The Tripod

To the signatories of this letter:

I have a great deal of respect and admiration for people in the Trinity community, especially professors, who read and are genuinely concerned with the content of the Tripod. It shows that your teaching is more than just a job and it extends well beyond the classroom.

That having been said, I feel that in this case, you have taken a simple case of carelessness and projected your own beliefs onto it. Yes, by contrasting "beautiful blonde Dutch people" with the people of Frog's Hollow, the author is walking a precarious line. However, the only absolute that she puts forth has to do with her neighborhood in Amsterdam being nicer than the neighborhood around Trinity, not, as you posit, a direct comparison of their respective inhabitants. I cannot confirm this sentiment, as I have not seen where she lives in Amsterdam. However, having lived at Trinity, I am well aware that the area around campus is not terribly nice. If it were, surely more professors would live on or close to campus. Sadly, very few do. If it is unfair for the author to suggest that a quaint neighborhood in one of the most livable cities in Europe (according to many travel sources, tourist outlets and other completely non-scientific mediums) is nicer than an area of Hartford that is no stranger to crime and violence, then I dare say you are either blind or willfully unjust.

When you put the term "white" in your article in parentheses with a question mark, let's be honest, you're not asking a question, you're telling us your answer. Call her careless, heck, by all means, call her shallow but when you use the term "racist" or some iteration of the word, you are striking a much more sinister tone. I agree with your declaration that there is inner-beauty in and around Frog's Hollow. So call her superficial or even close-minded, but not racist.

It is bothersome because in the past there have been serious cases involving racism on campus that needed prompt attention. Contrasting those instances with something as trivial as this article is highly counterproductive because it drags attention away from more worthy conflicts or dulls the movement to the point where realistic clashes will be ignored.

What troubles me most about this letter is the fact that professors, who purportedly have the interests of students at heart, would carelessly throw around the term "racist" based solely on their own opinions about the intentions of the aforementioned author. You even say in regards to whether or not she is a racist that you, "presume she is not." And yet, you base your whole letter around the fact that she draws a racist and classist tone. Given the era of the Internet, one would think that these professors would take a little more care before publishing such damming accusations.

Over-sensitive. Unnecessary. At least you are allowed to disagree these days.

This is crazy. I have personally heard three of you professors complain about anonymity as a barrier to education. More specifically, the three of you referred back to a time when people weren't so cowardly and would take responsibility for their words. This way, if a student said something that was off the mark or offensive, you had the opportunity to correct it--it would be a learning experience.

Well, you just had your opportunity... And you crucified this girl!!! So much for using this as an educational opportunity. What she wrote may have been idiotic and perhaps racist. But this is going to be on the internet forever. She will likely loose job opportunities over this. YOU GUYS SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT THIS THROUGH A LITTLE BETTER.

Honestly, as someone who is dark-skinned and a student at Trinity I don't feel offended. I know the student personally and know her to be a very sweet person. I think the Professors are blowing this up way out of proportion. No she's not racist. She was just writing an article describing her experience and described the people as "blonde beautiful". No she did not have the intent to relate that blacks and puerto ricans are ugly. I call that arrogance of a Ph.D's who assume they know everything about the world and love to jump on a student like a dog. Yes, a dog.

-A person of color

It seems to me that the signatories of this letter have, as they make an allowance for, "utterly mistaken". The contrast that the writer was trying to make was very clearly not one along racist or classist lines, it was simply a contrast between the familiar campus and the exotic locale that going abroad has taken her. Any number of college towns could be substituted for Frog Hollow, from the suburban Princeton, NJ to the wealthy Hanover, NH. Furthermore, she is not making an exclusive statement that negates Hartford as a place worth exploring or celebrating. "Beautiful blond people" was clearly meant in the same spirit, something out-of-the-ordinary, other possible variants being "beautiful brown people", "beautiful black people", etc (though perhaps those two would be considered un-PC because they acknowledge that people have differences). It seems that the only people claiming or inferring that Hartford is a place of "squalor" and ugliness and absolute inferiority are the signatories of the letter, who have deconstructed its meaning in an incorrect light.

That is forgivable, but what is not is the treatment of the offending student by these faculty. Professors should be responsible adults, role models to students who exemplify what it is to act well and be a good person. In this letter however, the signatories use their power to attack, bully and vilify a student who is abroad and has limited means of defending herself. Even if Ninna meant what these professors attribute her meaning to be, their response was absolutely inappropriate. Talking to Ninna directly should have been the starting point, not publicly defacing her. It is easy to infer from the letter (as the signatories inferred from Ninna's) that she is stupid ("We cannot help but wonder what an intelligent person could have had in mind"), racist ("we respond here to what she wrote, which in our view has a racist meaning"), and beyond forgiveness ("The anticipated "I didn't mean it that way" defense carries some weight but it ought not be treated as completely exculpatory"). As a former recipient of a similar exculpation, I can tell you that such accusations don't feel good, even if you know in your mind and your heart that they aren't true. To think that Ninna is any of these things based on an ambiguous statement is foolish, to accuse her of such horrible things in a public forum is inexcusable. All of these professors owe Ninna an apology in writing and submitted publicly as a Letter to the Editor.

I expect this from students but it is completely inappropriate for faculty. This is an unwarranted personal attack on a student. Each one of you should resign.

Natural blondes occur in 2% of the worlds population. Making cobble-stone streets filled to the brim with them an exotic sight for a girl who lived first in california, the home of the fake blonde, and then in new england, home of the brunette. I cannot believe you all actually took time out of your schedules to pen this ridiculous letter. Are you honestly trying to perpetuate the stereotype of the out of touch, overly sensitive liberal arts professor? because this is practically something out of a saturday night live skit. Considering the large number of intelligent grad students, desperate for more fulfilling jobs, that I've met at genius bars, starbucks, and borders bookstores within the past 4 days of spring break, I hope you realize that all of you are replaceable. This does not help to educate the student body, this is just a complete waste of time. You should be ashamed of yourselves. There are plenty of real battles to be fought against racism and discrimination, why would you waste your time on a superficial one?

Jeffrey, Xiangming, David, Pablo, Luis, Dan, Clare, Maurice, and Anne;

Shame on you. Do us all a favor and resign. As was said earlier, you are more well suited for a post at Starbucks or Boarders where you can complain about injustices and snobbery until you are blue in the face. But please, I beg of you, do not project your arrogance onto the Trinity Community any longer. It is a shame that you hold a red pen.

TBD

This comment has been removed.

The comments above ("Trin Student" especially) make me ashamed to call myself a fellow Trinity student. You are THREATENING faculty members. They have more experience out in the real world than us students, and with their Letter to the Editor were providing a taste of what would've happened if this article were published out in the real world, not in the sheltered existence of life at Trinity.

The letter these faculty members wrote points out the unfortunate wording this student chose, and the fact that it got by the student's editing and the Tripod staff's. And this unfortunate wording was offensive, whether intentional or not. If you don't like the faculty members' response, perhaps you should proofread what you write. Better yet, the Tripod should do a better job of editing what the articles they print.

You complain of what employers will think when they read this Letter to the Editor, claiming it will ruin her job prospects. What you aren't considering is that employers would likely have read the student's article and noticed the same offensive wording as these faculty members. "The Dark Knight" says that he/she is not offended because he/she knows the student in question. Well guess what, employers won't know the student and won't be able to discount her unfortunate wording because they know her to be a kind person.

This is a life lesson, and apparently it hasn't been learned...by anyone.

1. "they have more experience out in the real world than us student"

no they don't have more experience than us students. you may choose to allege that they have more experience out in the real world than WE students, however i disagree considering the ivory tower that is the world of academia i think that you could find a number of students with more real world experience than some tweedy shut-in professor whose only achievement in life is holding a 4 hour symposium on edmund spencer's faerie queen

2. I personally do not find anything offensive about ms. gaensler-debs choice of words nor do i think the article was poorly edited. i think the problem is that a group of professor chose to give some pretty innocuous words a malicious meaning and then set about vilifying an innocent student. It is only the letter itself and not the article that portrays ninna in a negative light. no one else, future employers included would read ninna's article and assume that she is racist or generally unqualified. Your comment on ninna's article however does raise questions about your employability, but luckily you made the bold choice (cough sarcasm cough) to post anonymously

Professors are servants and servants should never get uppity with their masters!

Students have more real world experience than professors? How many students are raising families, paying mortgages, making car payments, working full-time, etc.?

I believe that Ninna's article had several very problematic implications. On top of the racism and classism, there were homophobic implications as well. Clearly Ninna, who I do not know, did not mean for her article to have these implication. you can tell that from reading it or just from reading these comments, but it did. The professors recognized that when they wrote this letter, as they say in the letter. I find many of these comments unfounded because had people read more closely, it is made clear by the letter that the professors wish to critique Ninna's language. It is not a critique on her as a person.

That being said, while it is an important lesson for her to learn, and for us all to learn, I wish very deeply that this would not be the first hit on google. She doesn't deserve that, but that is not the professors' fault. Furthermore, professors are not servants. I am sure most of you do not believe that, but I am also confused why anyone would ask for their resignations. Even if they were completely unfounded (and they are not in my opinion) we would not ask a student to leave when faced with a similar situation. And that seems unwarranted based on the comments that were made. They did not slander her name, the critiqued her language.

Also, I have a great deal of respect for Ninna, the professors (especially Professor Wade), Ben Koren, and the few others who used their real names. Anonymous dialogue does not get us anywhere. this is an important discussion and we should all RESPECT and listen to both sides. We have a great opportunity to learn from each other, but not if we attack each other or act under a cloak of anonymity. Nothing can be gained when we create the sort of pervasive fear that comes along with anonymity.