College confronts race issues

Author: Kristin Fraser

On Jan. 7, students and members of the faculty and staff met in Coltrane Lounge to discuss the College's stance on discrimination in light of recent incidents on campus. An e-mail from six students sent to faculty summarized several of these incidents, which included the Frisbee team's protested "Cowboys and Injuns" party and a now-defunct facebook.com group formed around the Public Safety announcement describing a black suspect as having "nappy hair." These incidents have generated campus-wide discussion about what constitutes discrimination and what an appropriate institutional response should be.

"We would like to see some institutional change and action," said Yashika Walker '05. "We have diversity here, but there is little attempt to make students feel comfortable. [When I experienced discrimination], I didn't get the support I would have liked."

Much of the discussion centered on what Middlebury as an institution should be doing to educate about issues of race and sexuality. Possibilities discussed were the addition of a sensitivity training segment to first-year orientation, as well as the merits of this type of training in a classroom setting.

"White students do need to learn about systemic racism and white privilege, and the social order's role in racial oppression," said Will Nash, director of the African-American Studies program. "There is a need for dialogue between students and faculty, and one place to accomplish this is in the classroom."

There was some dissention about the practical effectiveness of classroom discussion.

Said another faculty member, "Students have been taught to speak a certain way in class. It is clear that they are shoving off from classroom discussions about these issues and talking about it in other forums. The challenge is being able to talk about it in a down-to-earth, instead of just a theoretical, way."

It is mostly within these more informal forums that controversial issues have arisen. The e-mail sent to faculty began, "The level of insensitivity on this campus has reached an all-time high, and public attention should be brought to this issue."

While some students feel that the level of insensitivity has risen, others have expressed the opinion that some of it is a result of hyper-sensitivity to political correctness.

In one of several responses to an e-mail in which a student objected to the question for a psychology survey "At what age do you think you'll get married, if you think you're going to?" on the grounds that it was heteronormative, a student wrote that the survey had been "unnecessarily politicized."

"Absolute political correctness makes real discussion taboo," said Anna Wishart '07.

At the Jan. 7 meeting, the problem of non-minority students staying silent about these opinions in open discussions, for fear of being called racist or homophobic, was examined.

"Many [Caucasian] students feel uncomfortable saying these things in that type of setting, so they stay silent, and it just comes out later in other ways," said one faculty member. "But the only way to solve the conflict is to talk about it."

Some suggested that the problem lay in how the discussions are often framed.

"When a [remark or action] is called discriminatory or racist, a lot of [non-minority] students feel defensive," said J.S. Woodward '06, co-chair of Community Council. "I think the approach should be, 'Can we discuss this?' instead of 'This is a problem.'"

While there is a general consensus that students and faculty alike would benefit from more discussion of sensitive issues, the College's official institutional role in guiding or regulating these conversations is less clear. The problem of deciding which situations to take a stance on and which ones are just part of the free discourse can be complicated.

"Things will always be said that are going to offend people, and it is difficult to draw the line between free speech and outright discrimination," said Murray Dry, Charles A. Dana professor of Political Science. "It is important to have a truly full and fair discussion of these issues. We don't want to start a censorship regime."

Students and faculty plan to continue meeting to further discuss Middlebury's role in dealing with issues of discrimination.

"We want to feel that we have a place on campus, and that we aren't simply defined by being 'minority students,'" said Walker.

In the face of controversy, both students and faculty expressed a desire to see this as an opportunity for growth.

Said a faculty member, "It's important to give students the skills to disagree, sometimes strongly, but to still be respectful and to respect each other's right to free speech."