Robert Kell ’13

Name: Robert Kell 

Year: 4th Year

Major: Women, Gender, and Sexuality and Government-Political Thought 

Robert Kell, along with Jared Brown and Wo Chan, organized a rally to end hate crimes at UVa due to the recent violent events at our university.

Why do you think hate crimes are so prominent in our community?

I’ve answered this question a million times in the past week, but this is the first time it has been worded so thoughtfully. For that, I am thankful. Typically, I have to add, “are so prominent” to the first line of my answer—otherwise, it is easy to write the recently publicized hate crime off as an isolated incident or something that “never happens in our community.” Hate crimes happen at U.Va. daily. If you think I am blowing this out of proportion, I invite you to come out with me to the Corner one night. 

Together we can watch students and community members of color be humiliated by bouncers asking for their student IDs. “I am white and they ask for mine too.” True, but if you fail to show it, would they turn you away? Are you ever worried that your student identity could be questioned simply because you look like a “townie.” That’s another thing! Why do we hate people from Charlottesville so much that we cannot share the Corner with them? And why do we construct bad people from Charlottesville to be poor and/or black? “Oh, it’s not really about them being from Charlottesville or their skin color, we just want to make sure that all the people [of color] are students. You know, sometimes people who aren’t students come in and make us all feel uncomfortable.” Please ask yourself one question—Why do they check for student IDs? The answer either has to be because we do not really want to mix and mingle with Charlottesville community members or we are not fully comfortable with all the students who go to UVa. Aactually, it could also be that we still have classist (and racist) understandings of what UVa. students look like. If you come up with another answer please let me know. If it has anything to do with business models and patrons who are likely to spend money over those who are not, then you really should stop stereotyping and agree this practice is wrong. If you feel safer on the Corner when they are having “student nights” then Chief of Police Gibson has truly won with his racist emails. It’s a fact, you are more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone you know than a stranger, and, like one of the rally speakers said the other day, those are the same men who are committing the hate crimes too. Just in case my point isn’t clear, stop worrying about “townies” and start worrying about the people who carry student IDs.  

After we finish on the corner we could join the herd of queers who migrate every weekend to Escafe (the only gay bar in Charlottesville). Ever wonder why you see so few queer people dancing and making out at fraternity parties or bars on the Corner? No, it’s not because we have a small community of queers (trust me, it’s much larger than you think; try downloading Grindr and you’ll see all the little black boxes of hiding boys who want to get a little action), but it’s because we know we aren’t welcome. In order to feel safe and to have a place where we can openly express our sexualities, your queer peers must literally go out of our way to avoid you. “I am gay and I go to the corner all the time.” When was the last time you made out with a boy on the corner? “Well, I haven’t.” Did y’all do the little dirty grind on the dance floor? “No, I’m not into that sort of thing.” Are you a little black box on Grindr? There’s a reason so many queer folk stay in the closet at UVa!

What does all of this have to do with hate crimes? Everything. You see, we are a community that inherently values some individuals over others. We are a community that espouses inclusiveness and one that claims to value diversity, but our friendship circles, the places we go to relax, Rugby Road, the Lawn, etc etc all look the same. To say it bluntly, we lie. Now, I know that the majority of students at this university are not racist and homophobic, but I can promise you that the majority of students do very little to stop their peers who are racist and homophobic from acting out. There were, rounding up, 150 people at the rally. If I had to guess, less than 50% were undergraduate students. “I had class, but this is an important issue to me.” That’s good, but meanwhile another student is harassed and/or assaulted. 

We do not have a community. No community would actively exclude portions of its members. Our “caring community” is not real and claiming differently does a significant amount of harm. It allows us all to pretend that we do not need to overhaul the values held by students. We feel we have already built the perfect community, so we can put our focus somewhere else. Our community is broken and we need to start talking about it. The other day at the rally we chanted, “What do we want? A caring community! And when do we want it? Now!” Until the majority of us stand up and demand the same thing, we can expect more hate crimes.

Lastly, we don’t name our attackers. This is simple answer that no one wants to hear. Trust me! Until we recognize and nameour peers as the ones who harass us, punch us, rape us, exclude us, discriminate against us, and hate us we can do very little to curb the frequency of hate crimes. Until we admit that we have people among us that truly hate other students, we will live in the fantasy of “never again.”

What organizations were involved in the rally and how did you go about unifying them?

I joined a group of queer student leaders who decided to organize the rally. It was organic really. A friend and I were already working on something else when another queer leader reached out. To be honest, there were other individuals who did more planning for the rally than me. I am not a shy queer, so I think the majority of the work I did was spreading the word about the incident. I started having conversations with peers in other organizations and of course, I lead the chanting at the rally. It would be extremely unfair for me to say that I was the one who unified our group. It took a lot of mature and dedicated individuals to pull it off. I hope I get the chance to work with a few of them again. 

Most of you would not know that the rally was an extremely special project for the queer community at UVa. Queer leaders came together from a variety of backgrounds to plan it. This was no simple task. There are multiple opinions about which approach queer students should take to transform this university into a safe space for LGBTQ* students and community members. My friends and I tend to lean toward the radical end of the spectrum, while others think an institutional approach works best. We came in thinking we were a divided community, but we quickly learned that we have the same mission—improve the environment that queer people find at UVa. Our solidarity is still shaky, but let’s be clear, queer student leaders are working together to solve this problem and blame cannot be displace on a splintered queer community.

Did you have any difficulties gaining support for the rally?

Yes, only 150 people showed up.

Honestly though, I was surprised by the number of people who pledged support on facebook, the email that President Sullivan sent out, and the recent 7 flags on the libraries (their letter mentioned the hate crime). These things do go a long way to build support and unity. Did we have difficulty gaining support? No. I think our community is ready for a transformation. Did we have difficulty getting people to act? Yes. The typical UVa student feels too busy or unsure to get involved. We need to be active members of our community and that means skipping class to come to a rally, writing a letter instead of a paper, preventing our friends from assaulting others or yelling slurs, stopping our peers from committing rape and finally sending a message to the administration that we do not want people who commit rape or sexual assault to be members of this community, telling the managers at bars that we are students against “student night,” calling people out when they use “townie,” and most importantly, we need to start a sincere dialogue with every student at UVa. I was an orientation leader for two summers, I know plenty of ways this can happen before students even get here. We may not be able to change their opinions, but we can educate them about their actions and clearly warn them that we will not tolerate hateful behavior in our community.

Was the rally a success?

If everything I listed above happens, then yes.

What have you learned about the University community through organizing the rally?

If you know me or have met me, you probably think I am too cynical. In fact, Dean Groves recently implied that he thinks I am in an email response. I will admit that I am extremely expressive about how I feel about this university. Until a few things change (a living wage would be nice), I will continue to be a cynic. However, I recently realized, even though many people do not find as many problems with our institution of higher learning as I do, there are students here who are committed leaving this place better than when they found it. I have been feeling quite overwhelmed by the people who have started having conversations with me and the constant offers of help and support that I have been given. I am sincerely impressed by my friends and peers who join me in the pursuit to form a caring community. Like the flags read, “No man is an island.” The greatest lesson I take away from the rally is simple, a lot of love and unity can be discovered through pain.