As most of you should know by now, in a flyer distributed last week, an anonymous group related a series of incidents that happened to me after I was quoted discussing Bob Dole's appearance at Alpha Delta fraternity earlier this term. The authors acknowledged that the piece was written without my permission. Subsequently, in The Dartmouth and in public forums, a number of students have denounced those who distributed the flyer as irresponsible for failing to inform me before publishing the story.
I find it truly remarkable that this latter group of students, most of whom have never chosen to ally themselves with me in the past, are suddenly so worried about my well-being. I am reluctant to accept their claims of support. While they profess the utmost concern for my feelings, none of them have, as far as I can tell, blitzed or called me directly to ask whether the article was true or how I felt about the manner in which the story was relayed.
What I told one student who did ask, and what I would have told anyone else who bothered, was that the article was an accurate representation of the events as I perceived them and of my feelings. During the time these events occurred, I relayed my fears to a number of people. Later, I considered going public with my story, but, honestly, I was afraid of rekindling thoughts of a lawsuit or the continual BlitzMail and phone calls I had received. I am, in fact, grateful to the students who published the flyer for sharing my experience with the campus in a manner which reduced the likelihood of further retaliation against me.
For that reason, I decided to lie low and play it safe. But I soon realized that just as a number of students had accused the mysterious authors of the flyer of using my name to advance an agenda, my self-appointed defenders were trying to promote their own. They sought to delegitimize and dismiss the flyer by whatever means necessary, just as long as the focus of the debate remained on the unusual tactics recently taken rather than the issues raised by these actions.
These students' condemnation of the groups responsible for the flyer and manure incident rests on two main grounds: the decision to remain anonymous and an alleged similarity between their actions and the ones to which they were reacting. The answer to the first allegation seems obvious. The significant risks involved are clearly demonstrated by the enormous attack, with no proof at all, on individuals even remotely suspected of being connected. If the story about me did anything at all, I hope it demonstrated a likely outcome of speaking your mind on this campus.
The second argument, equating the severity of the flyers and the manure dumping with the attacks they were intended to address, completely ignores the power differential involved. Many of the students in Alpha Chi Alpha fraternity and Beta Theta Pi fraternity, two of the institutions targeted, are rich, most are white and all are male. I fail to see how dumping fertilizer on their lawns carries the same threat as attacks on historically marginalized groups. Putting these incidents in the same category is both laughable and dangerous.
I strongly support critique and debate, but only when it is constructive. I do not think that this last condition has been met recently. Students have been quick to write columns and letters to the editor but slow to react themselves. Most seem to find it easy to criticize others' responses to sexist, homophobic and racist events. However, they rarely offer alternative solutions, and when they do, they are ones that others should be responsible for performing. If these individuals are in fact truly concerned about ending intolerance and prejudice, I think they should seriously rethink how they choose to spend their time.
The critical question that most seem to ignore in this whole debate is "why." Why did students feel compelled to take the drastic action of dumping manure on two fraternity lawns? Why did several men in Beta think it was funny to perform a poem clearly offensive to Native Americans, and why was last Monday the first time the majority of Dartmouth students saw this poem? Why did men at Alpha Chi think their pledge banquet skit was appropriate? Why did a student angry about sanitary conditions in a bathroom write racial slurs on two Asian-American students' door? And finally, why have most failed to see a connection between these last three events?
Now that would be a productive discussion.
