Bigotry always results in scapegoating, in overgeneralization, in unjust accusations based only on one's cultural, racial, or sexual affiliation, among other things. This is always the line of reasoning used by those attacking homophobia, sexism, racism or any other "ism." Of course, everyone understands that discriminating against somebody based simply on some affiliation of his or hers without looking at who he or she is as a person is an act of bigotry. Everyone knows that making presuppositions about an individual or blaming an individual for all the world's evils based simply on what you think about some general affiliation of his or hers is unjust, undemocratic and unfair.
Now look at recent episodes of sidewalk chalk and proliferation of flyers painting the Greek system in a light deliberately designed to pin all of the perceived evils of Dartmouth on an institution composed of intelligent, responsible, culturally-sensitive people. Chalk screams that "one out of four women are raped in college," some comments aimed directly at parents of freshmen women designed specifically to scare them, to turn them against an institution through scare tactics and overgeneralization. The treatment of the Greek system at Dartmouth in recent days is identical to attitudes of homophobia, sexism, and racism that anti-Greeks claim the Greek system manifests.
The comments on the sidewalk are nothing more than blatant propaganda, nothing more than hyperemotional appeals to the paranoid little critter inside us all that desires to have something tangible to blame for everything we fear. The flyers propagating anti-Greek attitudes are based on evidence, in some cases having nothing to do with misogyny (in fact, some even objectify men) and in many cases having nothing to do with Dartmouth at all. Sketchy statistics based not on Dartmouth and even less on the Greek system are being invoked as if somehow proving that the Greek system is responsible for everything wrong with Dartmouth.
The overwhelming if ostensible consensus on this campus is the need for more gender discussion and other methods of diverse interaction; yet such discussion is impossible, absolutely impossible, as long as those supposedly favoring open-minded interaction insist on holding biased views from the start. Hypocrisy at Dartmouth has never been hard to find, but right now it's more pertinent than ever because the future of the College depends on it. I refuse to let any monumental decisions be made on the basis of stereotyping, propaganda, and unfair overgeneralizations designed to paint Greeks in a light they do not deserve.
I happen to be accidentally watching MTV's "Undressed" as I write this column; this representative program of popular culture had the ingenious insight that "It's the 21st century. Sex is everywhere." Talk about sex and joking about sex permeates our culture -- it's in sitcoms, magazines, it's on the internet, it's in dorm rooms, it's in college-sponsored lectures and websites. So why does everybody start panicking when it's in fraternity and sorority houses? The Greek system faces the impossible end of a crippling double standard; it's cruelly unfair to hold Greeks to some sort of standard forbidding them from even mentioning anything sexually-related. Greeks are constantly under a microscope, a microscope that, if it were focused on anyone else on this campus, would find him or her equally guilty.
Condemning Greeks on the basis of talking casually about sex is ridiculously hypocritical, and extending that hypocrisy to the point of blaming everything negative that happens on this campus on the Greek system represents how so many people on this campus have degenerated to the same sort of stereotyping and bigotry for which they unfairly blame Greeks. Nobody seems to realize that the system is composed of individuals, and with or without the institution, you cannot get rid of the people, people who talk about sex just as every heterosexual, homosexual, black, white, Greek, and non-Greek person in the world does.
It is fair, of course, to hold Greeks to a standard forbidding sexual assault; this is a standard everyone must be held to and everyone is legally and morally bound to abide by. When a fraternity member is convicted of rape or sexual abuse, he must be held accountable, just as an unaffiliated person must be held accountable. Blaming the Greek system for the fact that sexual abuse occurs in the world is painfully shortsighted and the epitome of the word "scapegoat"; if the Greek system ends, sexual abuse will still occur. It pains me to know that it does happen and it makes me so terribly sad to think of how it could affect someone close to me, but I still cannot deny that it does and will continue to happen (even though Dartmouth is infinitely safer than most other colleges and certainly than the world as a whole). That does not mean that we shouldn't be making Dartmouth as safe a place as it could be, but as long as people pin all their fear unjustifiably on the Greek system, attacking a conveniently accused institution while ignoring the actual problem, no progress can be made. Discussion cannot start with assumptions and bigotry.
"Diversity" and "community" are words thrown about quite a bit, and it seems that a great many people think that both objectives would be achieved through the elimination of the Greek system. However, in their insistence on overgeneralization and refusal to recognize Greeks as more than just their letters, these people are some of the biggest perpetrators of attitudes precluding the possibility of creating a fully integrated community. For true community and productive discussion to take place, the propaganda and scapegoating blinding people from the actual nature of Dartmouth and its Greek system must end. Bigotry is a two-way street, something that people far too often fail to acknowledge. Because it faces this double standard, the Greek system should not be eliminated on the basis of stereotypes or punished for engaging in activities in which everyone participates. I would like to see how those attacking the Greek system would react if everything they said and did were investigated so intensely, always with the presupposition of guilt. Then maybe all this scapegoating would end and actual progress could be made. Email me if you want to start talking reasonably about how to make Dartmouth better; sensible discussion is better late than never.
