Awareness Video

Project Leader(s): James Nolan, Eberly College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Collaborator(s): Morgantown citizen group “Dismantling Racism Together”

There are many acts of discrimination that fit the definition of hate crime or bias incident that go unrecognized or unreported at WVU. For example, there have been recruiting efforts on campus by white supremacist groups seeking new members. These activities may not constitute a crime per se, but they foster an unhealthy campus climate. These bias incidents and hate crimes should be tracked, and the mechanisms are already in place for this to happen. But, hate crimes and bias incidents are severely under-reported because there is so much ambiguity in the definitions. For example, a bias motivated assault on an LGBTQ WVU student is not considered a hate crime by the Morgantown police. This is because the state criminal code does not include LGBTQ bias as a hate crime. However, LGBTQ motivated violence is considered a hate crime by the FBI, which collects national data on the occurrence of hate crimes. We propose a transformation project that involves collaboration with a local Morgantown community group. Formed following the murder of George Floyd in May 2020, the group “Dismantling Racism Together” is working to highlight systemic and overt forms of discrimination in our community. Together, would like to create a short video for students, staff, faculty and WVU police on the topic of seeing and reporting hate crime and bias incidents. John Bolt, the former director of communications for WVU, is a leading member of the Dismantling Racism Together group. He and his colleagues will be instrumental in our work to produce this short training video on learning to see and report hate crimes and bias incidents.