A Call for Compassion

To say cultural appropriation is a challenging topic to address in a way that does justice to all perspectives would be an understatement. We cannot resolve this issue. We will fail to engage perfectly or properly. But we will make a compassionate attempt to engage on this issue and offer our thoughts as an editorial board, not because it is easy to do, or because a resolution can be found in 1,000 words, but because it is our responsibility to try. And that is the sentiment that we wish to convey in this piece; as a community, sometimes we must address difficult, painful topics with weighty historical legacies, and when we do, we hope to address these issues with compassion.

We must begin by asserting that cultural appropriation is real. That fact is not up for debate. While people of every race can appropriate, the harm is greater when those with the most power do so. This, due to the historical legacy of racism, means white people. Regardless of the intentions of the student who donned a sombrero in Proctor, Middlebury serves as a venue through which nationwide systematic racism may play out in many ways, cultural appropriation being one such way.

As a current-day American presidential candidate – one who is leading in the polls for the Republican nomination – asserts, “When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best... They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.” Donald Trump’s comments illustrate that this issue is not about a hat — it’s about the history of mistreatment of marginalized cultures. The issue of cultural appropriation is now at the forefront of (many of) our minds. Students have spoken up and the administration has facilitated those conversations. Town hall meetings have been held. Many students attended, though many more did not.

We have begun to engage, and that engagement is critical. Although it is important to “engage,” we must ask ourselves – “in what way?” One incident with one student and a sombrero has come to represent the issue of cultural appropriation on our campus. By honing in on this one individual, we are pinning the culpability for racism at Middlebury on one person when many of us – the institution included – are to blame.

Some members of our community have proven unwilling to engage at all, dismissing the topic as trite or insignificant. We ask these students to question the foundation of their convictions. The students whom the town hall meetings would benefit the most are the ones who are perhaps least likely to attend. Our community must learn how to not be racist rather than simply how to not appear racist. This task is not a chore; it is a vital and overdue opportunity. In the New York Times Magazine article “White Debt,” Eula Biss writes, “A guilty white person is usually imagined as someone made impotent by guilt, someone rendered powerless. But why not imagine guilt as a prod, a goad, an impetus to action?” White students can engage with challenging issues – including cultural appropriation and systemic racism – in a way that facilitates the creation of a more just and equitable society. We would go so far as to assert that they must.

We have all heard the argument that free speech gives students the right to appropriate. We feel compelled to bring up the difference between what one can do and what one should do. As Jelani Cobb said in an article in the New Yorker entitled “Race and the Free-Speech Diversion”, “This is where the arguments about the freedom of speech become most tone deaf. The freedom to offend the powerful is not equivalent to the freedom to bully the relatively disempowered.” While our country enables its individuals to engage in whatever sort of discourse they might like, at an elite, informed institution such as Middlebury, let us hold ourselves to a higher standard of speech – one that respects and acknowledges the power dynamic at play.

When we first started school, we were taught to be kind. Somewhere, in the midst of lofty rhetoric about freedom of speech and microaggressions, that basic lesson was lost. So let’s find it again. We can respect experiences we don’t understand. We can reach out and learn more and admit faults and move forward. We can be kind. Good intentions can be flawed intentions. Inappropriate behavior can come from well intentioned people, but that is not an excuse.

We hope you read the pieces we have quoted – and more, and we hope you attend the town hall meeting this Friday (2:45pm in Mead Chapel.) There are voices – on campus and beyond – that deserve and need to be heard, for they all can inform our understanding of this difficult but crucial issue. We must read and listen with compassion. We must continue to inform ourselves and not let the momentum we have generated die out. We must continue to strive for increased understanding, respect and awareness on our campus.