“As a white, heterosexual girl, I risk a lot by publicly expressing my opinions on this matter”
“As a minority, low-income, first-generation Hamilton student, I give [The Movement] no permission to speak on my behalf.”
My alma mater Hamilton College has been in turmoil for years.
Over the course of two dedaces, hard-driving leftist professors effectively drove the study of Western Civilization off campus. The multi-cultural academic agenda was so strong that in in 2013 Hamilton’s multi-cultural center segregated a diversity program by race, though it later cancelled that event after publicity. But not before a desegregated campus-wide forum devolved into racial recriminations:
It soon became clear that for many people the problem had became an “us against them” battle, separate groups vs. integrated, whites vs. blacks. Though ‘The Movement’, which is a student group that hung fliers and wrote in chalk on Martin’s Way, the main path through campus, in favor of minorities on campus, said that it wasn’t a black and white issue, multiple accounts during the meeting made it clear that many people had felt it was.
The recent revelation that “The Movement” issued a list of 83 Demands has caused more racial turmoil on campus.
…
As reported by the student newspaper, The Spectator, the demands from The Movement for increased minority faculty hiring may not even be capable of being achieved, no matter how hard Hamilton tried:
At a Nov. 17 event entitled “Crucial Conversation” and a follow-up on Dec. 1, students, faculty and members of the administration gathered in the Events Barn to discuss diversity, Yik Yak and the need for more faculty of color at Hamilton….
Assistant Professor of Physics Katherine Brown discussed the lack of diversity in the sciences. “That’s what we’re dealing with now and it’s upsetting to me as a member of the search committee, as a physicist and as a woman,” she said. “We can’t hire applicants who aren’t there.”
Against this campus-wide turmoil, two students wrote separate columns in The Spectator complaining about The Movement.
One column was by a white female student, Questioning The Movement’s myriad demands:
As a white, heterosexual girl, I risk a lot by publicly expressing my opinions on this matter. I fear I will be labeled as racist or oppressive or worse that I could catalyze a similar call for censorship of our school newspaper that Wesleyan faced a few months back. I recognize this risk, but as a student at a liberal arts college I was trained to keep my mind open to all ranges of thoughts and to constantly question and debate aspects of my experiences that I do not fully understand or agree with. So here I am, writing an article saying that I do not support The Movement based on the majority of their demands issued Tuesday. I want to support them. I, like many students here, aim for equal opportunities and fairness. But I, like many voices, note some key flaws in what this organization is doing.
Another was by a minority student, An open letter to The Movement
As a minority, low-income, first-generation Hamilton student, I give you no permission to speak on my behalf. I could very well speak for myself and I do not feel threatened doing so. Allow me to imitate your style: We, the students of Hamilton College, demand that The Movement only speaks for itself….
As sad as this might sound, I actually thought that the letter you wrote was sarcastic. If someone did conspire to write something to discredit potential activism on our campus, he would not have done such a good job. Three years have passed since The Movement appeared on our campus, besides recurring community discussions, I do not think you have succeeded in creating any positive change. The obstacles to potential change is not the rigidity of our community; rather, it is your immature and divisive tactics and language.
The Movement unintentionally may have brought some students together … against the use of racial tension as a political tool on campus.
[Featured Image: Hamilton College Chapel with statue of Alexander Hamilton]
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Comments
I had a wonderful Movement this morning.
All that’s missing is the Jeffrey Dahmer Pour Servir L’homme club.
Keep an eye on those two who spoke up publicly.
I predict the girl (white heterosexual) is attacked and maybe even forced out of the college; the minority student will be called a “race traitor” etc. etc. etc. and harangued until he or she submits.
That’s what leftist, SJW bullies do.
Keep an eye on those two who spoke up publicly.
Hire them both. They’ve proved themselves under fire as capable of reasoning and reaching supportable decisions. At least SOME Hamiltonians are gaining an education.
https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/faculty-detail/katherine-jones-smith
“Katherine Brown (Jones-Smith)
Assistant Professor of Physics
Areas of Expertise
Fractal analysis of Jackson Pollock drip paintings ”
Yes. It is easy to see that there are a lack of QUALIFIED women candidates for physics positions.
Oh, geesh, what does that mean?!!!
Um, no. Read the other citations at that web page. I suspect the physicist has a playful side (many in fact do) and that accounts for the Pollack citation. The other citations look like hard-core physics and are published in very reputable, medium- to high-impact physics journals.
It’s not clear that it is a joke. http://phys.org/news/2006-12-jackson-pollock-art-fractal-analysis.html seems to treat it seriously.
I almost got tripped up by the “more…” and thought that she only had publications five papers. 🙂 Those however are her most prominent
and except for the Pollock paper ( I can’t get at that one ) they are five pages or less.
The main area of research seems to be non-hermition QM, kind of an obscure area. You tell most physcists that is your area and their first reaction is that they are unphysical theories and make no sense. The second reaction is, OK I guess they might not be that bad, but why study them.
Right on target. No problem for theoretic mental masturbation in itself but I have no time for it and much less interest in its application to ‘ART’. Get me more of a Big Bang for my buck at CERN and my interest will increase.
Diversity happens.
It does not need to be imposed or coerced.
Most of us see it everyday, everywhere. Children in our schools play together, without minding the color of their skins. We work together everywhere, without minding the color of our skins.
Then we all go home to our families and communities. We go back to our mostly Hispanic community, or mostly Black community, or mostly White community, or mostly Jewish community, or mostly Eastern community. And there are some mixed communities.
We tend to fall back to those with whom we identify best. Be it culture, national or religious origin, we feel better among our own. That does not mean we hate ‘the others’. We’ll go back and play and work with them tomorrow.
What I see here is a few very loud opportunistic self-appointed leaders trying to benefit and profit from division and hate. They’ve been stirring the pot. They have been trying to separate us, creating hate where none existed before, nitpicking to claim racism and/or oppression out of thin air.
And they have become louder during the obama administration.
I don’t deny that there could be racist individuals out there. There are!
But I take offense on those attempts to force diversity via quotas. I think these tactics are the result of a very dangerous belief: that Black and Hispanic minorities are inferior and therefore they need a little push and lower standards.
It’s what ‘somebody’ called ‘the soft bigotry of lower expectations’. They advance the idea that being Hispanic or Black is ‘a disadvantage’ while being white is a privilege. Can it get any more condescendingly racist?
I think these people asking for affirmative action and diversity quotas are either racist to the core, or opportunistic freeloaders.
Just up the road, Colgate, a very similar and once fine institution, is getting destroyed in the same way as Hamilton College. They used to be like sister schools in a way and had light competition in the arena of who was the better small, liberal arts school. Now they are competing for who can commit suicide faster.