Yolanda,
I know you don't drink, so I am offering you a "virtual drink" here today. I am about to emote and I welcome you to join me. Did you hear that guests? I am emoting. Please don' get all up in the comments section telling me that I didn't make a rational argument supported by evidence. Today I am not cooking. I am drinking.
Why? Because it has been a ridiculous and difficult week and I need to blow off some steam so that I can regather my flagging strength and declining optimism.
First there is my BFF who is a history professor in North Carolina. She is a truly brilliant historian. Whenever I manage to incorporate historical nuance into my writing it is because of the 15 years I have spent as her friend: listening to her insistence on context, responding to her questions about black agency, and reading her discoveries of resistance and organizing among black folks at the turn of the century.
Just after Obama's presidential win, a white student painted a tunnel on her campus with the words "Let's shoot that N***** in the head." The university discovered the identity of the students involved but refuses to release their names. The perpetrators have done little more than offer a weak apology from behind their shield of anonymity. Because of the anemic response of her university my BFF has spent the week organizing a teach-in. She hopes to explain that this act is not just a matter of "free speech", but is tied to a history of racial terrorism. I am sure she will respond with tact, with balance, and with intellect. But I am drinking today so let me just say that I am pissed!
Why is the university shielding the identity of these young men? If they want to claim a right to free speech then they need to be bold enough to stand up next to their speech. Instead of revealing them, NC State has offered to help them keep on their KKK hoods. If you talk about killing black people I want to know who you are. I want to know if you are sitting in my class. If you are so bold as to suggest assassinating the president, then be bold enough to sign your name. I am pissed about the amount of energy my friend has to spend on this foolishness. She is untenured which means she is still professionally vulnerable, but the powerful, white administrators at her university have been more worried about how this incident mars their school's reputation than they have about addressing the terror, anger, and pain this act evokes for students, faculty, and community residents who feel attacked by this venom. So the already ridiculously overburdened and underpaid black woman professor must pay an additional personal tax by organizing an appropriate response.
I am also beside myself that you, Yolanda, were personally attacked in a racially hateful flier distributed on your campus. I know that you are not yet ready to talk about the event because you are considering a whole set of legal and personal responses. But sister, I need to tell our guests here at The Kitchen Table about this disgusting act. These hateful creeps, also cowering beneath anonymity, distributed a newsletter called "The Foreskin" all over Princeton Theological Seminary's campus on Thursday.
In their vile, racist, publication they mock the newly elected president of the student body who is a terrific young black man. They also went after you, Yolanda, belittling you as an African American woman and making fun your scholarly contributions and your service work on campus. When I saw this thing it took absolutely everything I had not to come over to your campus with a torch and start setting things on fire until we get some answers. (Notice how I am signing my name to this as I write it.)
I am giving your administration about 48 hours to decisively address this issue. If they don't I plan to bring all the noise I can. I mean it. I am calling press, starting a protest, and calling lawyers. We are not taking this thing. You do not deserve this hatred my friend. There is no way that these students should be sent out to be ministers and teachers without someone at that Seminary uncovering and publicly condemning this garbage. I mean it girl! I am drinking today.
Just to round out the racist hype this week, I was also featured in Princeton's conservative student paper as a candidate for the prize of most insane professor. Their evidence was drawn from a blog entry here at The Kitchen Table where I talked about the 2008 elections as a referendum on white supremacy. They did not talk about anything I have ever said in lecture or seminar, but something that I wrote on my personal blog. There is no one on my campus who works harder for her students than I do: all my students, of all races, of all political persuasions, of both genders, of all sexual orientations. I literally don't sleep during semesters when I teach. I try to innovate new pedagogy. I incorporate technology. I bring in outside experts. I haven't repeated a class in three years because I want to teach new material. So if I want to write my own beliefs, on my own blog, unmediated by the concerns of students, that is my business.
At the end of this incendiary week, we took the girls to NYC last night to kick off the Christmas season with a little Radio City Music Hall fun. In the midst of fun with our girls I actually managed to lay down some of my anger. Then we came out of the show and saw the news sprawled across Times Square: HILLARY CLINTON SAID TO ACCEPT POSITION AS SECRETARY OF STATE.
That is when the drinking began.
I sacrificed a lot during the primaries because I truly believed that HRC was wrong for national leadership. Then Barack simply appoints her to precisely the post that was most troubling. At some point, when I am cooking instead of drinking, I will rehearse my objections again. Right now I just want to say that the world feels pretty raw for sister professors.
I know that we sometimes get emails from readers who say they want to follow us into the academy and be like us someday. Today that seems like a strange aspiration indeed. There is much less glamour and many more burdens than might be immediately apparent. Even to my own ears, this post seems like whining, but I also know that we have to mark the place of our pain and mention the costs we pay to do the work to which we are called.
I won't really drink. I will go for a jog to clear my head. I will bake some pies for the homeless shelter to remind myself of the abundance in my life. I will be extra nice to my mom today to remind myself of loving bonds I share with white people. I will call my girlfriends and we will emote some more. On Monday I will go back to teaching and advising students. But for this one moment I am acknowledging that this mess really hurts.
Melissa
Posts
36 comments:
I hope this is a comfort. At least, it's comforting to me:
I think this slew of hate crimes across the country is a symptom of national growth. This bigotry has been sitting there under the surface in a country whose white elites have been patting themselves on the back for decades for overcoming racism.
Obama's election just pushed it to the surface and is forcing a lot of whites to get comfortable with black leadership. Most really will... conservatives especially are experts at getting comfortable with the status quo. But we'll see the people who aren't adjusting, front and center.
And, as our friend Sherri reminded me, this election can't be undone no matter what. We've shown it can happen. We've shown a right-wing power structure has to yield to a grassroots democratic movement. No shock-seeking racist freak can ever turn back that tide.
Love and Peace,
Matt
Oh, shit.
I disagree with you about HRC but have learned - continue to learn - so much from your writing, not just about politics and the academy but also about myself and my own discomforts. I will continue to do my own work, but wanted to thank you for putting yourself out there.
It's bad enough to be personally injured by being misunderstood and attacked. I can't imagine what it's like to have the terror of racism and history piled on top of that injury. There are no words.
Then,...never mind.
I think the hardest thing for me to deal with is the response of the PTS student body to this. Very few people with whom I've spoken "get it." Other newsletters of this sort have come out in past years, but none have been as offensive and blatantly racist as this. Students are asking "What's the difference?" and saying "It's satire, pointing out the hypocrisies of PTS." I don't even know what to say to that.
Down the hatch, sister!
You weren't the only person disgusted and outraged and profoundly saddened by the newsletter distributed on the PTS campus Thursday. I didn't even know there was anything in it about Dr. Pierce until later in the day because the first page, even the title, were so distasteful that I put the thing down. There were some students who tried to defend it, as satire or free speech or not taking ourselves too seriously, but most that I spoke to found it reprehensible, especially in the context of a community that (supposedly) has the goal of training ministers and church leaders. Not that it makes it all better, not by a long stretch, but two of the students involved did honor our president's request to stop hiding behind anonymity and take responsibility for the hurt they caused their fellow community members. As I say, it's not a panacea, but hopefully it can be the beginning of reconciliation and greater awareness about and action against the racism/segregation that lives even on the campus of Princeton Theological Seminary.
And another drink for HRC as Secretary of State! Who on earth would think she's qualified for this job? Did Obama wake up and take a crazy pill? Do we really need to be so interested in pandering to certain constituencies? Blah. Vodka please.
Melissa and Yolanda,
Do not ever doubt how important and significant your voices are... hatred is most virulent when directed towards those who voices are strong. My heart broke when I read your post and while I seldom pray anymore, my prayers went up for both of you.
My birthday was the day after the election, and today my daughters and granddaughters host 60 friends and family to celebrate my 60th birthday. In my 60th year, this country has begun to give birth to its real potential... like all birth, it's messy, painful and laborious, but on my 70th birthday, I expect to be able to say yes. we. did.
Keep the faith, and know that your courage, intelligence and heart inspire many more of us than those who are moved to hatred. You are on the front lines and we are moved by your sacrifices.
Dr. Harris-Lacewell,
My name is Liam O'Donnell, I am student here at PTS and I am particularly a student who is a loving disciple of Dr. Pierce. She is by far my favorite professor here at the seminary (sorry others reading this blog, love you too, but she wins). I am a person of mixed racial background, who is commited to the struggle against white supremacy while also aknowledging how it has affected and conditioned me.
I want to go ahead and put my neck out and defend the students involved in the Foreskin. I will not do that by suggesting people should not have been offended. I will not do this by defending the actual document. I think it is clear to both of the students who came forward that this was a terrible idea. (there were many students involved in the production of this document from what i can tell, though I only know the identities of the two who came forward as the rest of the student body at pts does).
How will i do it? The foreskin is an example of what happens when one does satire poorly. The goal of the document was not to enforce white racism. it was, like the onion, an attempt at satire. Perhaps you and your readers have read some the onion? It excels at showing how ridiculous a view point is by pretending to have it. This form of mimicry attempts to highlight the evils, hypocracies, and contradictions in a view point via characature. The effect can also be compared to stephen colbert, who mocks bill O'Rielly by attempting to be like him.
The foreskin, though it failed terribly at this, was attempting this kind of satire.
It did it poorly, and by being anonymous allowed people to read the worst intentions, and for the entire thing to go wrong. I suggest the problem was anonymity itself, but thats not the point. The point is that PTS IS A SITE OF WHITE RACISM. I feel pretty confident that any non-white student here has experienced this in some form. However, this poorly written, and quite honestly unfunny publication, was INTENDED to point that out. It sought to use humor to aknowledge that as well as a few other issues. I suggest another analysis of the situation at pts.
Because PTS is unwilling to deal with their racism problem, these students will be castigated. What they did was wrong. Satire that is anonymous runs the risk of true harm. How is dave chappelle able to get away with some of his material? cause of who he is. identifying all of the authors from the outset may have change dthe response. What is more, satire that is not funny tends to offend before it causes one to think. People assumed authorial intent because it was not made clear through humor that the authors did not mean what they wrote. However, I believe these students will be scapegoated for the racial sins of the entire campus. The way to deal with our racism is not to publicly humiliate students who stupidly tried to deal with that very issue. The solution is a public discussion fo race that actually deals with the issue. Those who are actually threatened by a questioning of white racism will allow these dtuents to be scapegoated in an effort to avoid dealing with the issue. That is not to say the students did nothing wrong. Bad satire is offensive, because the intentions of the author or humorist are unclear. Thus, one can easily believe they mean what they say and are not pretending.
What is more, these two students do not represent all the authors. We do not know the identities of all thos involved, and yet the articles were called by many white backlash against obama. Besides the fact that both those who came out to take responsibility are ardent obama supporters, the identites of the remaining authors is unclear. That is to say, not everyone involved may be white!!! of course, racial identity does not defend the document. One can be identified with a particular "race" and still have influence from white racist ideas. However, if the identities of the authors turned out to be different, would people's reactions change? i suggest so, though i would pray they would still be negative.
All of that is to say those involved should apologize, and they have quite sincerely. They are upset beyond imagining at the deep pain they have caused and had NO INTENTIONS of causing. However, i think the reason their intentions were not clear is that racism at PTS is quite real and present. We do not really want these stduents to suffer, but rather want thinsg here to change. They are bearing the rbunt, it seems to me, of a frustration with the school as a whole. PTS needs healing, and the blood of these students is not what will bring it. I hope we can find what will.
thank you for your engagement with this issue and please forgive my long response. I hope it made sense and did not bring further offense. may we all find a way forward in a nation still haunted by white racism and patriarchy
Liam again,
let me be clear. the hurt caused by this document is real and needs amends. However, the larger problem is still the specter of racism at PTS. Punishing these students does not deal with that problem, which they intended and yet failed to bring light to. Rather, it allows us to supposed the problem is not US as a whole. By focusing on the foreskin, PTS students and admin and faculty get to pretend the problem is them, and not the school as a whole.
I hope that is clear in what I am saying. The hurt caused by the document is still real though and is the something these students and hopefully all those involved can seek healing for. ok I think that clarifies enough for me.
Hard days and weeks and months are with us for a while... hopefully not years.
This active display of the losing of ground -- the loss of power -- just demonstrates the fundamental changes we are going through and the fissures it exposes.
Couple your examples with those of the immigrants who have died as the result of the anti-immigrant ranting.
http://apnews.excite.com/article/20081122/D94K7BBG0.html
The academy is always challenging; but, with the challenges come untold rewards. I know what it's like to sacrifice self and family for students because there is so little time to pour ourselves out into their lives, to connect, and to plant seeds that will continue to germinate until they bear fruit along a later path. In fact, that is one of the most challenging aspects of teaching: often the rewards are not apparent until long after the encounter.
That many do not understand or recognize the twin faces of privilege and prejudice is a reality across our nation and, indeed, our globe. Students are particularly vulnerable because they believe they have knowledge and insights, but much of what they say and think is repackaged from what they have encountered at earlier stages of life and development.
However, when confronted with ideas and images and people and realities that do not conform to what has gone before, students are able to determine which version of themselves will emerge at the fork in the road between what they believe, what is, and what can be.
Melissa and Yolanda, because you have given so much of yourselves to helping students understand what is, while also encouraging them to strive for what could be, you are open to attacks designed to undermine your commitment, your resolve, and your voices. I believe, however, that there is something stronger in both of you, and that this force...the culmination of those of courage who have gone before, and the hopes and prayers of those who are still to come...will continue to strengthen you for the journey.
Melissa, your BFF, like academics of color everywhere, will be tapped to provide "the" perspective for people of color. The onus always falls on us. This is one of the reasons why so few of us are in the academy, because we carry not only our formal responsibilities, but also the informal expectations of others to address these issues and any others that develop along these lines.
So, I join with you in toasting aspects that are unfair and unwarranted...that they may end...and aspects that are rewarding and encouraging...that they become the norm in all our lives.
Grace, peace, and friendship to you all.
I think a whole lot of bigotry masquerades as "satire". That doesn't fly with me. At all.
Lala
Hello there!
Yolanda, they did WHAT??!! Oh heck nooooo! We will PROTEST online and bring the heat like never before!
I raised pure H-- the entire time I was in school and was FLOORED when the alumni of the 97% white university nominated ME to serve on one of the university's advisory boards ten years later. I saw my nomination letter and wondered: "did they THINK I had calmed down?"
*LOL*
I posted a burning flag at my blog on 9/11 with a caption "Hate does not ring the door bell." I wanted people to understand that we HAVE TO stop treating hatred with politeness.
I hope that when you are ready to take action that you will allow your allies online to stand WITH YOU and use the power of the pen to bring the heat.
Peace, blessings and DUNAMIS!
Lisa
"I think a whole lot of bigotry masquerades as "satire". That doesn't fly with me. At all."
I think you are right. However, actually knowing he students who have come forward, I am forced to consider the newsletter in light of what I know of them. I also see what is happening on campus, and many students seem ready to just attack these students without thinking about race in general. By painting these students as "racists", it actually does not allow the campus to deal with race. it allows the campus to ignore race as a problem of these particular students who are somehow abnormal. but race is an issue for the whole school, as is honestly sexism, heterosexism, classism and whatever else. By pointing out the motivations of the students, I don't want to defend the document. I want to humanize them. by making them human I think it allows us to more easily seek healing AS WELL AS more aggressively confronting racism.
Liam O
Wow this is some serious anger and loss of accepted privilege. We must brace ourselves. It's not right and it's not fair. These schools and other businesses do a great disservice by shielding white people from accepting responsibility for the hate they put out there. I consider it an act of tacit approval if they don't release names. It's going to up to the public, the donors, the student and alternate media to put pressure on them and public humiliation if necessary. An area Police Chief (Palo Alto) is retiring after a storm of controversy erupted after she told people during a public meeting the police would do and stop and search on every Black man in the vicinity due to an increase in crime. She later tried to claim she was misunderstood. But when I googled her name and previous correspondence she had a history of encouraging racial profiling and had a rather 'narrow' focus of who criminals were and weren't though the crime stats didn't match her singular focus. So we know people taking action can make a difference.
Let’s cover a few things:
I’m starting to see that the fallout from this election is starting to shake a lot of people whom never had to fight racial terrorism as blatantly before. These incidents have occurred for years. I know about several incidents because students contacted me thinking I was one of those people that fought these incidents with a wand and fairy dust. They literally thought I was one-dimensional and waited by a phone for incidents to happen to run after to deal with. They were so naïve and unprepared to ever think that incidents could or would happen on their campuses and when they happened it should how sheltered from understanding harsh realities some other citizens faced more directly all the time.
Students showed me just how limited they were in scope. From noticing how they imagined that finding solutions for racism on wrapped the scenario of being the victim of a race crime and then having someone (some man) to yell and come fix it, they assumed a concession for the liability of the guilt would be tendered and that was progress. Really, that is how I found today’s twenty-something rationale of fighting for racial progress was segmented. Besides that, students thought the service was free. They thought the superhero for-hire worked for freedom and justice for free and if justice was to be served, someone would come to be their martyr. I am not sure how Black students at Princeton process the systems of fighting racial progress but that is what I experienced in the early part of the millennium for several years.
I witnessed “do-nothing” university leadership and educators on campuses do the same thing in coax silence and sequester their students. I saw that not many were teaching students innovative ways to neither process their neither thoughts nor process execution of those thoughts or theories learned. I doubt many theories were taught however because young people kept regurgitating nothing that made sense to me. I grew frustrated from the students not seeing that they were coming to universities improperly taught but it was a delicate tight-rope to straighten it out because it took time, it took trust that was not easily given by cynical students of new ideas, and it required a delicate hand at showing them they were taught wrong by their loved one and people that inspired them. No one opened up the discussion. Not until your commentator here, Angela did.
Do you see what you are doing? You are moving a mountain? Angela responded a few posts back about something I have been waiting for someone to bring up. She would not have brought it up if you did not emote. This is good. This is wealth. This is what we need in a braintrust.
Sometimes when I visited colleges I could not connect with professors because they were either jealous or they were out of their element. Too many professors were conventional in thinking they were there to do their work as if the work was them instead of using the resources of the existing environment as research. So I had to be surreptitious in handling things to not step on toes even though I wanted to stomp on feet. It was just as delicate in showing students that they were taught improperly before they arrived on their campuses to attend college and that they had poor skills in interpretation of relative cognition to be exact. I saw that their cognition needed to be calibrated and titled professors got off easy by just tossing the dismissals aside that the students were lost and unable to be salvaged. These people got paid and still boasted that they were educators doing sacred duty. Please!
Students were too inexperienced to realize whom was of real value on their campuses, if any. Students who had the innate ability to figure out what was the systems of their schools would sometimes tie themselves to denial because the reality of finding out their school did not really give a damn about progress was heartbreaking. So kids depended on cynicism and would pay for people to come and give them a high on hope. It was crazy the ways students started to value the idea that everyone who marketed they had the best intentions had the best intentions when most only wanted to stand still.
I met students whose trademark was interpreting reality the way they wanted to interpret because of pop-culture and laziness on their part in part of new discoveries you could bring to their attention. Pop-culture was superior. Their home environments and social environments that created them were superior. They would not know how to balance new with old because the dominant agency at their colleges did not support the discovery of students’ exploration in uncharted territory.
But most times I found the culprits were the loved ones who too were conditioned to comprehend ideas and thoughts a systematic way that was not right or logical. I am talking about the people who co-signed or signed for their student loans and bought them cars and spoiled them. Going up against their Boomer heroes who were their parents or anyone that stroked them was dangerous. Administrations were filled with Boomers that catered to their Boomer interests to not really do the hard work. The money was important so keeping the alumni or parents happy with the ideas that their children were safe if safe meant delusional in fantasy, that’s the product the administration was guaranteeing their clients (and Corporate America). The Black Community I learned had no intention of making a widespread proactive campaign to straighten out the systems of misguided interpretations in error that was stifling our development to grow as a people. So schools were graduating for decades class after class of young people who were growing old that thought they knew what they were talking about and dealing with.
People too were trying to get masters and PH.D.s in African-American Studies with the intent to redeem Blacks and institute progress with others but they were shaped in their expertise in error. So I am not surprised still.
You are the first person that I have witnessed who is cracking the code. And then you introduced us to Yolanda who is a code talker and a code cracker too. I think she is divine but just as you, so damn nice and sweet. She is not wild but she has the spirit to be freed. I realized that with you that you were a wild stallion in a tamed universe of intelligentsia. The article you wrote entitled, Dear Class of 2008 was dangerous. But you know, it was what men get credited for as genius contributions to discovery. It was a piece of work with hidden clues of deeper meaning to explain what promotes the ineffectiveness in teaching and becoming an authentic scholar. As well the piece hid nuggets to explain why the country had so many dumb and lazy educated people. I thought of that piece to be a bit like map to trace our movements that led to iniquities in learning and well as a direct route to the treasures to be found in learning. It was an intimate piece exposing the transparent failures in teaching and the desires you had but did not defend enough while teaching because of the lack of unified support to all do this as a sacred trust. I had been waiting for years for someone to open that can of worms. But your piece went over others heads because they are myopic and numb. Their sixth sense is undeveloped. Here you are giving them a chance to break from their cages they hold themselves hostage to to understand how systems are held in place of insolvency in the academy as well as in the world.
I think this post has the potential to break paradigms. This post has so much precedence but it can’t be all levied upon you to carry as your burden. You are not our savior. We have to start to start saving ourselves by committing to the work and understand when some mortal being offers us an opportunity to at precedence. This post and the call to action you have indirectly and directly made has potential to turn the immobility of worthlessness on it’s head. I know I talk big but shit, why not? I always did of hope and ideas with very little but passion to pay for it. But think: the university is still too top-down and the people enable the entity of bricks-and-mortar power to dictate their limits in learning. That is not what learning is supposed to be about: arresting progress.
Do you know what you are doing? Or you have the potential to do? Princeton might have hired you because of your book reviews not knowing what they got themselves into. There is this quote from The Amazing Mrs. Pritchard that reminds me of this moment in time.
Roz say’s to the women that they are mistaken of who they see her as in doubting herself all of a sudden in the weight of the reality that she was pushing a paradigm and not being cognizant of her own power by simply getting sick and tired of being sick and tired. And Kitty Porter responds, “I don’t think you know what you are…yet”. Sometimes others can see the precedence, Melissa, while you think you are just emoting.
Fannie Lou Hammer had her lightbulb moment from realizing the magnitude of power being held from her when she found out she had rights but they were kept from her in acts of omission. That was how she became sick and tired of being sick and tired. She emoted! It was her epiphany to be mad and use that anger constructively. She always had to be a bright and industrious woman but it was the anger that fueled her industrious ability to organize. If she one, was not catalyzed by a conduit (and conduits) alerting her to the righteous indignation was merited, she may have just have lived and died working in a field never to be a model of unconventional leadership we have the evidence to know has merit. She invested knowing she could gain in profitable returns that could change lives for Blacks but also this country. As well she knew she could lose and I mean lose EVERYTHING. She saw the risk and still invested but the risk was the only way to gain.
If I had you years ago my life today would be different. This one variable you think is an emoting post has potential to change the world. Stop thinking small in thinking your emotions are weightless. Those conservative students rattled your nerves. And yes, I don’t agree with a lot you say and I think a lot of times you are far reaching but that is because you tackle politics when your call is something else. I see something else. I noticed the divinity in Angela’s post. It’s catalyzing and it could…die. You could willfully dismiss your call…again. So close but yet so far. And to know that someone else’s call is linked to yours is heavy. It’s something we fail to understand but if Moses did not accept his call, there would have been no Joshua and so on in prophecy. Prophets were threaded and yet we live in such self-obsessed society we fail to see our natural genius repressed in thinking we have to do it alone and we must do it for marketed fanfare. You picked up the receiver and answered but you are trying to get drunk to deny you are hearing what you are being tasked to do.
Your call is the shit we step in that sometimes is not our shit --- but others we have to clean up. We want to do what we want to do when our call is something else and it is right in front of us --- but we can’t see it because we want to design our own lives completely.
John Bradshaw, who was a former priest, wrote a few books I believe are bibles of truth about our limits as mortals. He also writes about our possibilities when we get past that we can dictate the endings but we can shape them in how they end.
I gotta go eat something and watch The Long Kiss Goodnight...you know, I am a feminist that can't miss watching a rerun of heroine chic movies...But I'm not finished with you yet. I know what I am doing and I realize you never edit me or silence me. You accept the challenges I present you. I think your souls know that I was sent to say these things to you and I know this. I'm certain. (And really, I can't be insecure that you may not HEAR me. I have faith.) That is why I type it where it can be archived to be tested. I believe in divinity and our mortal lives are intertwined. You are getting it right. Finally someone else in you and Yolanda may gather us all together to stop blocking our blessings in our free will to do...together...even apart from one another. That is vision and that is empire building our community, our sex, and our world needs desperately.
You stood up for Yolanda and I have more to say about that that is...precedence.
I think it is important to keep in mind that at PTS two students have in fact come forward and taken responsibility and apologized. These students did not write all of the offending material though, and I think it would be helpful if the identities of the remaining authors were revealed. Now that we know some of those responsible the community can seek further answers. This to me seems much different then the events in NC as they are inherently anonymous and unambiguous. This event at PTS now has a face and a statement of intention. there is still deep hurt there, but the situations are clearly different.
Prof. Melissa,
As usual, I really enjoyed reading your article and blog posting today and I share your frustration with renewed racism in America. Although horrified at some of the comments, hateful racial postings and about the hurtful acts I have been reading about lately, I am not surprised!
When we first did our analysis on Barack seeking the Democratic nomination, back during Winter Term 2008, Herb and I both discussed the possibilities -- should he be elected to the office of President – we discussed the possibilities of how a hateful, disillusioned, racist, from another side of America could conceivably pose a threat to Barack as the first Black American President. I’m referring to the part of America that we normally wouldn’t see in Portland, Oregon, or even in NYC. Anyway, we all know this part of America that I am mentioning, this is the other America that normally the international community does not acknowledge, or even know about. America is truly a multi-cultural and multi-ethnical “divided society.”
When you have Republicans chanting at public rallies hosted by John McCain and Sarah Palin, and acknowledging loud chants of…”kill him, kill him...” and Governor Sarah Palin not even contemplating on making an effort to squelch or subdue the hatred, this should tell all of us of how people acknowledge and perceive racism and hatred in our society differently. Maybe I’m somewhat empathetic, but it seems to me that someone should have said; “stop, no, this is wrong..!” after hearing “kill him...” at the rally. Earlier this year; we went from Barack being portrayed as an Islamic Fundamentalist, a militant terrorist, courtesy of the New Yorker Magazine cover, to a “domestic terrorist” by Sen. John McCain, due to his former professional contacts, to Barack being labeled a “Socialist”, due to his economic concerns for the middle-class and the needy. It’s no wonder that there will be offensive postings at major Universities nationwide, unfortunately, I really think those hateful postings will continue into 2009.
The recent surge of hateful and racist postings, referring to Barack and his cultural background as an African American, are extremely hurtful to Black Americans, and should be despised by all Americans.
This hatefulness, was the topic of my discussion with Herb B. Jones earlier this year, and has been my greatest fear all along! Sadly, the greatest threat to Obama will not come from Ayman Muhammad al-Zawahri, Al Qaida, or from any militant Islamic fundamentalist group, but, the greatest threat to Obama is the internal racial hatred that is prevalent in America. I viewed the programming a couple of weeks ago on ABC’s Nightline, they covered the threats being made by the White Supremacist groups, and how they have this unequivocal hatred for ethnic minorities and for African Americans. After viewing Nightline, I was even more horrified to see another hidden aspect of America. I’m not surprised that these racial, bias and hateful attitudes are cropping up as postings for public viewing at Universities…
I cannot begin to imagine the work that is needed to counter these racial, hateful attitudes, but we should at least make a nationwide community effort to stop these comments from appearing at any University in the future and punish those responsible.
I have to again disagree with you on Barack’s choice for Secretary of State; I am absolutely delighted that he has chosen HRC for the leading role in Foreign Policy. I think that she’ll be perfect for the job, she brings the Clinton brand name and clout to the post and to the international community.
I read your reasons from your last blog posting, as to why Hillary may not have been a wise choice for Barack; but I must disagree with you on this, with Hilary, the good out weighs the bad.
Best Wishes, can’t wait to read your next blog posting….
First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
As David Mamet indicated, "Speech can either be free, or fair. It cannot be both." (See: http://mangochatnee.blogspot.com
/2008/11/beyond-lipping.html)
Liam you advocate well for your friends but they need to be made to suffer the consequences of their actions. Sorry doesn't matter, everybody that gets caught is sorry. From cheating husbands to politicians to criminals. Words like 'sorry' and 'healing' are a mockery. How about'justice' and 'accountable'? There was a player on the University of Texas football team who blogged some racist things about the President Elect . He said he was sorry. The school thats great get out. I say lesson learned.
Lala
Lala,
We are a community that preaches forgiveness. While there may be some dire consequences for this news letter, forgiveness must be a very large part of this. It is also unclear that these students actually wrote the offending material. They are simply the two of a group who have been willing to step forward. It is also unclear what the racial identity of the author of the offending material is. While an African American author in my mind would not solve the problem, it would in fact highlight the ambiguous nature of the articles. Even more, it would help us to realize that much of this is built on a construct that is both inaccurate and yet real. It is not accurate that some disaffected conservative whites with unexpressed racist tendencies wrote this. It is real that there are many people at the school who could have written it. I continue to suggest that this is not as clear cut as people are assuming. The articles are ambiguous, the intentions of the authors unclear, and the offense much deeper then this one document. My advocating for my friends is not to defend the document or shield them from harm. But elements of the seminary administration would likely want nothing more than to publicly shame and blame these students. However, one reason this situation is what it is relates to the racially tense atmosphere that is the seminary. I suggest that letting these two students, who have honestly failed BUT who do not represent to me the deepest issues of racism at our school, suffer for the sins of the entire campus is yet another example of Christians letting surrogate suffering define their practice. For too long the church has stood not with jesus, but with pilate condemning others to suffer for it's own sins. Expelling these students to me is just a cheap way of avoiding the issue. A better consequence for them would be to have them participate in the hard work of making this right, which in the end will take much more then this one document. It will ask much of all of us here at this school. I pray we are up to the challenge but i fear we are not. This document caused some real and sincere pain. Yet, the specter that pain reveals is not some secret side to two well known and generally loved students who in the past have both shown themselves to be more progressive then regressive. The specter is the presence of real racism, as well as a host of other issues, at the seminary. Even more, until all of the authors come forward we have no idea what the intentions or aims of each part of the document were. All we have is two students who played a role in this, and who have decided to take responsibility. I don't see any good in focusing just on them.
liam O
ps: ok I need to stop dominating this comment section, it is getting obnoxious. if anyone wants to specifically discuss further with me please email me, if not I will leave the rest of the comments to others
email: liam.odonnell@ptsem.edu
peace out
I became to busy to continue writing but I had to send my regards today...Monday. I don't want you to feel alone. But I know you walk and make your own footprints. Those are things we must do to test our courage but as well you don't have to feel alone. I am here thinking about you.
I still want to talk about your generosity in standing up for Yolanda. I have never, never, never witnessed a Black woman stand up for a peer before...never. I'm finally proud of my sex again.
You are showing boundless acts of courage.
Let's talk about this more later.
But today...if I don't get to writing more, I want you to know I am there hoping you are not physically fighting alone. I see the sins of the Establishment but this is such an opportunity for Princeton to accept the challenges to grow. I want you to see the opportunities that's calling you and Yolanda and a rally for solidarity to show Princeton how to build.
I'd throw the NC State student out on her ear for two years or so. Let her apply somewhere else and explain her foolishness.
As for the Seminary, I would expect these students to be older than average - surely they aren't all under 25? Even if the flyer was intended as satire, I'd hope that an average white student at that seminary would have the good sense to have a variety of people preview the thing, and to print a disclaimer. Apparently this isn't the case. The event might represent an opening to discuss race - since the usual academic administration's polite obliviousness to race is likely to inhibit discussion. Of course, one would rather have a seminary already on the right track - the ministry ought to be producing some curious, empathetic future ministers and teachers, rather than Ivy versions of Bible college smugness.
NancyP
I am sorry that so many people are being hurt by such sickness. However its necessary for us to root out and confront evil where it is, and its good to see where its breeding...I'm ready to help in any way I can.
And for the record: An Apology is NOT sufficient "amends" for HATE CRIMES and RACISM. What do you think will happen to Bin Laden if he says "Sorry. I shouldn't have done it. It was only satire (insert Palin-wink)?!"
Foreskin fact:
An African-American student wrote the article about the newly elected African-American president of PTS's Student Government. So that does complicate the whole "it-doesn't-matter-if-it's-supposed-to-be-satire-it's-just-racism" reaction, does it not? This person has yet to come forward. Until they do and explain their actions, all speculations about authorial intent and racism are just that, naked and uninformed speculation.
kid5rivers:
Did you read the blog & the comments left here?
Or did you just stop by to tell us all -- including the tenured professors who maintain this blog -- that we are stupid (I concede that I may be misinterpreting your post -- you provided no context for/explanation of, therefore I am responding to what I believe your statement implies).
There is not a single person who reads this blog that isn't familiar with the first amendment right to free speech.
Are *you* familiar with perspectives that point out speech is, in fact, NOT free -- it has a cost.
Those who theorize "free" speech issues from this vantagepoint also point out that too often, those people whose voices are frequently marginalized or altogether silence are the ones that pay that price.
The most powerful and privileged people in society are the ones that most frequently get their voices heard.
So rather than patronize "Kitchen Table" readers with another comment like the one you left here -- why don't you seriously engage the issue of inequality -- in this instance -- race & gender inequality & white supremacy -- and the way in which it impacts/relates to "free" speech issues.
You can start by seriously engaging the the assertion that free speech (and democracy itself) cannot truly exist in a context of white supremacy -- not in the legal context of white supremacy and not in the context of a formalized white supremacist government.
Oh, yes -- people of color can talk. But our perspectives are often invalidated, unsupported, unprotected, and ignored -- as your comment here exemplifies.
November 26, 2008
"I [MHL] was also featured in Princeton's conservative student paper as a candidate for the prize of most insane professor."
Melissa, I like you alot. I really do. But that piece on the election being a referendum on white supremacy was slightly illogical.
We had a long debate in the 'Shop about that piece. I respect your intellect, but your position there was a little crazy. Maybe you were drinking that day too! LOL
I'm sorry to hear about the attacks on Yolanda, but please don't get overly worked up about this; that's what they want. Don't respond with emotion, respond with tact, and legal recourse.
I wish you both peace of mind!
Aren't you half white? Why do you deny your white half. After all, you where raised by a white women and shunned by your black father, yet you call yourself black for the benefit of your job.
Dr. Harris-Lacewell...
Wow...
I guess the mark of the ever expanding impact of this blog is the display of overt, unapologetic racism and just plain rudeness of the most recent comments.
Wow.
I am continually surprised by my continuing surprise at naked, agressive bigotry.
commentors like "josh" are why blogs more often leave a bad taste in my mouth. I tend to think the internet is too anonymous for any real work to be done there. we can all pretend to be arguing with ideas instead of people. we can attack peoples backgrounds and personhood, or rather we always could, but can do it more freely on here. and we can be cowardly disrespectful and expect that to be ok. We can attack people we don;t know, call for vengeance on the unseen, and declare ourselves all righteous and on the right path because we never have to see the other people we disagree with. they are just word on a screen, or at most images on you tube. God forbid a writer, or commenter, or student or whoever actually be a flawed and complex human being. God forbid.
Anonymous: I wholeheartedly agree with you.
Given the passion with which you express your views on anonymity and the internet -- why do you leave us all wondering who you are:)
What's interesting is that Tanya appears to know Dr. Harris-Lacewell (????) and staggeringly, before calling her "crazy" -- says that she likes her!!!??? And then tells her to "not get emotional" and "wishes her peace of mind"(!! as though calling someone "crazy" promotes emotional and mental calm). If that's a display of affection I wonder how Tanya treats people she DOESN'T like.
It is appropriate and acceptable, I believe, to critique a professors' (or any person's) views. That said, I don't know why anyone would believe its acceptable to call a professor "crazy" in a public forum that she herself created and maintains (!)-- especially when that person is not well informed about the historical and present day facts and socio-political experiences informing that professors' views.
(At least bring an evidentiary based critique to the table -- not a critique issued in the form of name-calling).
To critique a perspective without truly understanding it -- or demonstrating -- even for a moment -- (at the very least) the intellectual desire/openness to understanding that view -- is more crazy than having a view other people do not agree with.
Name-calling is also unproductive -- how is calling someone "crazy" helpful to them? How does calling someone crazy help them to "see the light?" Or be open to considering an opposing viewpoint?
With regard to the blog in question (on white supremacy & 2008 election politics) -- how is calling a woman of color "crazy" for expressing her views on race/racism -- a form of oppression that fundamentally defines the experiences of black women -- a mode of anti-racist expression? How does calling a woman of color "crazy" for sharing her perspective on race/racism promote racial harmony?)
As a queer person of color -- I can't imagine a world -- academic or otherwise -- where it would be acceptable (or even momentarily conceivable) for me to call a professor "crazy"...
If I did call a professor crazy" -- especially a white man/woman -- essentially to that person's face (!)I imagine I would be expelled or unofficially pushed out of my program very quickly for doing so.
But see -- that's because I don't have the kind of race, gender & sexual privilege that would prompt me (or even allow me to contemplate) an open display of insolent intellectual arrogance and expect such a demonstration to be tolerated/embraced by the professor, the department to which the professor belongs and my colleagues.
The vast majority of Kitchen Table readers know that views that challenge/resist the power structure -- for example, views that challenge racism -- are frequently dismissed and derided as "crazy" -- most often by the very people that are at the top of the racial hierarchy of power and/or benefit (both voluntarily & involuntarily) from the oppression of people of color.
Frequently, those same people are unaware of the advantages they acrrue due to the oppression of others -- and their ignorance of social context is just one factor that makes it entirely acceptable for that person to call the person/people targeted for oppression "crazy" for stating, quite simply, that they are, in fact, oppressed.
Dr. Harris-Lacewell is and will be fine.
Still, despite the message conveyed by the "sticks and stones" maxim -- words do wound -- and words like the one hurled at her in print and in cyberspace don't only take aim at her -- they take aim at all the people of color and white allies that agree with her.
Words wound -- But they don't always stop people from doing what they "show up" to do.
Say what you want -- Dr. Harris Lacewell won't stop working to actualize social justice.
And she's got plenty of support and admiration from those she educates -- from those whose rights she fights for.
butchrebel,
YOU are crazy! You took this whole thing left field. Get a grip!
I NEVER said Melissa was crazy, I said I thought her POSITION was crazy.
I stated, in the Barbershop, all of the academic and logical reasons I disagreed with Melissa's position. And it was clear that Melissa's position was influenced by her emotional reaction to the racist picture of Obama on the waffles box.
Never did I resort to name calling, so what are you talking about???
If someone gets up in arms b/c someone else refers to their position as crazy, than maybe they are. Mature people don't take things personal. And I understand that mature people don't say disparaging things to others.
So if Melissa felt disparaged by me stating my opinion and referring to her POSITION as "a little crazy", then I apologize.
But butchrebel get a life! And get out of Melissa's ass! What are you, her internet comment defender?!?!?!
Tanya: More name-calling -- which proves my point, and certainly, is not evidence of maturity.
Peace, Love and Revolution.
This to butchrebel, re: his my assailing:-
Physician! Heal thyself!
Were you to follow the link I included -to David Mamet's speech- you'd understand why I said what I said...and why I object not to you saying what I said.
NB: Mostly I comment on what the professorial brace writes.
Bless!
Yes, i would like to join you.
Many of those who are angry with the authors and want vengeance have undermined their own efforts. Their desire for the blood of the "racist" authors has allowed for PTS to let these authors be the atoning sacrifice for institutional racism. The focus was intended to be on institutional racism, but now that can continue to run rampant while we practice the antithesis of what a Christian community should embody, which would be reconciliation and forgiveness.
We profess to be a community of sinners, which is the necessary precondition for us to fulfill our vocation as a community of healing. By over-compensating and suppressing the voices of the authors, we have done the same violence to them. What a hopeful thing it would have been to let them retain and reform their voice as we re-claim our own. But we have chosen violence instead of healing, fear and despair instead of hope.
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