Hate Crime Leaves Questions

This article is the first in a series examining issues of race and diversity at Cornell. The goal is to investigate where we are now and where we are going, to seek out the role race plays at Cornell, as it is lived every day by members of the Cornell community.

Charles Holiday — son, student, stabbing victim — was addressing the court. Halting, quiet, strained at first, his voice grew stronger as he continued.

“Vengeance,” Holiday said, “I leave that up to my god.”

“I’m not here to give any solution to problems of racism,” he said. But he did want to make one thing clear. “The hands that helped me that night were white,” he said. “Race is a very, very silly thing to base one’s actions upon.”