The passionate tears and jubilant cries shared by many across Raleigh late Tuesday night were silenced by ignorance and prejudice Wednesday on our campus. While our state teetered between red and blue, students walked through scrolled words upon words of hate-speech in the Free Expression Tunnel.These words not only take root in people’s perception of N.C. State, but are also part of the larger national dialogue about what this new president means for our nation.The story about our Free Expression Tunnel is not exclusive to the Technician, but is published on the Associated Press newswire. It was picked up by FARK.com, a popular social media network. The News and Observer has run multiple articles, so has WRAL. The implications of this act are much larger than NCSU, and through this act our campus has inherited a very long legacy of hate speech and crimes.And yet our reaction is one of apathy and denial. In a campus of 31,000 students and 8,000 staff only 500 showed up for the Unity Rally held around noon yesterday, according to the News and Observer.Many, including the student body president, Jay Dawkins, who also organized the Unity Rally, believe that the actions of the four students who admitted to the crimes are just a small group who do not represent the University. But in reality these four students are simply a sample who were brave enough, or dumb enough or irrational enough, to publicly acclaim what they believe.Once these students admitted their participation their homes were searched by the Secret Service to determine there was no threat, and yet, no hate-related charges were filed by officers. The only punishment these students will face is what our University decides.The failure for us to act against the public acknowledgment of a group’s intention demonstrates our willingness to pacify a contingent that would attempt to steal away the will of an entire nation.  And the fact that these threats are also blatantly racially charged should only enrage us more as the argument is only one of skin color.As a student population, you must ask yourselves if you truly understand the uphill battle our nation faces over the next four years and the very real role prejudice will play in it.  For those of us who have grown up white and privileged, it can be difficult to see prejudice and empathize with those who suffer from it.On the Facebook Unity Rally event wall, a student wrote that he would not attend the rally because, “…racism is still very prevalent in our society on all sides and the only way to truly break it down is to laugh at these idiots as opposed to making a big issue out of it.”Too many people lessen the seriousness of prejudice in our society. Life is hard for everyone, but attempting to compare the plights of the privileged and minorities is futile. Laughing at these real problems and ignoring them does nothing to extinguish hate.Race is only a small part of the prejudices facing our country. We did elect a black president, but now is not the time to be congratulating ourselves on the achievement when there is hate speech being written on the walls of the free expression tunnel, gay marriage has been denied and overturned in three states and the Lily Ledbetter Act was defeated only months ago in the Senate.It is time to face reality and instigate the social rights our constitution promises all Americans, and we cannot do that if we fail to recognize the negative impact of hate-speech and punish it accordingly. N.C. State did not ask to be thrust into the political spotlight, but it has found itself there and should be a leader to the inevitable others who will find themselves in similar hate-charged situations.E-mail your thoughts on free speech, hate speech and the Free Expression Tunnel to [email protected].