Following the Street Painting event, students returned to find their mural painted over.
Last Monday began the kickoff to Homecoming, a week-long set of events prepared by TU’s Student Activities Board and capped off by the Homecoming game against The University of Texas at San Antonio. The week started with Fall Fest in which students painted and carved pumpkins, enjoyed food from food trucks and attended a petting zoo. On Tuesday, the events continued with Street Painting wherein student organizations joined together to paint murals in front of the administration building on Tucker Drive. Finally, on Wednesday, students were able to get their frustrations out by demolishing and spray-painting a car during Raging Cane.
While many celebrating Homecoming were excited to spend the week going to events with friends and spending the weekend with family, for others, the festivities were overshadowed by the desecration of yet another mural following the Street Painting event.
Give Gaza Hope, an organization chartered earlier this year that aims to provide education on the history of Palestine to help students understand the current genocide occuring in Gaza, participated this year. Their mural was composed of a Palestinian flag atop a TU flag with “Free Palestine” inscribed at the bottom. The following day, some individuals came back to check on the mural, which is when they found a red line crossing through the painting. After being informed of the fact that the mural had been changed, more people affiliated with the painting came back to see the markings for themselves, which is when they found another splatter of red paint that, in addition to marking the Palestine mural, had crossed over to the multicultural organizations’ mural as well.
For some, this is reminiscent of the vandalism of the mural of the multicultural organizations the previous year, which was intentionally done and showcased a complete lack of regard for the efforts of the multicultural students who put hours into the design and creation of the mural.
While the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as Student Affairs is unsure of whether or not this act was intentional, although they have their own beliefs, the intentionality of this act matters only in part. If this act was unintentional, it still does not change the fact that, as president of Give Gaza Hope Abi Fogleman states, “It is incredibly disappointing and disheartening to see the disrespect shown towards non-violent, peaceful forms of free speech.”
It also does not change the fact that the work of minority students and those who advocate with them was painted over. It, further, does not change the fact that those who streaked paint over the mural and splattered paint along the mural’s edge disregarded the significance of the Palestinian flag, which represents those who have been undergoing an active genocide for over a year now and an ethnic cleansing for over 75 years. It does not change the fact that those who painted over it blemished such a significant symbol that bears importance to the Muslims and those of Palestinian and Arab descent on this campus as well as anyone, regardless of race or religion, who is sickened by the images coming out of Gaza, especially those who painted the mural.
Of course, if the painting atop of the mural was intentional, there is the added element of hate and the idea that those who painted over the mural do not view it as a symbol of significance despite all that it represents but, rather, a target.
The lack of understanding the significance of the mural is not solely the fault of those who desecrated it. We live in a society in which Palestine is viewed as non-existent, people justify genocide by claiming self-defense and starting a hundred-year history from last year, refuse to condemn or protest the politicians who are at fault for fear of spoiling the election and are called hateful for rallying against ethnic cleansing. Furthermore, the climate we as students live in has done nothing to combat this as student efforts to bring attention to the massacres of Palestinians or the idea of Palestine and the fact that Gaza has been undergoing an active genocide from the past year are not acknowledged.
Therefore, the university must acknowledge the fact that the genocide in Gaza is not just a conflict happening somewhere in the Middle East. It must acknowledge that there is a very real, tangible genocide that affects many of its students as their people and family are being slaughtered and many Arabs on this campus fear that their countries will be attacked and worry that the environment around them will defend their genocide or remain silent.
