Complacency Poor Response to Slurs

When Joe Tarzi wrote last week's article, "Activism Making Everything an Issue," he seemed to forget that he, too, is an activist. If he truly is against being preached to, is truly worried that Trinity is turning into Wesleyan, and truly afraid that activists are taking over campus, he would not have written the article at all, for writing, as I am writing now, is itself a form of activism.What Tarzi seems to advocate -- that we all shut up -- is an incredibly dangerous position to keep; complacency contributes to a "climate of fear." Furthermore, the article itself reflects those campus conditions he so despises. Tarzi's article operates within the same bipolar you-are-or-you-aren't mindset that he lambastes protesters for having. There are two high-profile instances where people speak out against violations of their personal rights -- one transcending politics, another happening to follow a more traditional right vs. left argument -- and Trinity suddenly "become[s] Wesleyan." Because everybody knows that the entire population of Wesleyan is constituted by hippies who play nude Frisbee, don't shower, and rally against The Newest Thing, while Trinity is its alter-ego: apathetic, insular, affluent, and happily married to the Old Guard status quo.

Of course these vast generalizations are untrue (and infuriating). Both campuses are full of activists. Before people become outraged at such labeling, let me explain -- it seems to me that the word "activist" has succumbed to the same fate that the word "feminist" has: "activist" has become a synonym for a militant liberal who spouts "holier than thou" at whomever is within hearing range and is righteous enough to actually believe themselves, just as the word "feminist" necessarily implies bra-burning, lesbianism, and hatred of men in the eyes of many. "Activist" and "active" share the same root; if one is active in any argument on campus, whether by sharing your opinion with your friends in conversation, writing an article for the Tripod, chalking for a group or (gasp) defacing another group's chalkings, you are an activist.

Tarzi's logic follows this track: if all activists are liberals, and Trinity's campus is overrun by activists, then all activists accomplish by holding demonstrations is a fueling of their own liberal righteousness. But if he had been reading the Letter to the Editor section of his own newspaper for the past few weeks, he would find that there are plenty of equally valid contrary viewpoints.

Tarzi's logic gets tripped up in its first move -- not all activists are liberals. There are conservatives, moderates, and people who avoid political classification but are passionate about one issue or another everywhere, even on Trinity's campus. And a community where people speak out and take ownership of their statements, especially when people disagree with each other, is the type of community that Trinity should strive to be, not shy away from. Tarzi is only half right when he says, "One person using a racial slur and a handful of people demonstrating their homophobia does not create a climate of fear." His belief hinges upon the small number of activists who express their opinion, but when an act is anonymous, number becomes unimportant.

One becomes everybody. I could have written the N-word on the door of a girl I don't know just as easily as the girl in Uggs walking on the Long Walk behind me, or the IDP student crossing the quad in his workboots could have.

The confusion lies not in whether somebody is or is not, but in whether somebody could be.

I do not mean to advocate suspicion; in fact, just the opposite. Nobody is uncertain about how Zee Santiago feels about the word written on Shantell Scott's door, or how Kat West feels about the state of recycling on campus. But we are all accountable to each other when people refuse to attach their names to their activism; when people become suspicious over who did what, then a climate of fear is born.

Tarzi seems to think that we're all hypersensitive blowhards, and that tolerance has been achieved on this campus.

Let me tell you, things have come a long way since my freshman year, when I woke up one morning to find feces smeared on the door of my gay friend's room, but to deal with these issues in silence, as was unfortunately the norm in Tarzi's high school, is detrimental to building a community of different voices. To be satisfied that something has been achieved is equivalent to watching that something slip again into inadequacy.

Trinity and the real world are not polar opposites, in which Trinity is safe and tolerant and the real world is harsh and unforgiving. Trinity is a microcosm for the real world. The real world has its problems, but the plights of submerged population groups have gotten better due to years of activism -- the 72 years between the Seneca Falls Convention and the ratification of the 19th Amendment should serve as evidence enough.

Trinity has its problems, too, even if they are as seemingly small as a slur on a whiteboard. These seemingly small things, though, are indicative of larger systemic iniquities, and we must continue to be vigilant, vocal, and accountable for our actions in order to shape Trinity as the community where we can make the most of our college experiences.