This past weekend students and members from the Fresno community united for a similar cause, only this time they did not walk out, they stayed in. The group staged a study-in Friday at California State University, Fresno’s Henry Madden Library to extend the library’s hours, wanting more availability to services funded by increasing student tuition fees.

As with the walkout, critics were fast to denounce the movement as news of the event became the top story on local news stations. The Collegian’s Web site provided breaking news updates and photographs to provide readers with inside coverage as the overnight event progressed. And what seems to be a continuing trend with the online comments this semester, The Collegian became a bulletin board for hate speech.

Comments quickly veered away from the demonstration and any relevant issues at hand as derogatory references to particular ethnic groups became the focal point of the online discussion. Hispanics were marginalized, perhaps because the demonstrators chanted “si se puede,” a Spanish translation of Obama’s hope-filled campaign slogan “yes we can,” at the onset of the study-in.

While I thoroughly believe in the right of free speech and open public forums to uphold those rights, I do so with the expectation that individual’s taking part in the discussion will actually provide significant arguments to support their stance. When the only evidence one can gather for their position undermines a certain ethnic group for problems that have no correlation with the relevant issue, it merely demonstrates ignorance on behalf of the respondent.

When did an individual’s right to freedom of speech transform into the inherent right to have reckless disregard for basic humanity? Comments varied from urging immigrants to “go back where they came from” to completely degrading the Hispanic population. What was even more disheartening was the fact that those leaving comments claimed to be fellow Fresno State students.

Education has always been said to be the path to tolerance and understanding. The more one learns about the world around them, the more apt they are to be more accepting of other’s differences. From elementary school to college, we are taught over and over again about the atrocious examples that were a direct result of discrimination and racism throughout history as a means to prevent such behavior from repeating itself.

We learn about the missions of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez and other peaceful activists and how they worked diligently for acceptance of all based on the humane fact that people should be judged on their demonstrated character, not on their unchangeable and predetermined ethnic background.

Yet, if fellow college students are the ones instigating the hate speech then the notion that education helps alleviate prejudices is alarmingly not working. I can only hope that those spouting racist insults, secure behind the anonymity of their monitor and keyboard, are not actual Fresno State students, just fictitiously claiming to be.

While many of the hateful comments have been taken off The Collegian’s Web site, the very fact that people consciously wrote such remarks pertaining to a particular ethnic group shows that, despite the progress our society has made to rid its nation of debilitating discrimination, we still have work ahead of us until we can truly claim to be a nation of solidarity.