By Jason Freund 17

As an African-American attending a predominantly Jewish and Italian junior high school, Chuenee Sampson often would play the guessing game with her friends as they rode home on the school bus each day.

As they rode home, she and her friends would try to guess what type of object the skinheads would hurl at the bus as it passed by.

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The picture Sampson painted in her speech set the stage for a national teleconference on hate crimes at the White House Monday. About 60 people viewed the teleconference via satellite feed in the Student Center.

Racism and the pain it causes is not only my problem; it is everyone’s problem, said Sampson, a senior at Duke University who started Students Against Violence Everywhere.

Sampson’s speech was preceded by a speech from Vice President Al Gore and was followed by a speech from President Bill Clinton.

Any act of attacking people for being different should send a shiver through the soul of America, Gore said in his speech.

Clinton addressed the need for the nation to come together to stop hate crimes in his speech.

Whether we like it or not, our futures are bound together, and it’s time to act like it, he said.

Clinton pledged the following changes to aid the curbing of hate crimes:New legislation which, if passed, would consider crimes against people because of gender, disability or sexual orientation to be hate crimes.

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Fifty more FBI agents and investigators would be responsible for inspecting hate crimes.

Hate crime questions will be added to the Justice Department’s National Crime Victimization survey.

There will be expanded education about hate crimes across the nation.

In his speech, Clinton stressed the need to teach children not to hate.

Children have to be taught to hate, he said. We need to be sure that someone is teaching them not to. The most important thing we can do is teach these children while they’re young enough to learn.

Following Clinton’s speech, a 10-member panel comprised of representatives from across the nation addressed several questions concerning hate crimes.

Panel member Raymond Delos Reyes, a sophomore high school student from Seattle, expressed his concern about segregation within schools.

We need to start at the root, Reyes said. Let’s start with an education. Let’s start with a commitment yours, Mr. President, and mine.

We can’t let the effects of this conference fade.

Clinton proposed the need for an organized means of reducing such segregation, but Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods said there is a need for better education on the subject of hate crimes.

This problem is the key to the future, Woods said. I do believe that children today are not taught basic principles of equality and respect for each other.

Jasmine Aguayo, a freshman in psychology from Chicago, said she attended the conference at SIUC out of interest, but that the conference did not seem very beneficial.

They were all saying basically the same thing, she said. I don’t think it (the conference) will work unless they do it all over the nation.

Jennifer Willis, an assistant professor in speech communication and organizer for the event, was pleased with the event and the attendance.

I hope that by bringing issues like this into the community that we can make awareness an issue, she said. We can’t forget these issues are out there, and they’re here (on campus), too.

The only way to change it is to address it.