In New Haven, Connecticut, students are rightfully enraged as a result of recent outbursts of racial injustice.
A recent Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity party, claiming the party was for “white girls only,” reportedly turned away a black female student at the door, according to Vox and the Washington Post. SAE at Yale has not confirmed the incident and has thus not apologized to the additional frustration of the students.
Around Halloween, the Intercultural Affairs Committee at Yale sent a kindly worded email reminding students not to wear culturally offensive costumes, according tothefire.org. Simple enough.
But following some claims that the email was an attack on student free speech, the assistant master of Silliman College at Yale, Erika Christakis, sent another one.
In the second email Christakis admitted she did not want to dictate what students could and could not wear on Halloween. She claimed that was because Halloween was not a holiday for adults to control — rather, it was a holiday for young people to be allowed to be “a little bit obnoxious ... a little bit inappropriate or provocative.”
Basically, Christakis voiced an idea too many people have: if something is offensive, just look away from it instead of doing something.
Reasonably, the aftermath of the email and the allegations of racial discrimination at a party was not met with passive silence. People did do something. Students of all races and backgrounds rose up and marched a “March of Resilience” in a demonstration that has gained national attention.
They carried signs with positive slogans such as “Shades of beauty,” “I stand with my sisters” and “This is not a protest.”
Because it wasn’t.
The March of Resilience was not a cry for help or an attempt for people of color to be painted as victims. It was a display of strength, unity and love within a community that had been attacked by prejudice.
Students at Yale are attempting to have a conversation about racism at the school. Such a conversation is long overdue. Many students of color have experienced prejudice or discrimination there on the basis of race, and many, especially black women, do not feel safe on campus because of it.
I mean, it’s hard not to be reminded of a culture of racial insensitivity on a campus with a residential college named after John C. Calhoun.
In the wake of all this, the Black Student Alliance has developed a list of demands for the school, including mandatory education on race and gender issues, as well as the removal of Christakis.
While these demands have not been met yet, the group did gain marginal support in the form of an email from Dean Jonathan Holloway wherein he backed the Intercultural Affairs Committee’s original email and said he was deeply moved by the pain of black students and students of color.
The simple email took far too long to be sent and left many students wondering why they needed to yell so loudly just to be heard by their administrators.
However, amidst the frustration and emotion, the marching Yale students have proven they are present, they are cohesive and they are not going anywhere.
meickhof@indiana.edu
@maggie_eickhoff
