Whoa!

A student reports via e-mail that on Tuesday, October 27, at the vendors’ market on UCSD’s Library Walk, she was browsing the “$2 For Everything” booth when a group of six or seven African-American high school students came into the booth and stole some of the vendor’s merchandise and walked away. The vendor then made a number of racist comments to the reporting student, who is also African-American.

The vendor said that every time she allows “those people” and “that race” to enter her shop, they steal from her, that she can allow “20 Asians and 20 Mexicans” to be alone at her booth, but that if there are 3 African-Americans alone, all of them will steal from her. The vendor further stated that she is considering shaving her head and painting a swastika sign on the back of it.

When the African-American student left, she said, “I hope your day gets better.” The vendor replied, “I hope your race gets better.” The student reported the incident as hate speech, and the vendor has been asked not to return for the remainder of the market’s run, which ends Friday.

University officials are working to modify the vendor fair contract so that the university will have the authority to terminate a vendor agreement for any reason.