A Black student leader at SDSU says he was subjected to a racial slur at campus event

A Black student leader at San Diego State University says he was subjected to a verbal racial slur during a campus charity event on March 10.

RJ Hullum, president of SDSU’s Interfraternity Council, said he initially did not hear the epithet because he was being hit in the face with a pie as part of the charity event, close to Love Library.

The epithet was picked up on a friend’s cellphone and played back for Hullum, a 21-year-old senior who is studying applied communications.

“I was the only Black person in the area at the time,” Hullum told the Union-Tribune. “I don’t know where (the epithet) came from; there were a lot of people passing by. I do know that it did not come from any of the fraternity members in the area.”

Hullum provided an audio recording to the Union-Tribune that does contain an epithet. SDSU declined to publicly discuss the issue.

The incident came to light on Wednesday when Hullum published a letter about the matter in the Daily Aztec, SDSU’s independent student newspaper.

“Words cannot describe how upsetting this is to me,” Hullum said in the letter. “I try consistently to do my best work and to put a strong foot forward. But I cannot do so in good conscience knowing that, as I fight the good fight, I will be discriminated against and treated differently because of something wildly outside of my control.”

Hullum told the Union-Tribune, “This isn’t the first time something like this happened.” He says an unidentified man called him an epithet while he was skating near campus in fall 2021.

In March 2019, someone in a vehicle containing several men yelled a racial incident at SDSU’s Black Resource Center, not far from Love Library, according to reports from student media. The epithet was picked up on a cellphone.