While heading to O’Rourke’s Diner at 4:30 AM last Thursday
to get a Western omelet, I was approached by a man wearing bunny-shaped ear
muffs and a disconcerting number of jackets. He gestured for me to come closer,
at which point he leaned in and, in a tone of secrecy and urgency, whispered,
“there’s no such thing as radio waves.” I briefly considered his statement,
concluded that I knew very little about the subject and, fearful of appearing
uninformed in front of my new friend, whispered back, “I know.” Seconds later,
a young man with a backwards baseball cap driving a beige car rolled down his
window, pointed at me, and yelled, “nice scooter, fag!” I was, in fact, riding
a scooter.
The first man had as much of a right to espouse his views
on radio waves as he did to collect jars of his own urine, which he kept in his
shopping cart.
Similarly, the second man is entitled to his opinion of my scooter, despite how
hurtful that opinion might be.
These two men represent the students who had the right to
voice their opinions at the community forum held before break, but whose
opinions pretty much suck and should probably be ignored.
The issues listed in the “Community Concerns” email that
was eventually sent to President Bennet range from pressing to depressingly
asinine. In our attempt to be as inclusive and inoffensive as possible,
legitimate concerns like WESU’s affiliation with NPR are diluted by things like
whining over having to walk outside in the cold. I chose three of these issues
to briefly discuss:
Mandatory diversity training for all members of the
Wesleyan community. I think it’s about time that we dropped the pretense of
“diversity.” “Diversity University” is one of the most politically homogenous
schools in the country and there aren’t too many students clamoring for the
inclusion of more Christian fundamentalists or pro-life activists. Look, if you
want to be trained and instructed on how to act and what to say around others,
that is fine, but don’t drag the rest of us through it. Coerced Conformity 101
is a course I can do without.
Allow students…veto power. As consumers we should have
the ability to make the decisions on our own lives. First of all,
“consumers” consume a product; they don’t create or manage it. If a consumer is
unhappy with a product, the consumer won’t purchase it. At most, the consumer
might put a curt note in a suggestion box or, if he has lots of time to kill,
write a letter to the manufacturer. This economic argument doesn’t make too much
sense. Second of all, every decision made here affects students’ lives in some
way, from which professors get tenure to fundraising to the menu at MoCon. It is
implausible to have the “consumers” make all these decisions. It is important to
note that several of the groups involved in the community forum and in the
storming of Bennet’s office argued vehemently against the decision-making of the
student body last year when the majority voted for points off-campus.
Diversity training for athletes and investigation on how
they get admitted. What happened? Did you get picked last everyday while
playing football during recess? Were you the kid who picked flowers while
everyone else played basketball? Did you get made fun of in high school for
going to Slam Poetry Night instead of watching the Super Bowl? An athlete
understands hard work, empathy, and dedication in ways that are often lost on
the rest of us and they should be valued highly. I don’t need to expound on the
idiocy of this “concern,” but it does need to be said that casting a cloud of
suspicion around athletes is absurd and that aggressively seeking out student
athletes for admittance would only improve the Wesleyan community.
Many students have complained about “being silenced.”
There is a big difference between “being silenced” and “having nothing to say.”
The community forum, like the email of “community concerns,” was largely a waste
of time, though at times entertaining (like when a bunch of people would stand
up, then turn around, then turn back again, then repeat it several times, like a
retarded Macarena).
Students got their chance to rant about radio waves and
denigrate my scooter; they shouldn’t now be upset when those views are ignored,
refuted, or laughed at. The valid, well-reasoned concerns should be fought for
with vigilance, whether that means protesting or occupying buildings or filling
Bennet’s office with angry bees or some sort of “freak out” where girls strip
and have sex with each other in front of North College and tape it and put it on
the network. Fine, everyone should have a voice, but if that voice is trying to
force me to subscribe to its agenda or is spouting uninformed drivel, that voice
should be punched in the mouth. Sometimes, you have to think about what you are
voicing, realize that your opinion is worth less than a jar of your own urine,
and just let me eat my damn omelet in peace.