[Ed-S: Thread locked despite fairly good behavior, because I didn't like the possible directions it could go. All sports fans agree: the article was awful, and that doesn't excuse bigotry]
A few days ago, Melanie Kruvelis published a column in the Daily criticizing the post-game happenings of Monday. Read the full article here:
http://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/04melanie-kruvelis-parade-never-cam...
The RCMB wasted no time in posting it to their site, which, as the comment section on the Daily reveals, led to an intense effort to harass Kruvelis. Most of the comments are fairly inocuous, but some ten of them or so refer to her physical appearance and sex life. RCMBers also posted a picture of Kruvelis to the thread and derided her there, too. They looked up her Facebook and made note of her sexual orientation at several opportunities.
They also celebrated the comments made about her and my comments made about the sexual harassment in the comments.
Find the thread on RCMB here:
http://michiganstate.247sports.com/Board/93/This-chick-is-not-helping-co...
No one has criticized this from them, but I think they deserve to be called out. I know we are their rivals, and they probably won't take too seriously what we say. But then, on the other hand, they are behaving like people who have just discovered that they can say whatever they want on the internet. I have not witnessed this from any other sports fanbase or site, but then, perhaps I haven't been paying attention to many others. Regardless, I'm ashamed for them, of them.
I recognize too the difference between an RCMBer and a Spartan, and I hope you will too. RCMBers are, for the most part, subsets of the Spartan fanbase, but what they say does reflect on the Spartan fanbase.
Mostly, I'm ashamed that no one in the Spartan fanbase has spoken out about these completely overt and sexually violent expressions. I think that's the most reflective on the Spartan fanbase. It's as if there's a completely tacit acceptance by Spartans that this can't be changed. I'm similarly saddened that no one thus far from our fanbase had, although I think it makes more sense that it flew under our radar. Nonetheless, I'm deeply saddened by these events, and I hope that my saying something here may do a benefit. If for nothing else but to express support for Kruvelis as she is harassed by these people. This kind of cyber bullying needs more attention. We know that columnists put themselves out there when they make their opinions public, but no person should be subject to this kind of harassment.
