How to proceed after being threatened and treated poorly by university faculty after reporting physical assault? I’m an Indian PhD student at a mathematics department in the US. A few months back, I was deliberately shoulder-bumped for a few seconds by another PhD student. This student had previously chased me across the department (literally), invaded my personal space, and stared me down. I asked to change offices, which is usually a routine affair, but a faculty member stepped in to prevent this. I had to remain in close proximity with this guy, who continued to act in passive-aggressive ways.
After the shoulder bumping, I threatened to go to campus police. The aforementioned faculty member responded (in writing) saying: “There is no proof of this ever happening; I can’t prevent you from going to the campus police, but be warned that both of you can get expelled.&quot;
Also prior to this, I had reported several racist incidents from another student. A few example quotes are:

&quot;you fucking Indians&quot; in a very threatening tone,
&quot;don’t tell me you fucking Indians count so fast,&quot;
&quot;You Indians and Chinese are taking over,&quot;
or in a mocking tone: &quot;It’s funny there is racism in your country.&quot;

When I showed this faculty member documentation of these events, he wrote to me in an email: &quot;I don’t agree with your assessment that there is anything racist in these incidents.&quot; He also said the racist PhD student was &quot;special&quot; (though there is no written evidence of him saying this).
Another teaching faculty member had been similarly racist. He said things like:

&quot;I was scared to come here initially because I thought I would have to learn Hebrew&quot;,
&quot;I'm so white I'll never be mistaken for an Italian who gets mistaken for a terrorist when doing Math on a plane&quot;
Telling a room full of Chinese students and a couple of Indian students: &quot;If you speak in Mandarin or Hindi in the corridors you will get into serious trouble, like some Chinese students and postdocs from the past who were speaking Chinese in the corridors and it created a lot of mistrust and there were very serious complaints&quot; (no-one else has ever heard of these incidents).

Further, he physically intimidated me and barged into my office at one point. The faculty member said he had not done anything inappropriate (again no written evidence of this specifically). In fact he said, it is commendable and shows the teaching faculty member is very socially aware and aware of his white privilege.
I would not have necessarily made an issue out of this again, but I recently received a threatening letter from the dean and this faculty member. This letter warned that I could be &quot;withdrawn&quot; and stated that I wouldn't be allowed to defend a thesis right away. I replied saying &quot;Are you sure you want to take such a tone after the murder of George Floyd?&quot; Their reply was: &quot;If you keep speaking like this, we will 'withdraw' you.&quot;
How should I proceed after these incidents? I'm particularly interested in legal recourse (though the incidents mentioned may be hard to prove in a court of law, although I have these written emails from our faculty member).
There's a lot to parse here, particularly in the lengthy comments section.  The way I see it is you've got two options:

Go outside of the department for help
Avoid these conflicts and finish

It seems apparent that the department is not going to help you through this, since you mention both the Dean and the department chair being involved negatively.  If you opt for number one, you should look for school-wide resources, similar to Title IX coordinators for gender issues.  I'm not aware of this being standardized, so you should look through your university's resources.
I think whether you go with option 1 probably depends on how close you are to finishing.  If you're close, and you've been able to work successfully with your advisor, is it possible to minimize, or even cut, all contact with the rest of the department, and just get your degree?  It's hard to swallow injustice, but from a utilitarian point of view, there may not be much to gain by fighting with the people in charge of the department you're in.  Letting bullying by fellow PhD students go unanswered by simply avoiding them galls me, even, and I'm the one giving the advice!  But you should at least weigh the option when considering what's best for you; fighting racism in your department, or escaping with your PhD.
Of course if you're not close to finishing, option two becomes far less viable.  I'm sorry you're in such a toxic environment, and I hope you can finish your degree successfully despite it.  Perhaps some combination of 1 and 2 is possible - it seems sensible to immediately begin avoiding the sources of conflict in your department, even if you do opt to challenge their behavior at a higher level.