Rich Castro worked like a dog so America wouldn’t treat his son Greg like one.
As a child, Castro picked vegetables and fruit with his parents. They were migrant workers in California. Castro used education to escape the backbreaking labor and racism he faced.
“I got out of the fields,” he said. “I got a master’s degree.”
Thirty-four years ago, he got a job at the University of Colorado. He raised a family. He sent two kids to college. He believed in the American dream.
Fat lot of good it did him.
Last week, in the latest racist incident at CU, All-Academic Big 12 cross-country runner Greg Castro became nothing more than an “(expletive) river rat” and a “border hopper.”
Behold America’s new “N” words. They were the lowest form of insult a pair of angry white students could conjure up for a Latino classmate: illegal alien from Mexico.
The e-mail also said: “I will come find you and drag you behind my (expletive) car.”
That sounds like a reference to the Texas case in which racists chained a black man to a truck and dragged him to his death.
University police have charged CU football player Clint O’Neal and CU track team member Jackie Zeigle with harassment and ethnic intimidation.
Zeigle told the cops she wrote the e-mail and used O’Neal’s e-mail account to send it in order to scare Castro after he shoved her sister. Zeigle and O’Neal deny racial motives or violent intent.
Greg Castro isn’t buying it. School officials told him Friday that Zeigle’s sister admitted he never shoved her. What’s left is race.
“They didn’t just say, ‘I’m going to kick your butt,”‘ Greg Castro said. “They threw in all these derogatory Mexican names. It’s racial in every way.”
“I’m shocked by the bluntness of those comments,” said his father. “My parents came here in the early 1900s. They were undocumented. They took great pride in becoming naturalized American citizens. I was born in California. I’ve done everything I’m supposed to do. I think I have proved myself to be a contributor. I hope these folks get a clue how hurtful something like this can be.”
He hopes, too, that this is an isolated incident in the CU athletic department.
Assistant CU athletic director Dave Plati swears it is.
“We pride ourselves on being one of the most diverse departments on campus,” Plati said. He called the e-mail sent to Castro “outright sickening and embarrassing.”
O’Neal told police that CU football coach Gary Barnett had told him “that everything was fine and to not worry about the incident.” The e-mail had nothing to do with CU’s firing of Barnett last week. Still, what happened here leaves plenty to worry about.
The dehumanization of illegal Mexican immigrants by politicians and pistol-packing border vigilantes is taking root.
Fear sewed in the immigration debate breeds stereotypes of illegal aliens as criminals and cretins.
Those stereotypes make it easier to hate.
Denials by O’Neal and Zeigle notwithstanding, there’s plenty of racial hatred in this “incident.” The police report lists Greg Castro as “white.” But the e-mail oozes racism and hints of violence.
O’Neal and Zeigle didn’t respond to requests for interviews. Police records show O’Neal’s profile on the college student website where the offensive e-mail was posted. There is a picture of O’Neal brandishing a shotgun and cross bow. Among his interests, he lists “killing animals, killin coons. …”
“I thought killing racoons came under killing animals,” said Greg Castro. “It sounds racial.”
Along with the references to “river rat” and “border hopper,” police records also show a posting by Zeigle in a chat room about an African-American friend of Castro’s. Zeigle writes, “My boyfriend wanted to say that the South will rise again … whatever that means. …”
Here’s what it means to Rich Castro: The bigotry his kids were never supposed to face is as ugly as ever.
Jim Spencer’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at 303-820-1771 or jspencer@denverpost.com.
