while yelling an array of racial slurs at them.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, tensions got even higher when two of the men in the group threatened the women with firearms that had laser attachments on them. Shortly after, the entire group of men left the area, according to the Ohio University Police Department.
The incident was recorded on a campus security camera.
Local authorities searched for the suspects, but have been unable to find them. All four of the men in the group are wanted for aggravated menacing.
While this particular act has not been labeled a hate crime (officially), I wonder if prosecuting attorneys will attempt to add those charges if and when the suspects are caught, considering the nature of their alleged acts.