A unified front against hate

A week after hate-filled graffiti was splashed across the Western Washington University campus, Bellingham police arrested a 20-year-old male student Sunday in connection with the crime. While the racist and homophobic hate speech rattled students at Western, it’s become all too common on campuses across the nation.

Western students awoke on Nov. 18 to racial slurs posted outside nine dormitory doors and scrawled elsewhere on campus, including on one of its notable outdoor sculptures.

The FBI reports the number of incidents like this are growing shockingly fast, with hate crimes on the rise in Washington and across the nation.