To the Editor:
In yesterday's Dartmouth, Mark Yohalem accuses me of "institutional racism" and "highfalutin" language. To the latter charge I plead nolo contendere. I use big words, sue me.
As to the former claim, in a sense it does not even dignify a response. But to leave it unanswered only lends credibility to Yohalem's pernicious twisting of fact and bankrupt logic.
Rather than address concerns I raised about the Greek system, Yohalem has decided to strike below the belt, as if a personal attack somehow nullifies my general point. Instead of stooping to Yohalem's sorry level of dialogue, I prefer to attack his argument.
Before I do, permit me to thank him for his compliment. He accuses me of "institutional racism." I tend to think of myself as an individual, but Yohalem thinks so much of me that he confers the status of institution. How nice.
Yohalem lambasts my comment regarding the use of the word "'sup" in Dartmouth vernacular. He seems blind to the fact it was sarcastic social criticism. I am inclined to tell Yohalem to take a joke, but his vehemence indicates that he is incapable of doing so. After all, I have committed the heinous crime of criticizing the Greek system. Mea Maxima Culpa.
Yohalem explains that the word "'sup" is part of "Black English," which he identifies as a dialect of English. From these unsupported claims he goes on to ask whether I mean to say that "'Black English' is the language of 'Simians.'" This suggestion is offensive and absurd. But by painting me as a racist, Yohalem attempts to invalidate my opinions, and thus silence me.
Ironically, the charge of racism could be leveled back at the letter itself. My comments had nothing to do with race. In fact it is Yohalem who draws the connection between the word "simian" and race. This connection, which he takes for granted, is where one might find racism.
Yohalem erroneously claims that I blame the Greek system for "a dialect." Instead, I was poking fun at the level of conversation that results when a group of men spend time and effort proving their machismo. This does not conduce to intelligent campus discourse. Again, however, my comment was social criticism, and I suspect Yohalem knows this.
Nonetheless, he is willing to brand me a racist. Of late, I have been called a litany of names. I could care less about this. But personal attacks like Yohalem's go beyond the line of civility. They are precisely the kind of comments that inhibit a free and open dialogue on this campus. Yohalem claims that I offend him as a liberal and a citizen of the Dartmouth community. Well I maintain that he has cheapened the notions of liberalism and community to such an extent that they no longer involve freedom of thought and are thus meaningless. I only hope that the social affirmation Yohalem may receive for his advocacy of a popular cause does not eclipse the shame he feels when he admits to himself that he has prostituted his professed ideals, both as a liberal and a Dartmouth student.
