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(01/28/16 12:48am)
Last Thursday, Jan. 21, above the faint hustle and bustle of Crossroads Café, students, faculty and staff took the stage to take part in a night of poetry and spoken word performances. Organized by MOSAIC, Middlebury’s Interfaith Programming Board, and co-sponsored by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life, the one-hour event centered on the theme of gratitude. Attendees, who floated in and out of the space throughout the evening, were asked to bring a non-perishable food items for donation to the HOPE Food Pantry.
MOSAIC was founded last year by Eli Susman ’18.5, Alex Freedman ’18 and Mariam Khan ’16.5, who met at a religious life leader retreat hosted by the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life during spring break. The following summer, the three went on a trip, also sponsored by the Scott Center, to learn how to participate in interfaith dialogue and create events on college campuses that unify people from all religious and non-religious backgrounds. This past fall, MOSAIC celebrated its launch with an Atwater dinner, featuring Laurie Patton as a keynote speaker. The current board members – Henry Burnett ’18.5, Mariam Khan and Alex Freedman – are looking to gain recognition as an official student organization in the near future.
Thursday’s poetry night, dubbed “GRAT-I-TUDE,” was MOSAIC’s second public event. Burnett emphasized the importance of the theme in his opening remarks to the audience.
“Gratitude is not just to the benefit of the person feeling grateful,” he stated. “For instance, I think I tend to smile at people when I am having a good day. There might be someone that I pass who is having a very difficult day for some reason. I can’t see how they’re feeling on the inside. But when I practice gratitude in my own life and I smile at that person, maybe I remind them that not everything in the world is a dark storm. As we raise our own gratitude, we are able to propagate that through the campus in a ripple effect.”
The program included Director of Parton Counseling Ximena Mejia, Writer-in-Residence Julia Alvarez, David Dennis ’18, Hamza Kiyani ’17, Executive Director of College Mental Health Services Gary Margolis, Laurie Jordan, Izzy Cass ’19, Hasher Nisar ’16.5, Professor of American Literature Brett Millier, Associate Chaplain Rabbi Ira Schiffer, Maryam Mahboob ’18, Assistant Professor of Modern Hebrew Orian Zakai, and Bilal Khan ’18. The final act featured a poem written by President Laurie Patton, who was unable to attend but submitted a piece to be read aloud.
From “Help, Wow, Thanks: The Original Prayer” to “Flat: Sentences from the Prefaces of Fourteen Science Books,” the thirteen performances of the evening reflected a wide array of beliefs, practices and worldviews. One by one, students, faculty and staff recited such sentiments as, “I am thankful for the mess to clean up after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends,” “There are a million invisible muscles I never took the time to thank” and “Wear gratitude like a cloak and it will sink deep into your life.”
Mejia and Alvarez collaborated in their presentation of “Gracias a la Vida,” with one reading the song aloud in English while the other recited the Spanish version. Often considered the Bob Dylan of Latin America, Chilean composer Violeta Parra originally wrote the song as a suicide note.
“Thanks to life, which has given me so much,” Mejia read at the end. “It gave me laughter and it gave me tears/With them I distinguish happiness from pain.”
Despite the serious nature of many of the presented works, the evening still gave way to a few moments of humor. Before presenting the two versions of his poem, Khan joked that he was not sure if his translation was entirely accurate, as he had hastily jotted it down on a paper fifteen minutes prior.
“I will do the translation first and then the English version. I will not mix the two, because that is sinful,” he added, making a jab at a previous student presenter’s decision to switch to the Indonesian translation after each English line.
Other highlights from GRAT-I-TUDE included a piece about an overnight bus ride from rural Nova Scotia to Boston in the 1940s and Patton’s Hebrew poem, “When You Go Forth.” Freedman read the work aloud to close the evening, beginning with the biblical verse, “When you reap your harvest in the field, you shall not go back to catch it.”
Another memorable moment came from Cass’s recitation of “Flat: Sentences from the Prefaces of Fourteen Science Books”: “However, Chapter 7 was written in a relatively self-contained fashion, so the serious student may skip Chapter 6 and delve directly into the theory,” one line read, prompting chuckles from the audience.
The purpose of the event was to play on a commonality amongst all religious traditions: gratitude. Likewise, the fall Atwater dinner was inspired by the universality of food as a socialization tool across cultures. MOSAIC is intentional in its programming, as it strives to attract not only people across all religions, but also those without faith backgrounds. The organization is actively looking for new members.
“The sound of interfaith can sound exclusive to people who come from a non-faith background,” Burnett stated. “In reality, interfaith means all faith and non-faith identities.”
(01/27/16 9:52pm)
I am writing as a white student in response to the editorial written last week by Eli Susman. When I talked to Eli over dinner, he emphasized that his intention was to foster open listening and unify the campus against racism. Unfortunately, many of the things he said were hurtful to our fellow students. We must not lose sight of the fact that even well intentioned actions can cause great harm.
For many students on Middlebury’s campus, racism is not an abstract concept, it is a visceral experience. Racism separates families, incarcerates individuals and deprives humans of adequate food, housing, education and clean water. Racism is not merely hurting people’s feelings; it is killing them. White people must enter into conversations about racism remembering the gravity of the topic.
I strongly disagree with Eli’s statement that “we are all suffering.” In the context of talking about organizing for racial justice this statement is dismissive and hurtful. Most Middlebury students do not suffer from systemic racism; in fact, many of us actively benefit from it. All humans feel pain; we all have worries; we all have sadness. But claiming that, “we are all suffering” erases the targeting of and violence towards certain groups of people based on skin color and/or ethnicity.
When we, white people, enter into conversations about racism, when we start trying to understand power and privilege, it is important for us to enter with humility. This means coming in with the actual desire to learn, not to debate, not to interrogate, to learn. As a white person working to counter racism, I fully agree that white people need to, “ask important, nuanced, possibly poorly worded questions.” But we need to be mindful of how, where and to whom we choose to ask these questions. Students of color are not responsible for educating us. We have professors, speakers, the Internet and other interested white students to answer many of the questions we encounter.
While Eli is right that we cannot expect ourselves to know everything, it’s okay that when we make mistakes we are met with anger. As white people we have not experienced racism first-hand and thus do not have a right to judge what is a reasonable response to these micro-aggressions. We need to learn to take some blows to our ego, and people of color don’t need to soften these blows to protect our feelings. We must remember that learning about racism and doing anti-racist work is too incredibly important to get dissuaded by discomfort. So, if you, as a white person, are met with responses that feel hard to hear, I encourage you to listen, ask questions with humility, and persevere in doing anti-racist work.
(01/27/16 9:48pm)
Dear Middlebury Community,
Through this letter I want to address a previous op-ed named “Letter to the Middlebury Community.” I would like to thank the author for writing this article and his good intentions, but I would like to address some things that need to be clarified. I would like to disclaim that this is my voice only and that I speak for myself in the following paragraphs.
I want Middlebury to be a safe space and I want to call it my home. However, this is incredibly difficult when there are so many issues unresolved that affect the quality of our education. Amongst many of them are mental health, academic stress, issues of inclusivity, but also cultural stress.
I would like to introduce quotes from an article in The Atlantic that a friend shared on Facebook the other day. The article is “The Cost of Balancing Academia and Racism” by Adrienne Green. “Amid the protests of the last several months, the conversation about racism on campuses has prompted debates about free speech, political correctness and the utility of students being uncomfortable. But do students of color face a more tangible risk than their white peers? Is navigating these complex environments challenging their mental-emotional well-being?”
Political correctness does not silence our potential allies. Political correctness is needed in order to identify for oneself and to others as an ally. It is through this sensible approach that constructive questions can be asked. In the process of learning political correctness, one can learn about systems of oppression that render certain actions and words unacceptable and damaging to the integrity of a community such as our campus. We have witnessed the effects of these in the past and their repercussions on the community and individuals. It is indeed a trial and error process, but more steps need to be taken in order to change the campus culture.
“Many students of color not only have to battle institutional racism, they also have to engage in academic environments that condone microaggressions and stereotyping. This can make these students feel like they have to outshine their peers in the classroom to disprove the notion that they are academically inferior.”
I want to believe that no one on this campus is inherently racist. Maybe misguided, possibly very ignorant, more likely under-exposed to diversity. Regardless of someone’s intentions behind certain actions, what is most bothersome is the indifference displayed by many within our community. Students of color and other minorities devote more of their already limited time and energy to making cultural organizations their safe havens where they can feel comfortable, despite the arduous academic demands. At these organizations, discussions on important topics such as interracial dating, slam poetry, police brutality, immigration issues and environmental racism are held very frequently. Yet, the meetings are only composed by minority students. So where are the allies?
“Should colleges ask historically marginalized students to become grittier and more resilient, or should their focus be directed toward achieving greater racial justice so that black students do not have to compromise their mental and physical well-being by being resilient?”
I want to clarify something now. Students of color and other minorities do not want to be coddled. They want to be heard. Students of color already went the extra mile in order to host events where allies can join them and listen to their perspective on a certain topic. All that remains is for those who want to become allies to show up at these events. It’s an issue of representation and solidarity.
When the Black Student Union held a black-out day, there was a very visible way to discern who wanted to identify themselves as an ally. It was an amazing sight to see, and was comforting to know that people do care about these issues. However, wearing black one day does not compensate for the work that we could be doing as students with different levels of privilege on a daily basis. This is, therefore, an open invitation to those who want to become allies to also go an extra mile and reach out to cultural organizations. Attend the meetings and rallies, listen to new perspectives, be present and proactive at giving support, empower those with less privilege, expose others to their prejudices, be an advocate for human rights, protest injustices. These are small steps that could ultimately lead to a change in the campus culture, a change that truly shows solidarity.
Esteban Arenas-Pino '18 is from New York, NY and Colombia.
(01/27/16 9:46pm)
“Middlebury is not a charity.”
Critics of Go/Refuge, the movement for the College to take an active role in the world refugee crisis, have presented this argument. The criticism, though not yet fully elaborated, seems to base itself on the idea that an institution of higher education’s only obligation is to itself, and that helping the 110,000 displaced refugee students is extraneous. That resources are better distributed to other goals than the worst refugee crisis since Hitler’s time; that the greatest humanitarian disaster since the Cold War is not deserving of higher education’s funds; that aid is “not Middlebury’s job.”
I happen to agree: Middlebury is not a charity. Since our Vermont home is a refuge to a Center for Social Entrepreneurship, we can appreciate notable social entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus’ words on “charity:”
“Charity becomes a way to shrug off our responsibility… Charity only perpetuates poverty by taking the initiative away from the poor. Charity allows us to go ahead with our own lives without worrying about the lives of the poor. Charity appeases our consciences.”
The crux of Yunus’ argument is that charity risks helping the donor more than the recipient. Charity can be a one-time toss after which the donor can technically cease to care but convince themselves they do. Donors can happily forget all about cancer research, or African children, or poverty or refugees, when they’re done. They can pat themselves on the back. Most philanthropists do not, fortunately, because they are motivated out of more than their self-interest. Charity, although beneficial, is only one step toward comprehensive solutions that philanthropists and communities seek.
Middlebury is not a charity. It’s an institution of higher education armed with a purpose to “cultivate … the qualities essential to leadership in a rapidly changing global community,” pursuing the implementation of what President Patton coined, “diversity as an everyday ethic.” The fusion of these two moral missions is embedded in Middlebury’s self-concept, repeated or implied in every official action, every administrative speech. Since both missions are long-term and aimed at empowerment, both qualify as extensions beyond charity. Empowerment is the opposite of “taking the initiative away from the poor.” As a result, charity falls short of Middlebury’s purposes.
Middlebury is not a charity. For that reason, I am certain that our administration will take part in the growing comprehensive solution to the world refugee crisis, as Go/Refuge urges. Helping displaced refugees is the most critical and logical step Middlebury can undertake to live its purposes. If it does not, then it “cultivates … the qualities essential to leadership in a rapidly changing global community” without acknowledging the global community’s greatest challenge. If it does not, then it pursues “diversity as an everyday ethic” without behaving ethically on a world stage while many of its peers do.
If it does not, then Middlebury College risks hypocrisy.
(01/26/16 2:52am)
This week we talk to Middlebury students who are engaging in exciting internships across the country and abroad. Read more about their adventures below:
Annie Taylor ’16 and Casey Harlow ’16
Santa Cruz Island, California
Annie Taylor ’16 and Casey Harlow ’16 are spending their Winter term hiking all over Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California, religiously searching the remote island for one species in particular: the Bishop pine tree. Taylor, a Biology major and a California native, is spending her year long thesis investigating the spatial pattern of Bishop pine mortality on Santa Cruz Island; in other words, she aims to understand where and why the pine is dying and to map its future distribution, especially in the light of California’s recent devastating droughts.
Harlow, an International Politics and Economics major, accompanied Taylor to Santa Cruz Island, after the Nature Conservancy, which owns the majority of the unpopulated island, suggested it would be unsafe for Taylor to conduct her research alone. While on the island, Harlow is personally investigating how the Bishop pine tree is surviving depending on fence lines.
Together, both women spend their days driving the skinny, dirt island roads, hiking to reach secluded stands of pine trees, marking trees with their GPS units and collecting data. They are staying on a small ranch, leftover from the days when the island was covered in sheep and managed by cowboys. In the evenings, they help Jay, the ranch manager and the only other person currently on the island, with small chores around the ranch.
“I feel very lucky to be able to spend time in this beautiful place, especially because I am not a scientist or a big donor for the Nature Conservancy,” said Harlow. “This project has really allowed me to study something new and take advantage of a liberal arts education.”
Joanna Balla ’18
Columbia Heights, D.C.
An aspiring teacher, literary studies major Joanna Balla ’18 has been spending her days surrounded by three and four-year-olds at the AppleTree Institute, a Public Charter Pre-school located in Columbia Heights, D.C.
Even though the classroom can quickly become hectic and difficult to manage, Balla says she loves the challenge. “I’ve had a passion for education from an early age and it has been so rewarding to start putting these dreams into action by actually spending time working in the classroom. I’m learning so much about classroom control and behavior management from the awesome team of teachers they have.”
Apart from leading activities for the children, Balla notes that one of the most difficult – yet fulfilling – parts of her internship has been working alongside kids with learning disabilities.
For Balla, the greatest joy comes from seeing the small glimmers of progress in her students. “Some of the students that I work with are struggling especially with basic skills such as letter recognition and [simple] tasks such as counting to 10. It is really rewarding to get that rare one-on-one time with the kids and start to see progress even in the short whole that I have been here.”
Christopher Diak ’18.5
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Amidst the lab benches of the Rapoport Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, neuroscience major Christopher Diak ’18.5 is hard at work purifying an “endoplasmic reticulum associated” protein that has been linked to multiple neurodegenerative diseases. The end goal of the Rapoport Team’s research is to discern the precise chemical structure of the protein and to make hypotheses to “see how its pathway works.”
As most of his work takes place at the microscopic level, Diak still marvels at the way in which the smallest of molecules can have such great physiological effects. “I love this work because I am learning to see neurodegenerative disease in terms of the tiniest movements of molecules. It is amazing to think that if we can just make some proteins better at the jobs, we could prevent immense suffering.”
Although the scientific method works on the premise of a strictly defined set of controlled conditions, Diak says that each day in the lab is anything but predictable. Interestingly enough, a crucial part of scientific research consists of eliminating the ways in which things do not work in order to figure out how the actual mechanism functions.
“A typical day involves lots of optimizations – experiments never run the way you want them to the first or second (or [even] eighth) time, so we look at the data from the last experiment and use what we know to tweak our approach.”
Diak, however, is not disappointed when experiments fail. “Even on days when the proteins crash I leave the lab having learned or accomplished something important. The value of an experience like that can’t be overestimated.”
Jiya Pandya ’17
Washington, D.C.
Along with a cohort of three other Middlebury College students, Jiya Pandya ’17 is in midst of completing a four-week long internship in Washington, D.C. A history major at the College, Pandya notes that the internship is a perfect complement to her age-long love for “working with old artifacts and documents.”
“The Smithsonian itself is a incredible institution, and being a part of it, even for a month, seemed not only like a great way to connect with history, but also to see how public history organizations work in the real world.”
Besides being able to access the brimming archives of a world-class institution, Pandya says that her experience at the museum also sheds light upon the incredibly powerful social impact that the organizations such as the Smithsonian have on the public.
By “thinking critically about [issues of] public history, power, control, privilege, and identity,” Pandya says that her internship has given her the invaluable opportunity to engage firsthand in the behind-the-scenes conversations that collectively determine which particular artifacts museum-goers see when they make a trip to the Smithsonian.
“Our supervisor at the museum – who works with disability history – really pushes us to question and think about the reasons why certain histories are displayed, while others are not. She has been encouraging and teaches me how to be a better activist in a field where having an impact is very much about [finding ways to engage] with an audience to educate them about alternative ideas and affirm their own emotions.”
Kate Bauman ’16
Prince Edward Island, Canada
Ever wonder how new medicines and antibiotics are discovered? These days scientists mostly find new drugs by analyzing microbes from remote corners of the planet, like secluded caves and the bottom of the ocean. For Winter Term, Kate Bauman ’16 is joining this hunt for novel antibiotics by analyzing microbic samples from Antarctica in a laboratory at the University of Prince Edward Island in Prince Edward Island, Canada. She will be accompanied by Assistant Professor of Chemistry/Biochemistry Lesley-Ann Giddings. Bauman’s findings will be part of her thesis, the subject of which is “Exploiting cryptic gene clusters for the discovery of bioactive secondary metabolites.”
Bauman is traveling to Prince Edward Island so that she can collaborate with Dr. Russell Kerr. Kerr has the Arctic counterparts to Bauman’s Antarctic samples so collaboration between them will allow a comprehensive look at extremophilic microorganisms—tiny organisms that live in the most extreme environments on earth—from both poles. 50 percent of drugs approved by the FDA in the last thirty years have been from natural products like extremophilic microorganisms.
Bauman, who will be in PEI for two weeks, hopes to hike in the Prince Edward Island National Park when she is not working on her research.
(01/21/16 4:23am)
Legal action in the John Doe v. Middlebury College case formally ended on Dec. 21. Doe, the student expelled over a charge of alleged sexual assault, dropped his lawsuit against the College after the two parties reached a settlement.
“The lawsuit has been resolved by the parties and they have agreed that the Plaintiff will complete his education elsewhere,” Vice President for Communications and Marketing Bill Burger said this week.
The case against Doe involved an alleged sexual assault that took place while he was studying abroad during the fall 2014 semester at a program run by the School for International Training (SIT). SIT investigated the complaint by a non-Middlebury student and found Doe not responsible in December of that year.
In early January 2015, the alleged victim, anonymously identified as Jane Doe,contacted Associate Dean for Judicial Affairs and Student Life Karen Guttentag, which ultimately led Middlebury to begin its own investigation. The College said last September that it had concerns about the SIT investigation and adjudication.
“Under its policies, a Middlebury student’s off-campus conduct may be subject to Middlebury’s disciplinary processes when, among other things, such conduct may represent a threat to the safety of the Middlebury community or any of its members,” the College said in a statement at the time. “Middlebury initiated an investigation and adjudication of the student’s conduct on that basis and we believe we properly applied our policies in this case.”
The College, after conducting its internal investigation through Ellen Coogan, an independent contractor who has investigated sexual misconduct cases on behalf of the College, ultimately found Doe responsible for the assault and, in late August, expelled him. Coogan concluded that John Doe’s conduct towards Jane Doe constituted sexual misconduct based off a preponderance of evidence, a decision that was reached by an evaluation of all evidence and her own assessments of credibility in which she was “struck by the consistency of Jane Doe’s account.”
Doe then filed suit against the College in federal court, claiming his expulsion was “unjust and unlawful,” noting that the SIT investigation did not find him responsible for the charge. According to Doe’s complaint, the College relied “on SIT’s determination to permit [Doe] to return to Middlebury for the spring semester” and did not conduct its own investigation until the alleged victim of the assault had contacted the College. Doe’s counsel consisted of Lisa B. Shelkrot of Langrock, Sperry & Wool LLP in Burlington, VT, and Monica R. Shah and Naomi R. Shatz of Salkind Duncan & Bernstein LLP in Boston, Mass.
On Sept. 16, the same day classes began for the fall semester, U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha issued a preliminary injunction ordering the College to re-enroll Doe while the legal proceedings continued, ruling that Doe would suffer irreparable harm if he were to win the lawsuit but be prevented from accepting a job offer because he had not been allowed to complete his courses and graduate. Murtha’s decision sparked public demonstrations on campus by students dissatisfied with the ruling and led students to create a go/doe link and a social media campaign with the tagline, “Doe must go.”
The College later filed an appeal to reverse Murtha’s order.
The College declined to comment on details of the settlement of the lawsuit, including whether he ultimately will receive a Middlebury College diploma or a degree from another institution once he receives the credits needed to graduate.
“It is difficult to say what I feel about the Doe settlement because the exact terms of his settlement with the College remain unknown,” said Maddie Orcutt ’16. “I hope that the survivor in this case, Jane, knows that there are students at Middlebury who were deeply unsettled by John’s actions to file civilly. I hope that Jane knows that even if she didn’t have a voice in [the case], there are students on this campus who believe her and stand with her.”
“My hope is that the recent developments in the John Doe case allow those who felt unsafe this past semester to feel more comfortable on Middlebury’s campus,” said Kyra Gray ’17, who acts as co-director for sexual and relationship respect on the Student Government Association (SGA) Cabinet.
According to administrators, the case has prompted the College to review the wording of its sexual assault policies governing Middlebury students studying abroad.
“It’s not uncommon for us to make revisions to our policies and we’ve done so every year in the last few years,” Burger said. “Policies and regulations governing how institutions of higher education should handle allegations of sexual assault change often, as do practices by other colleges and universities that are determined to do the best job they can investigating and adjudicating these cases. We always try to learn and adjust our practices based on our experiences.”
John Doe did not respond to our request for comment. Doe’s counsel, Lisa B. Shelkrot, declined to comment on the specifics of the settlement.
(01/21/16 4:15am)
Kimberlé Crenshaw, a professor of law at Columbia University and UCLA, filled Mead Chapel last Friday night as the keynote speaker for the grand opening of the Anderson Freeman Resource Center (AFC). Crenshaw’s speech was one of many events held over the weekend to celebrate the opening of the new intercultural center on Saturday, Jan. 16.
The opening of the AFC is the culmination of more than a year’s worth of effort by students and former Vice President of Affairs and Dean of the College Shirley Collado. The grand opening coincided with the College’s second Alumni of Color weekend.
Crenshaw is known for coining the term “intersectionality.” Her talk, titled “Intersectionality Matters: Why We Can’t Wait for a Racial Justice Agenda That Centers Us All” highlighted the multiple avenues through which racial and gender oppressions are experienced.
Crenshaw spoke to changes happening on college campuses nationwide. She said: “We are at a moment to transform our society. In some ways, racial discourse has reached a new low with the presidential candidates. But at the same time, we have new forms of social justice agitation that have sprung the conversation back to life.”
She also talked about the defenders of Justice Scalia’s recent comments on black students’ incompetency at elite institutions. “If it is not institutional factors, structural factors, historical factors, that explain inequality, then we are talking about racial differences without talking about racial power, creating a formula for individual and cultural responsibility,” she said. “Individuals in their social groups are responsible for their lack of participation in higher education, for the lack of access.”
Crenshaw then turned her focus to injustice for women and girls in society. She discussed how critical it is to reverse the cycle of invisibility for women and girls with initiatives such as President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” which excludes girls and young women of color.
She asked the audience to identify the names of victims of police brutality, revealing that females were mostly unknown. “We don’t know who these girls are, because the media doesn’t tell you; our leaders don’t tell you,” she said.
Crenshaw concluded her speech with a plea for racial justice and inclusion. “I can’t think of a better time than now to create a new inheritance and a better legacy to foster creating inclusion for everyone. I hope we all lift up in our hearts the possibility of creating racial justice that fulfills the desperate needs of everyone and unfolds to embrace all of us,” she said.
The AFC will function as a center for the College community to come together to foster inclusion and education in support of students who have been “historically underrepresented or marginalized in U.S. higher education.”
“Meeting alumni who are doing amazing things makes me ask them how they survived. There was a joke at the keynote where Crenshaw was amazed that alumni of color actually came back, because I don’t know if I’d come back. But with the alumni here, and the center here, there is a sense of victory,” Jenn Ortega ’18 said.
The celebration continued on Saturday afternoon with a panel discussion titled “History of Diversity and Student Activism at Middlebury College.” Participants included Collado, Chief Diversity Officer Miguel Fernandez ’85, Leroy Nesbitt ’82, Alumni of Color and current students.
One of the first discussions addressed themes of collaboration. Nesbitt noted that student activism at the College has been important throughout its history. He said, “Every growth around issues of diversity have come from student activists. It was activism that created the Chellis House, the Jewish Center, Palana House and Coltrane. The spirit of collaboration also speaks to those faculty and administrators who were excited to see the student activism over the years so they could find ways to join in and support.
In 2010 Collado became the first ever woman of color to join the College’s administration. Last Jan. Collado left the College to work at Rutgers University- Newark but she has remained dedicated to efforts of diversity. She said, “We wanted to dream up what would it mean to move the work of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice to the center of a place rather than leaving it at the margins of a campus. Harder questions of policy, are we really talking about all students?”
Some of Collado’s turning points included leading a working group of faculty who made the Center for the Comparative Study of Race and Ethnicity possible.
“We felt that we needed a space for something as simple as, but as loaded as, using the word race in the name of a building, in the name of a place at the institution in 2007,” Collado said. “The issue of intersectionality was a great concern because if we focused on race, some assumed everything else would get lost gender, class, ability. But we worked hard to have race in the title.”
Collado also spoke about inclusion programs on campus led by students such as the First Generation Peer Mentoring Program.
“What also emerged were white students who cared, vocal about their curriculum and faculty not being as diverse as the student body, alongside, and sometimes separate, from students of color,” she said.
“There was amazing visibility in that the administration realized this is no longer an issue for just students of color, and this is going to hit us in the face repeatedly because the demographics of this nation are changing,” she added.
The dedication was followed by a ribbon cutting by President Laurie Patton. Associate Professor of History William Hart then gave a talk titled “To ‘engraven her [Middlebury College] an imperishable name ... with honor’: Martin Henry Freeman 1849, Mary Annette Anderson 1899, and the Challenges of Early Diversity at Middlebury College” Anderson was the first woman of color to graduate from the College and Freeman was the first African American college president in U.S. history.
Fernandez finds the AFC playing an essential part in talking, processing and making a plan of action. “Some people say we shouldn’t have a multicultural center because it separates. But collaboration is possible in that center. We live in a racist society and we need to think of our institutions. Students who felt they had no space on campus opened our eyes.”
Roberto Lint Sagarena, director of the AFC, called it a day of celebration, and a day of awareness. “The center is only as powerful as the community,” he said.
(01/21/16 1:17am)
Loyal fans, I write to you from Jersey Mike’s sub shop in the beautiful Newark International Airport to report that something ‘glaurieous’ emerged from the pit of despair that was exam week. Like a phoenix, the car column rises out of the darkness of exams and into the glaurie of the light. If you haven’t picked up on the hints as subtle as an Atwater pickup line, the non-award-winning car column, Broke College Students in Cars Getting McDonalds, is making its one article return featuring one of Middlebury’s newest faculty members, President Laurie Patton. The Glaurie Ride happened, and it was glaurieous (ok, I promise I’ll stop now).
I grew bold after successfully taking President Liebowitz to the greasy temple of McDonalds last year to complete his farewell tour. After spending the entire summer calculating the conversion of the Liebowitz-o-Meter car rating system to the Patton-o-Meter, I wasn’t about to just not test out the new metric. In case you were wondering, the conversion is precisely two Pattons to every Liebowitz, so that the Patton meter is a rating out of ten.
The Car: 2014 Dark Blue Subaru Outback
Car Name: Renée
The Owner: Middlebury College (Renée’s actually a college car)
Styling: She wore a long denim skirt and a cardigan, totally outclassing us slovenly students. In terms of the car … The closest thing to camouflage that you can drive on a Vermont road, the Outback is ubiquitous. Only a “peace,” “eat more kale,” or “coexist” sticker on the back would make it look more Vermont. Compared to the previous generation, which looked like a slightly overweight and confused angry frog, the newest model slims down and focuses up, now looking exactly like an angry frog.
Patton-o-Meter: 8/10 Lauries.
Interior: Comfortable. Spacious. Practical. These are all words that describe the interior of the Subaru Outback. The Bosnian Back Seat Tester (BBST) had to be replaced for this drive as he had failed his duty and gone abroad to Uruguay. Luckily, after much searching, I found a replacement. Laura Harris, arguably Laurie Patton’s biggest fan, filled in as the Vermont Back Seat Tester (VBST). The VBST enjoyed vast amounts of space while having a spiritual moment in the back seat. I’m pretty sure Laura was speaking in tongues for a couple hours after the drive.
Patton-o-Meter: 8/10 Lauries.
Handling and Performance: I did not have the clearance to drive President Patton, so she drove us. Patton has already gotten the hang of whipping around Middlebury like a pro. One thing: she didn’t fully stop at the stop sign by the biomass plant. Better watch out for pub safe, Patton; they gave me a $50 ticket for doing that!
Patton-o-Meter: 7/10 Lauries.
Drive-through-ability: The Subaru wants to be a mass market American car: of course this thing kills the drive through! It’s got huge cup-holders and armrests to fit all of your greasy dreams. The window is at close to ideal drive-through height.
Patton-o-Meter: 10/10 Lauries.
The Drive: A truly transformative and yet intimidating experience. I would highly recommend going to McDonalds with President Patton to anyone. In case you’re wondering, she goes to McDonalds to “be alone,” so it might be tough to interrupt her deep-fried me time. On our drive we talked about fries, the origins of sexual, racial and religious violence, and China. I made the mistake of telling President Patton that my history thesis was about Bangladesh, which she has studied extensively … whoops. Needless to say, she knew far more about my topic than I did.
In terms of our order, we went for two cups of water (because we’re healthy and sustainable Middlebury students), a small and medium fry and an iced tea. President Patton pulled a wildcard and ordered a broccoli soup, becoming the first person to order soup from the Middlebury McDonalds ever. I didn’t even know McDonalds had soup. President Patton is probably the smartest person I’ve had an extended conversation with. Now that she’s driven to McDs with some random students, she is officially a part of the Middlebury community. Congratulations, President Patton, you’re going to make a great president.
Patton-o-Meter: 10/10 Lauries.
(01/20/16 7:20pm)
My dear people of Middlebury,
I saw an 18-year-old white woman crying in front of 800 people in Mead Chapel; she’d been publicly berated for wearing a hat. Not out of spite. Not out of hate. She had been attending Middlebury for a matter of weeks and did not yet learn that wearing a sombrero was cultural appropriation. Putting aside for the moment concerns about white fragility, her real offense was not already being perfect.
I see day after day white people who are or would be curious about the movement, critically analyzing their privilege and trying to become woke, get shut down the moment they make a mistake. Some call it racism; I call it ignorance. Silencing our potential allies as they try to unlearn that ignorance only broadens the divide in our community already struggling with anxiety and loneliness. I don’t want to be one of those guys saying all lives matter, but I don’t want the social justice movement to lose the fundamental principle of what a safe space is: being able to be ourselves without fear of judgment. To create spaces safe for marginalized students and therefore all students, we have to open the doors of learning to everyone.
I was told from an early age that college is a place to become better citizens of the world, to learn by trial and error. But this is not my experience with social justice on campus. How can we learn and grow when we can’t fail? How can we demand “perfection” when we demand it immediately and prevent people from the learning process to get there?
One problem with this environment is that words like “privilege” and “cultural appropriation” become their own rigid truths. I rarely see students challenge one another’s beliefs—refining definitions, premises, and all—to develop more nuanced positions. We wind up with a limited conversation and few solutions. I see potential allies alienated, when some of my peers, passionate and knowledgeable about their beliefs, have trouble articulating them to people who don’t share their same vocabulary. But I can’t blame activists for speaking the language of justice, whose sound bites are designed to be shared, liked, and retweeted. We are rewarded online and in school for cleverness, zingers, jargon, and one-liners. But as Purdue’s Frederik Deboer, a linguistics professor, describes: “They say terms like ‘privilege’…and expect the conversation to somehow just stop, that if you say the magic words, you have won that round and the world is supposed to roll over to what you want.”
Socrates had a similar experience in his time and started to question religion, but was put to death for “impiety.” With our ostensibly dogmatic social justice movement it often seems like we are doing the same thing to other. To affect change we have to be willing to refine and be refined. Socrates advocated continuously investigating our beliefs for a more sophisticated understanding.
Solidarity, being an activist or an ally, is not silent agreement. Nor is it a parroting “agreement on all matters.” Despite Campus op-eds, town hall meetings, and diversity-themed email chains, there are many people on campus who do not yet understand cultural appropriation. Demanding change hasn’t made it happen. It won’t happen until we allow people to ask important, nuanced, possibly poorly-worded questions. Otherwise, we’ll become trapped by vague, unspoken definitions, censoring everything that might be cultural appropriation until we lose our sense of identity and expression.
Deboer calls it critique drifting when a particular critical political lens that correctly identifies a problem gets generalized and used less and less specifically over time. This in turn blunts the force of the critique and ultimately fuels a backlash against it. Critique drift is a way that good political arguments go bad.
Let’s keep in mind our goal: a safe, healthy, diverse and supportive community, at risk from political correctness that, instead of educating us out of harming each other, undergoes critique drift and broadens into censorship. Particularly harmful is a censorship not only of ideas but also of voices. While judging the value of a voice by its privilege alone doesn’t carry the historical weight of racism, it only inverts the dynamic. It is dangerous. It doesn’t end censorship or un-safety; it just changes who has to deal with it and further divides community.
I see many of my fellow students hoping to protect themselves from further suffering by sticking to people who share their ideological boxes. At the core of psychology, helping people avoid the things they fear is misguided.
Here are some things we all have in common: we are all suffering, and we all live on the same campus. I understand many of us are tired. White feelings are not more important than the feelings of a person of color and vice-versa. Perhaps instead of calling people out, we can call them in. Instead of taking people’s words for face value, we can try to look into what they are actually trying to say, while we are learning to say what we actually mean. This is not something we can do alone. Middlebury can help.
One problem: In a social justice class, we can read thousands of pages learning about privilege, but spend little to no time learning how to confront it in our interactions with others. The classroom is one of the few spaces at Middlebury where people interact with others outside their circles, and we often go through an entire semester without learning each other’s names.
My fellow students and I may have to study hard and write long papers, but we often hide within objective information without having to venture out of our comfort zones. The result is that pain becomes intellectualized. For example, I hear people saying that white people just have to accept that they are all racist, should start unlearning their racism, and the world will be a better place. In my experience, calling each other racist doesn’t make people want to unlearn; it makes them afraid to unlearn. This is not white fragility. This is not some hippie tree-hugger doctrine. This is just how people work. Perhaps we can investigate how our classmates and our own lived experiences play into what we are learning.
According to Thich Nhat Hanh, who was nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize, sharing experience transforms ignorance into understanding and fear into love. Putting words to experience can be hard and draining, especially when the person doing the explaining feels like they are representing an entire group of people. These feelings are valid, and sharing experience is not the same as representing an entire group. If you do not understand why, try listening to people share their experience. Two Native Americans have different experiences being Native American, and two people who are Jewish have different experiences being Jewish. In my experience, when we understand the people who disagree with us, we recognize what will help them value our perspective. We can understand each other by listening, and the more present we are with people who we are trying to understand, the better listeners we can be.
My question is: how are we supposed to be present for each other when school is moving a million miles an hour? How are we supposed to understand and learn about other cultures and the lived experiences of people if we are assigned thousands of pages of reading each week?
Middlebury needs to slow down.
I am an EMT, and when we have a life-or-death emergency, we don't rush. What’s going to save a life is not those extra few minutes or seconds of tripping over ourselves, it's the critical interventions that must be done slowly (yet efficiently) to make sure what we're doing is being done properly and that we are not missing anything. For some reason, at Middlebury, it feels like those extra few seconds are life or death, and it almost never feels like we're doing it right. I see students walking to class faster than a medic walking to a motor vehicle crash. When we live as human doings instead of human beings, ignorance is the result.
I’m afraid we are moving way too quickly—too quickly to learn well, too quickly to listen to each other, too quickly to change. We move so quickly we cannot prioritize the hard work of healing together. In the same way reading a book about exercise wouldn’t make one stronger, healing is not something we can just study to accomplish. Understanding takes practice, practice needs a space, and I cannot create that alone.
We can be there for each other if we are able to prioritize ourselves. And often, we don’t. Our frenetic pace, our workload, and our go-it-alone success narrative do not allow us to be introspective, and so we struggle to turn that self-love outwards and begin the process of community change and healing.
While we are unlearning ignorance, we can relearn the art of relaxing. In the words of Thich Nhat Hanh, “not only does it help prevent the onset of many illnesses that develop through chronic tension and worrying; it allows us to clear our minds, focus, and find creative solutions to problems.”
There is going to come a time when we realize that in an effort to do good for the world we need the Muslim, the Jew, the Buddhist, the Hindu, the transgender woman, the person of color, and the heteronormative wealthy, white, straight, able-bodied, Anglo-Saxon Protestant cis-male. One perspective is inherently lacking. When looking at a sculpture, one person cannot appreciate its full beauty. Some parts cannot be seen from their angle. The blind person can walk up to the sculpture and feel it, and if they can’t walk we can build a ramp, because when we combine our perspectives we can gain an even greater understanding.
Let’s work together to build a better community.
Warm regards,
Eli Susman
(12/10/15 4:14am)
This fall, I submitted an application to the Small Concerts Initiative and was given a grant to bring hip-hop artist, Chris Felner, aka “Felly,” to Middlebury. His show was scheduled for last Friday, and ultimately he performed for over 550 students. However, just prior to his arrival in Vermont, Chris was accused in a Middlebury Campus op-ed of being a cultural appropriator because of his skin color, the way he talked and the sound of his music.
Elizabeth Dunn, the author of the op-ed, is certainly entitled to her opinion and, while I don’t agree with all of her views, I fully respect her right to share them with our community and beyond.
But after spending the weekend with Chris, I felt compelled to respond to her piece, which I believe not only unfairly tarnished our guest, but also misses the point of artistic endeavors and their role in our community.
When I picked him up from the airport on Thursday after his eight-hour cross country trip, Chris had already gotten wind of the op-ed. I expected him to be upset that he was facing a growing protest at the school where he was about to perform. I was wrong. Instead, Chris, who turned out to be a down-to-earth, positive, optimistic kid, was interested in Elizabeth’s perspective and wanted to speak with her. He told me he had “nothing but love for her for expressing her opinion and being so convinced of something. But,” he noted, “anyone convinced of something should be open to hearing another side.” And while we immediately reached out to Elizabeth after Chris’ arrival on campus, we unfortunately did not hear back from her in time to arrange a meeting. That was certainly an opportunity lost.
For those of you who don’t know his music, Felly uses African and Jamaican rhythms and roots from African and Jamaican culture in his songwriting. Yes, it’s true that Felly is not African-American and he is not Jamaican. Yes, it’s true that he comes from a privileged background and might not have the same experiences as many African American or Jamaican musicians. But if we cherish diversity, don’t we want cultures to influence each other? Don’t people from different backgrounds deserve equal opportunities to express their inner creativity and artistic inspiration? Should Eric Clapton be prohibited from singing the Delta Blues because he has a British accent? Transcendent musicians crossing cultural divides is musical appreciation, not cultural appropriation.
Yet the editorial expressed deep skepticism over Felly’s “supposed” Rastafarian connection. It’s interesting to note that Bob Marley, one of the musicians most associated with “Rastafarianism”, was half white and half black. The op-ed wrote, “Rastafarianism is black. It is exclusive…” Does that mean there was an element of cultural appropriation in Marley’s music?
Unquestionably, Chris is not “culturally” Rastafarian. He has, however, spent lots of time in Jamaica, and has cultivated multiple friends on the island. He’s led four separate service trips in poor areas, and visited other times solely to hang out with his local Jamaican friends. Chris explained to me that he loves the way the Rastafarians “preached love and unity,” and that it’s his goal to infuse his music with those same qualities. Notably though, Chris does not limit his musical exploration solely to Jamaican music. Chris mines many other cultures to expand his musical outlook, including those from Brazilian, African and European cultures.
Elizabeth also wrote, “Felly doesn’t seem especially interested in interacting with actual black people… likely it’s because black people aren’t cool.” I’m not at all clear on how based on the viewing of one music video she reached this stark conclusion, but the assertion is completely at odds with the person I got to know this weekend. In the face of unexpected controversy, Chris showed himself to be open, outgoing, sincere and accepting. The whole weekend Chris interacted with a diverse group of students here and started conversations with everyone trying to understand their perspectives. Yet he’s being labeled a racist. As an aside, Elizabeth might be interested to know that two of the musicians who appear on Felly’s most recent album were African-American, including one who grew up in Jamaica and just happens to be one of his closest friends.
One of the first sentences of the op-ed wrote, “Felly, those who were responsible for bringing him here and those planning to attend his concert are unaware of the systematic racism black people face, and how even seemingly innocuous or insignificant actions, like going to a concert, reinforce discrimination.” As the person responsible for bringing Felly to campus, I take issue. I’ve never met Elizabeth, so I don’t know from whom she’s getting her information about my awareness, or lack thereof, of the systematic racism black people face. But I do know that I enjoy music and when I proposed to bring Felly here, it was specifically because I relished the idea of bringing a musician to Middlebury who could bring together a wide array of people for a shared experience. A human experience.
The editorial also noted that “considering Middlebury College’s own history with appropriation, it’s no surprise that Felly was chosen as our visiting artist”. Our Spring concert last year was T-Pain. Middlebury College was also the first college in America to graduate an African-American student.
Of course, I believe cultural appropriation is an issue, and needs to be addressed. This, concert, and Felly, did not deserve to be mired in controversy. Like Dwayne Scott (D. Scott, opener for Felly) said in front of the enthusiastic audience, “I want to address a recent article that has summoned a lot of mixed feelings and caused my own background singers to cancel performing with me. We, as artists, are just trying to share and express our art with y’all. Don’t make things controversial that don’t need to be controversial. I don’t have an issue with Felly. We’re backstage kicking it. So when he comes out on stage, support his art and make the most noise possible. Show love y’all.”
After a terrific weekend and performance, Chris wanted me to deliver a message to Elizabeth: “I have this same love for you regardless of the negative words you have thrown at me. I’m sorry you feel this way, but I hope you can see my side. I’ll keep fighting for unity while you try to do the same through your methods. I take pride in the fact that I’ve been able to bring in hundreds of people (Black, White, Asian, etc.) to my shows to come together for the simple love of music.”
I admire Chris as a young artist following his dream, and I admire Elizabeth for her willingness to express her views in an open forum. Discourse is healthy, and in a college environment, particularly necessary. But we must all accept that as a community, we will never be able to come to a complete agreement on any issue, and instead resolve to respect each other as individuals. It’s my fervent hope that artists of all stripes can and will continue to draw on cultural traditions not their own, as they broaden their own horizons, as well as ours. Let’s knock down the walls and come together, not build them and grow farther apart.
(12/10/15 4:10am)
Three weeks ago, I called for Middlebury to take action in combating the Syrian refugee crisis. While President Patton’s administration has not yet acknowledged this, both our community and the wider higher education community have. Last week, Jeff Holland ’19 wrote an op-ed publicly supporting this moral mission. He agreed with both facets of the twofold proposal – the idea of subsidizing Syrian refugee students in already-partnered universities and full scholarship and transportation grants for selected refugee students to Middlebury itself. He also pointed out the wider value of doing our part in this world crisis. He wrote, “When we [take action], hopefully other colleges and universities will follow suit,” an impact which cannot be understated. A mass movement of American higher education would dramatically improve the global situation. We are an example-setter; nothing we do exists in vacuum. By outrightly not taking humanitarian initiative, or even delaying it, we signal to other colleges and universities that remaining passive is acceptable. We signal that squatting on privilege – on our hill – disengaged from the less fortunate is okay.
Other institutions of higher education have taken action already. As noted three weeks ago, twenty different colleges and universities in the United States are already part of the moral initiative, including Bryn Mawr, Emory, Eastern Michigan, Miami and Brown. Since then, in only three weeks the movement has accelerated. More colleges and universities have actively joined the movement, while Middlebury has not. Trent University, to our north, has announced that it will welcome its first Syrian refugee student next year. The University of New Brunswick also stated that if they receive a formal request for refugees to be housed on its campus, it will do its best to fulfill that demand. While both are Canadian, and thus subject to less stringent barriers at a federal level, the movement has also expanded in the United States. Reverend John I. Jenkins, president of the University of Notre Dame, publicly welcomed Syrian refugees to the country on Thanksgiving. His words do not extend to actual movement in Notre Dame’s institution to help refugees, but such a declaration by a high-profile member of the community of higher education illustrates action regardless.
While Middlebury has not yet moved on this issue, we as a community can change this. We will not send the message that we are content to remain in our bubble. There is both awareness and support of refugee issues on campus, even beyond Holland. Amnesty International has been the prominent leader of the conversation. Their project as an organization this year is centered on the Syrian refugee crisis. The fruits of their labor have been evident periodically, like when the library front transformed with signs and posters displaying facts about the humanitarian nightmare of Syrian migration a month or two ago.
Other refugee-focused organizations also are taking action. Last week, an organization on campus concerned with North Korean human rights sent out its first e-mail to people who signed up for the e-mail list at the beginning of the year about a preliminary meeting. The club, along with the Chinese Club and Asian Students in Action, all advertised an event where Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) shared its work rescuing refugees.Non-student organizations like the Rohatyn Center for Global Affairs have also expressed deep concern, evident in the hosting of an international panel on the issue a month ago. We can safely say that there is support for moral action to help refugees in both official college departments (i.e. RAJ) and across at least four different student organizations.
I welcome all students, faculty, organizations and departments to engage in this conversation. Talk, argue, discuss. Both in publications, like Middbeat, beyond the green and our very own Campus, and among each other. For this purpose, posters have sprouted up advertising “go/refuge.” Go/refuge leads to a document showcasing our moral duty. It includes a petition. This is the platform for those who support this initiative but do not have the time to write an article to have their voices heard. If you support the idea of the College helping the Syrian refugees, sign it. It is time for us to act.
(12/10/15 4:02am)
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.
(12/10/15 2:27am)
Of all the ways to be romantically involved with someone for less than ten minutes, speed dating is perhaps the most socially acceptable.
(12/10/15 2:17am)
Well here it is, the final issue of the semester. And just like that you no longer have time to do all of those things you said you were going to do. So much for getting your life together. The time is approaching to escape with your sanity, that remaining portion of your dignity and whatever a night of cramming all the readings you “forgot to do” can get you on your exams.
This semester I feel as if I’ve covered all of the issues that needed discussing, totally no exaggeration.
I’ve covered the ever-pressing topics of vegan riblets, Ross smoothies, Battell Bathtubs, BannerWeb and many other undeniable priorities of Middlebury College life.
Ok, but in all honesty, how is my column still a thing?
To quote the always wise Bob and Bob from Office Space, “What would you say you do here?” Well to be totally honest, I have no idea. I guess I write 500 words a week, so there’s that.
I spend every column venting about minor inconveniences that in no way actually matter. Does it matter that the mailboxes are a little bit finicky? Not at all. Do you have to eat the vegan riblets? Nope. And I mean really, have you ever had to take a bath in Battell? I sure hope not… If you did, then please report back that you are, in fact, still alive.
My theme isn’t even original. I stole it shamelessly from the writers of Last Week Tonight. You would think that I could have at least come up with a significantly different title than John Oliver’s “How Is It Still a Thing,” but no. As I stated in the first column of the year, I prefer to think of myself as efficient rather than lazy, so I just threw Midd in there and called it a day. Brilliant. So much for creativity!
If you did, in fact, ride it out and read all of my columns (I’m looking at you, Mom), thanks and congrats.
You have made it through over 5,500 words of a mediocre satirical column that has a strange obsession with arbitrary percentages and references to mediocre movies forgotten by 67 percent of their viewers within one week of watching. (Pro tip: check out the 2006 animated film Barnyard, starring the illustrious Kevin James as a bull with udders, for an example.)
I’m going abroad in the spring, so the quality of writing and reporting in this paper is going way up.
But before I do so, I will bring the maturity of the Campus back down to a middle school level one time during J-term when the car column makes its triumphant return for one last GLaurie Ride. That’s right, in a rare lapse of judgment, President Patton has agreed to drive with me to McDonald’s. It will be the pinnacle of my journalistic career. Stay tuned.
(12/09/15 3:44pm)
On Wednesday, Nov. 2, in Wilson Hall, three administrators — Katy Smith Abbott, Andi Lloyd and Miguel Fernández — unveiled a plan they developed over the summer to remedy student stress. This was the first time that the plan, which they termed “The Grid,” was available to the student body. About seventy students and faculty were in attendance at the forum.
At their May meeting the Board of Trustees charged the administration with addressing stress and inclusivity on campus. The resulting plan outlines short-term and long-term solutions that are broken down into three categories: building community and resilience, promoting mind–body well-being and fostering diversity and inclusivity. Each objective has its own chart and associated time agenda.
“It seems to me like the administration is very desperate for some kind of concrete action,” Prasanna Vankina ’18 said. “It is clear that the administration cares a lot, but a lot of the proposals they suggested seemed reactive.”
During the presentation, Smith Abbott described intensive brainstorming sessions over the summer between herself, Lloyd, and Fernández, in a room on the second floor of Old Chapel, with a white board, “a great deal of snacks,” and diagrams and buzz-words of stressors for today’s college students.
“I don’t know how much interaction there actually was with students,” Vankina said.
SGA President Ilana Gratch ’16 said that the SGA’s main goal in holding this stress forum was to create an opportunity for students to enter the conversation. Last week, the Campus editorial board called for administrators to base their solutions on student input rather than on their anecdotal or outdated perceptions of student stress.
“I am encouraged that three senior level administrators spent the entire summer addressing issues relating to stress in the student body,” Gratch said.
At the forum, Gratch gathered responses and suggestions from student attendees, which she will compile in a briefing and send to Smith Abbott, Lloyd and Fernández. She said the SGA will also conduct a survey during winter term asking about perspectives and experiences related to stress at Middlebury.
“I look forward to compiling the student input we received at the forum for administrators so the proposals can incorporate students’ ideas, too,” she continued.
Some commented on the low number of student attendees at the forum. One student suggested that students were too stressed about their academic work to show up. When the attendees broke into small groups to reflect on the presentation, many were dismayed that few solutions in the plan dealt with academics.
“Almost everyone in my small group was frustrated that ‘slow learning’ came up once in the presentation,” Vankina said. “The other prevalent issues of diversity and inclusivity and health are piled onto an already existing issue in the classroom, this rapid form of learning. No one is internalizing anything they learn.”
During a question-and-answer period, one student stood up and said that if he received one extension on a paper, “that would do more to solve his stress than any of these proposals combined.”
Marie Vasitas ’18 said that stress is largely self-imposed by students.
“We need to learn how to deal with the stresses of the real world, because the world is not going to adapt to us,” she said. “Once we leave Middlebury, there won’t be opportunities to have conversations about how we can make the world less stressful. I think that’s something that you have to do on your own, and that’s part of the learning experience.”
One student suggested that students and faculty “take breaks for what they are,” specifically fall and Thanksgiving breaks. “Not having work over break, not piling up work before and after break, and actually reevaluating what a break means would help so much.”
Another student lamented the lack of traditions on campus.
“There are traditions within certain groups on campus, but there’s no one unifying tradition,” she said. “Even a homecoming dance. How many people actually go to Winter Carnival?”
Kathryn Morse, chair of the history department, said the conversation that occurred at the stress forum was thoughtful and showcased multiple points of view.
“The overall bottom line seemed to be that there is too much to do with too little time,” she said. “Students have been saying there’s too much academic work here for years. In response, faculty often suggest that students might be overcommitting themselves beyond the classroom. The question might be, How does our culture pressure students to want to do so many things at once?”
Morse also said that there are too many talks offered each day.
“Perhaps limiting the number of talks across the institution to one per day would reduce stress. Students and faculty seem to have too many talks and obligations to go to — there’s just too much going on.”
Tiffany Chang ’17.5, co-chair of Community Council, expressed excitement for Gratch’s work with the forum and with the upcoming survey. “It will be beneficial to the conversation to hear the opinions of students en masse.” she said. “I would also like to see the solutions focus more on faculty and staff stress, which Community Council has been discussed this semester. All of us — students, faculty, and staff — live and work on campus together, and all our stresses affect one another.”
Matthew Gillis ’18 expressed concern about the way Middlebury markets itself.
“People feel deceived about having come here when they see institutional and social forms of racism and classism” he said. “It is disheartening to realize how many students are accepted from similarly privileged areas each year and how the way you present yourself in admissions can, in many cases, immediately divide, shape and burden your experience. When the college annually boasts how each class is more brilliant, more diverse, and ultimately more ‘perfect’ each year, you internalize the surrounding imperfections you see—and begin to doubt the ability to be perfect yourself.”
“I think being honest, sharing why you feel a certain way, why you hold a certain view or why you’re having a tough time is so important. Many times I stay silent instead of admitting ignorance or slap on a smile when I’m feeling down. We can’t be afraid of making mistakes, appearing vulnerable, revealing ignorance, or showing that we aren’t perfect people, because this is how will eventually help us learn and reform ourselves and our stress,” he concluded.
(12/09/15 3:40pm)
On Thursday, Dec. 3, in an effort to raise awareness of HIV infection and the AIDS pandemic, GlobeMed in partnership with Chellis House held a panel discussion in honor of World AIDS Day. The panel of professors across different disciplines addressed this year’s central theme, “The Time to Act is Now,” when addressing their perspectives on HIV/AIDS around the world. Panelists consisted of Professor of the Practice of Global Health Pam Berenbaum, Professor of Economics Erick Gong and Professor of Psychology Rob Moeller.
World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day that began in 1988. Held annually on Dec. 1, the day is a formal opportunity for people across the world to unite in the fight against HIV, show support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died from the disease.
Berenbaum opened up the panel by saying that people need to challenge the way myths and outdated stereotypes shape notions about HIV. For many, the stigma of testing HIV positive is a deterrent from getting tested. She noted that worldwide trends show that many people who get tested for HIV never pick up their results. “For a lot of people, the benefits of getting tested do not outweigh the costs because in testing HIV positive, some people have a much bigger risk to their lives from the person who is angry about it [than] to the actual AIDS,” Berenbaum said. However, testing remains a vital part of addressing HIV from the start.
“HIV falls into the larger public health problem of individuals needing to change behavior,” Berenbaum said.
She also expressed hope that the issue of HIV infection would be addressed on a global level. “Globally, what I personally would love to see is separating sex from other objectives,” she said. “We need to get rid of rape as a weapon of war. We need to get rid of human trafficking. The vast majority of pornography people enjoy is from sexual slaves. The people who are appearing in this pornography are subjected to HIV risk all the time,” she continued.
Moeller, whose research at New York University focused on HIV infection in black and Latino communities, articulated that the U.S. is in a major health crisis regarding HIV/AIDS. “The people who are most impacted by this are young [14-24] gay and bisexual men of color,” he said. He noted that the common belief that gay or bisexual men wear condoms less than heterosexual men do is false. The issue then lies in the smaller pool of potential partners that is experiencing higher rates of HIV infection.
“For gay men, the idea that sex can lead to death is a reality,” Moeller said. “I have never in my life met a gay man who was not afraid of HIV. The fear certainly exists.”
The panel addressed current medical treatment of HIV. While in the past the common medication for possible HIV infection was curative – to be taken after having unprotected sex with someone who was HIV positive – the current model of medication is preventative. “The problem with this is the issue of access and treatment,” Moeller said. He cited that only one in three doctors knows about pre-exposure prophylaxis, the new HIV prevention strategy that uses antiretrovirals to reduce risk of infection.
Transmission rates of the infection are much lower than common belief dictates. For one sexual encounter between a person with HIV and one without, the rate of transmission is 1/1000. With antiretroviral therapy, this rate is reduced by 70 to 90 percent. Adherence to treatment is thus considered very important. Resistance to the therapies can occur when the full dosage is not observed and the benefit of reduction of transmission rate does not occur.
“When people receive HIV positive tests, some of them will go out and have more unprotected sex because the cost goes down,” Gong said. He emphasized the need for treatment after diagnosis to improve the welfare of the infected person and because it prevents transmission of the infection.
“One of the things that economists have been looking at in terms of changing sexual behaviors is known as conditional cash transfers (CCTs) – you do something and we’ll pay you,” Gong said. With this method, individuals would receive vouchers when they showed up for treatment or extra incentive for fully completing treatment with additional money.
Gong also focused on the presence of HIV and AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa where he conducted most of his research.
“The puzzle is this: rates of HIV are much higher is Sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. “But if you look at the number of sexual partners between the average person in the United States versus Sub-Saharan Africa, they’re about the same.”
HIV/AIDS affects 33 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa. According to Gong, vaccines are not available because large pharmaceutical companies in the United States are not addressing it. To encourage the production, economists suggest advance market commitment, or the “if you make it, we’ll buy it” approach.
“It’s not really about, ‘Let’s change the message,’ or ‘Let’s figure out the right wording to get people to use condoms,’” Moeller said. “What I think we really need is a vaccine and a cure, both of which we are very far away from attaining simply because we just don’t know enough.”
(12/09/15 3:39pm)
On Monday, Dec. 7, Community Council held its final meeting of the fall semester.
Student Co-Chair Tiff Chang ’17.5 began by noting that the Student Government Association recently passed two recommendations – an extension of the add/drop deadline and an extension of the Pass/D/Fail option – which both grew out of discussions originally held in Community Council about academic stress.
The council then considered the recent campus-wide discussions on cultural appropriation and inclusivity. Several members shared that they were supportive of the most recent Town Hall meeting, but wished that it could have been held in a larger venue and at a more convenient time of day, since many potential dissenting voices seemed absent from the discussion.
Public Safety Telecom Manager and Tech Support Specialist Solon Coburn noted, however, that the problem of an insufficiently large venue was “a good problem to have.”
Some faculty members on the Council shared their disappointment that students seemed hesitant to turn to professors to discuss issues of race and class, particularly professors who study those very topics.
Additionally, the question was raised of whether Community Council should begin to tackle those issues, especially in light of student protests at Yale University and the University of Missouri. Members generally agreed that such subjects would probably be best addressed within larger topics that the Council plans to review later in the academic year.
The Council had planned to end Monday’s meeting – the culmination of a semester-long focus on stress – by formulating an official recommendation to President of the College Laurie L. Patton. However, several staff members stated that they felt uncomfortable forming a recommendation primarily on academic stress – a subject about which they have little knowledge. Furthermore, some members pointed out that the Community Council’s charter specifies that it must address only non-academic issues.
“I’m wondering if there needs to be a conversation about what we’re allowed to do and whether that needs to change, in the wording of the way we were chartered as a body,” Ethan Brady ’18 said.
In the end, the Council agreed that the best option would likely be the creation of a smaller task force focusing specifically on stress. This task force would be given a list of specific issue areas generated by Community Council, each of which would be categorized as either a short-term, mid-term or long-term goal.
(12/03/15 1:51am)
In 2009, Lin-Manuel Miranda read Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton and was inspired deeply by his story. A few months later he read what he called Hamilton Mixtape at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word accompanied by Alex Lacamoire.
Miranda was fascinated with the story of the maverick founding father who overcame seemingly insurmountable odds to champion the U.S. Constitution, found the New York Post and defeat competitors such as John Adams, Aaron Burr and others who did not want to take the risks he saw as necessary to help the fledgling nation. Miranda’s interest gave birth to a project of rare creativity and historical importance. In February 2015 Hamilton-An American Musical, with music, lyrics and book written by Miranda premiered Off-Broadway, and in August it made its Broadway debut.
In telling the under-appreciated story of Hamilton, Miranda assembled a cast made up of underrepresented minority American actors. The music itself is an astonishing eclectic mix of genres rooted by a phenomenal collection of hip-hop and rap numbers, which, alongside its unceasingly original production, deeply distinguishes itself from the majority of the other shows playing on Broadway. The show has received immensely positive critical acclaim and an unprecedented box office response. In September, Atlantic Records released a studio recording by the Original Broadway Cast of the 46 original songs from the show. The result is a remarkably album that allows a glimpse of the incomparable show for all of us who don’t yet have the opportunity to see the show on the stage.
The soundtrack opens with “Alexander Hamilton.” We are introduced to the eponymous hero when Aaron Burr asks us “How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, / Dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence / Impoverished, in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar?” He may be asking us, but the musical intends to tell us in explicit detail the rise of the man. This first song works as one part historical lesson and one part soaring R&B piece that introduces the musical and lyrical themes that will be repeated throughout the soundtrack. This is a practice employed wonderfully by Miranda, who introduces specific genres and melodies with different characters to ground them in their music.
The first act details the landing of Hamilton in New York where he meets Aaron Burr and becomes involved in the politics of the fledgling nation. The song “My Shot” is Hamilton’s first solo song and shows us his inner thoughts. Miranda, who plays Hamilton, is a formidable performer and he unloads in this song encapsulating the drive of the soon-to-be-Federalists who rap about their need to create a truly free nation. Shortly after we are introduced to “The Schuyler Sisters”: Angelica, Eliza and Peggy (two of whom will fall in love with Hamilton and provide a touching love story and deliver musical highlights throughout the play). In their introductory piece the sisters sing about “the Revolution happening in New York” and the need for Thomas Jefferson to include women “in his sequel” to the Declaration of Independence. Following the expository pieces of the first act, “You’ll Be Back” is a brilliant song delivered by King George, who is quite sure that the silly American colonies will come crawling back when he sends “a fully armed battalion / To remind you of my love!”
The remainder of the first act delivers other brilliant songs including “Satisfied”, a powerful ballad where Angelica delivers a toast at her sister Eliza and Alexander’s wedding realizing she wishes she could be beside Hamilton, and the hip-hop piece “Ten Duel Commandments,” which introduces the concept of a duel, which returns later in the play. But all of these songs lead up to “Non-Stop” at the close of Act One, which is one of the standouts in the show. The nearly seven minute song details the non-stop pursuit of equality and reformed government by Hamilton, and builds to a series of emotional crescendos that set-up the tribulations of Act Two, and encompasses the run of the musical themes in Act One. In Act Two, Miranda fully reveals his melodic and lyrical talent. The second song of Act Two, “Cabinet Battle #1,” is a rap battle face-off between now Secretary of the Treasury Hamilton and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson over Hamilton’s financial plan. Jefferson fights against the idea of the consolidation of state debt because Hamilton can’t “tax the South cuz we got it made in the shade,” but Hamilton retorts with his hot-headed and passionate beliefs by pointing out that most of the South’s economic base is gleaned from slave labor. The framing of the debate as a rap battle infuses it with energy and it has both striking and humorous lyrics. Following up a few songs later, we hear “The Room Where it Happens” (my personal favorite song from the show) detailing the conversation between Madison, Hamilton and Jefferson to agree on a financial plan while ceding that the capital would reside in Washington D.C. The song is a daunting jazz composition that is bookended by themes of hip-hop.
To avoid any spoilers for those who do not know the remainder of Hamilton’s story, I will end my review here. Even outside of the context of the show itself, the songs of “Hamilton” are a remarkable feat of songwriting. It is an album that contemplates the way that history is told and who chooses what is remembered by the ages. Miranda has chosen a powerful figure to base his songs off, and his talent will no doubt make his brainchild a musical accomplishment for the ages.
(12/03/15 12:59am)
The women’s field hockey team won their second ever NCAA Championship on Sunday, Nov. 22 on Washington and Lee’s Turf Field. The Panthers (20-2) beat no. 3 The College of New Jersey 4-1 in Saturday’s Nov. 21 semifinal matchup before defeating top-ranked Bowdoin in the championship game on Sunday, Nov. 22.
“Our journey to the national championship really started with the tone set by the seniors and coaches at the beginning of the season,” Emily Miller ’17, the team’s starting goalie, reflected. “All the seniors made it known ... from day one of preseason that our goal ... was to win the National Championship.”
Miller describes a memorable moment after the Panthers broke their three-year winning streak by losing to Bowdoin in the NESCAC Championship.
“We were all standing together after the game, kind of sad, and one of our seniors [said], ‘Two words: national championship.’ [The loss] stung, and I think that ... spurred us to go on to be so driven and dominant in the rest of our games this season.”
In the rematch of last year’s semifinal game, where TCNJ defeated the Panthers before going on to win the national championship, Middlebury struck first and early. Pam Schulman ’17 netted the first goal of the game at the four-minute mark after Shannon Hutteman ’16 redirected a penalty corner insertion her way. Just six minutes later, Annie Leonard ’18 tallied her team-best 24th goal off a pass from Grace Jennings ’19 to put the Panthers up 2-0. With the goal, Leonard moved into fourth place in Middlebury’s single-season record book. Twenty minutes later, Caroline Knapp ’18 sent in a rebound off a penalty corner to give the Panthers a 3-0 lead. TCNJ responded with a few good scoring opportunities, but impressive saves by Panther goalie Miller and the defensive line led by Jillian Green ’16 kept the Lions scoreless for the remainder of the first half.
The Panther’s offensive line came out strong in the second half, and Schulman was able to send another ball past the Lion’s goalie for a 4-0 lead at the 41:54 mark. With just over six minutes remaining in the match, TCNJ got on the board when Jaclyn Douglas redirected a shot past a diving Miller.
The Panthers held an 8-6 advantage in shots and 3-2 advantage in penalty corners. Miller finished with two saves for the win, while Lions goalie Schlupp was credited with three stops.
With the win, the Panthers advanced to the championship game on Sunday against NESCAC foe Bowdoin. Top ranked Bowdoin had given Middlebury their only two losses of the season.
“To get to the national championship we had to beat teams that were ranked sixth, fifth, and third in the country [while] Bowdoin had to beat teams ranked fourth, eighth, and unranked,” Miller pointed out. “So [we came into the final four] ready and knowing how to fight through a really tough game. I think this gave us a bit of a mental edge over Bowdoin ... who came in undefeated, and had yet to play from behind all season.”
The first twenty minutes of the game were largely played in the midfield, with a few good scoring opportunities by Bowdoin. Miller, though, made a kicking save to keep the game scoreless. On Bowdoin’s first penalty corner of the game, Kelsey Mullaney had her first shot blocked and second attempt saved by Miller. Immediately following the corner, the Panthers made a quick transition and began an offensive attack. A Bowdoin defender tipped a pass from Schulman, and Jennings collected the ball in the middle of the circle before ripping a shot past the Bowdoin goalie to gain a 1-0 advantage. The Panthers were able to hold on to the advantage for the remainder of the first half.
“[Since] we scored first and in the first half, for the rest of the game we were in a familiar position of having maintain the win, while they were in a new position of having to come from behind,” Miller said.
Early in the second half the Panthers were awarded four penalty corners in a three-minute stretch, but were unable to capitalize on any of the scoring opportunities. Bowdoin drew a pair of penalty corners in the 59th and 60th minutes, but Miller made two great saves to maintain the Panther’s advantage. In the 62nd minute, Bowdoin had another pair of scoring attempts, the best coming from Liz Znamierowski whose shot after a rebound hit the right post and bounced away. The Polar Bears were unable to convert any of their attempts in the final minutes as Middlebury held on for the national title.
Bowdoin finished with a 17-14 advantage in shots, while Middlebury held a 9-5 advantage in penalty corners. Miller finished with six saves in goal to earn her eighth shutout of the season, while Belitz made three stops for the Polar Bears.
Anna Kenyon ’16, Schulman and Lauren Berestecky ’17 were each named to the all-tournament team, while Bridget Instrum ’16 was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player.
(12/02/15 10:36pm)
To put it bluntly, Felly is the epitome of cultural appropriation and white privilege. He takes the culture, the language, the style and the stereotypical criminality of black culture and uses it for aesthetic purposes. His music continues on the tradition of musical blackface, in which white musicians culturally appropriate African American Vernacular English (AAVE) for their own personal gain despite not being connected to the culture. Felly, those who were responsible for bringing him here and those planning to attend his concert are unaware of the systematic racism black people face, and how even seemingly innocuous or insignificant actions, like going to a concert, reinforce discrimination.
For example, in addition to appropriating AAVE, Felly appropriates Rastafarianism. Felly flashes the Rastafarian flag in his video “Gorilla,” which is also featured in the link to his album, and he uses lines like “My inner being Rastafarian.” According to scholars, the definition of Rastafarianism is “an afro-centric religious and social movement based in the Caribbean island of Jamaica. It stems from the roots of Rastafari in rising against the post-colonial oppression of poor blacks.” It is intrinsically tied to blackness and a sense of place, and the obstacles and violence black people face as a result of white supremacy. It is not smoking weed, waving around a flag or listening to Bob Marley. Rastafarianism is black. It is exclusive, radical, politically charged and has been appropriated almost to the point of incoherency by white people who, despite what they say, seem to have no understanding of how the labels and practices they plagiarize actually work.
The thing is, because Felly, and other white people, have privilege because of their race, they don’t really need to understand how black culture or systematic racism works. For example, while black people and white people smoke marijuana at the same rate, black people are four times more likely to be arrested for it. Black people are also more likely to be incarcerated, and for a longer amount of time. And those black people are the lucky ones; the unlucky ones being Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown, Sandra Bland and too many others. Luck isn’t the right word though, since the exploitation and murder of black people serves to support white supremacy. But white people aren’t interested in appropriating that side of black culture – the pain, uncertainty and fear.
Felly doesn’t seem especially interested in interacting with actual black people either. There are few black people in his videos, and a quick scroll of his SoundCloud page reveals pictures of him hanging out with his white friends and singing to a majority white crowd. People of color generally, and black people specifically, are difficult to find in his media, and searching for them almost feels like playing “Where’s Waldo.”
Or maybe it’s because his hometown of Trumbull, Connecticut is 94 percent white and 2 percent black, and he couldn’t find any black people to associate with. But more likely it’s because black people aren’t “cool”; black culture is “cool.” Black sound is “cool.” Being a criminal, which in this country is synonymous with being black, is “cool.” The human beings who produced these things, who live these lives and who die because they can’t escape the same things Felly so superficially embraces? Not so much.
Considering Middlebury College’s own history with appropriation, it’s no surprise that Felly was chosen as our visiting artist. Diversity is more than just a word; it’s recognizing the cultural backgrounds of all of our community members and being cognizant of those when making decisions that affect our campus. People don’t recognize that what’s fun for them can be incredibly harmful to students of color. Some individuals cannot remove the features appropriated for entertainment value once confronted with a racist reality. The bulk of the community wide conversations, like the ones before and after Thanksgiving Break concerning issues of inclusivity and appropriation, didn’t occur until after Felly was booked, but hopefully in the future people will be more aware of the implications of bringing certain artists to campus.
