While hate crimes on college and university campuses are, thankfully, infrequent, they do happen. In 2013, three first-year students at San Jose State University in California were suspended as a result of taunting their black roommate with racial slurs and references to slavery and trying to clamp a bicycle lock on his neck. In 2015, Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity at the University of Oklahoma was shut down because members engaged in racial chants; two members were expelled from the university. In 2014, students at both the University of Massachusetts and Colgate University protested acts of racism.

Although such actions are deliberate and hateful, others occur out of a lack of common sense. Consider a campus party to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Party organizers asked everyone to wear sombreros. On arrival, guests encountered a mock-up of a border patrol station on the front lawn and were required to crawl under or climb over a section of chain-link fencing. Student groups voiced their disapproval over such insensitivity, which resulted in campus probationary measures for the organization that had thrown the party. At a Halloween party at a large university, members of a campus organization decided to dress in Ku Klux Klan outfits while other members dressed as slaves and wore black shoe polish on their faces. The group then simulated slave hangings during the party. When photos of the events surfaced, the university suspended the group from campus, and the community demanded that the group be banned indefinitely.

For a number of years, stereotypes that are used to identify school sports teams and their supporters have disturbed ethnic and cultural groups such as Native Americans. Mascots that incorporate a bow and arrow, a tomahawk, feathers, and war paint have raised awareness about the promotion and acceptance of stereotypes associated with the concept of the “savage Indian.” Some schools have responded by altering the images while retaining the mascot. Other schools, such as Southeastern Oklahoma State University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have changed their mascots to move away from references to Native Americans.