Activism, Social Change, & the Decay of Discourse at Wesleyan University

, by Joseph Nucci,

The subject of this article is the effect of the social justice warrior (SJW) on public discourse at Wesleyan University. First, I would like to thank the SJW. Thank you, student activists, for being unrelenting and passionate about issues concerning racism, sexism, heterosexism and the like. As an out and proud gay man, I owe the SJW a great deal of gratitude because they bring issues concerning minorities, such as these, to the forefront of society’s consciousness. Social norms, especially harmful ones, can become so ingrained into society that sometimes we need someone to remind us that the world is a less than perfect place. But to know that the world is imperfect is not enough. Karl Marx is an economist and historian that many conservatives have probably never read. He is famously quoted saying, “Philosophers have interpreted the world, the point however is to change it.” The SJWs I have encountered have done much to enlighten us about the state of o ur world, but have done very little to change it. If anything, I think they may hinder potential social progress by constricting discourse around controversial issues.

Before I discuss further, there is just one thing I would like to point out: the very simple fact that there are multiple ways to achieve positive social change. The method SJW and student activists tend to choose is radical; it-is-in your face and it demands that you cannot wait or be complacent in the name of justice. Other methods of social change, such as democratic debate and discourse, are less prevalent. These methods have a softer touch and utilize a gentler yet arguably more effective technique in bringing about social progress.

I do not wish to downplay the importance that radicalism has played in our history. Malcolm X, the Stonewall Riots and the Feminist Sex Wars are only a few examples in which radicalism has played a vital role in instigating social change. Having recognized this, I believe that social activism I see on Wesleyan’s campus is often tragically one sided. The type of radical activism that is common here accomplishes much in terms of critiquing the status quo. The problem with critiques however, is that they ignore a basic component of human nature.

Human beings hate to be criticized. When anyone is criticized, they immediately clam up and stop listening to the other person. Nobody believes themselves to be bad or evil. It only takes a casual reading of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kamf to see that he was convinced of the purity of his intentions. Al Capone, the most infamous gangster to terrorize Chicago, thought of himself an unfairly hunted man who only lived to give people “the lighter pleasures” in life. I think Dale Carnegie sums this up best in his classic book How to Win Friends and Influence People when he wrote, “Criticism is futile because it puts the person on the defensive and usually makes him strive to justify himself. Criticism is dangerous because it wounds a person’s pernicious pride, hurts his sense of importance, and arouses resentment.”

When you criticize another student for doing something you claim to be homophobic (or racist, sexist, etc.), you conflate their personhood with homophobia (or racism, sexism, etc.). When this happens, you are uniting them with sociological systems of oppression that they cannot possibly identify with as an individual who simply spoke a sentence, did a simple action or made a mistake due to ignorance. Remember, these people are not Hitlers or gangsters. They are often liberal, open-minded, and well-intentioned Wesleyan folk. Anyone who has tried to explain why the word faggot is offensive to a bunch of ignorant boys knows this all to well. They justify their use (we didn’t mean faggot as in “homosexual,” we meant faggot as in “uncool”) and are personally offended that you insinuated that they are an uncivilized. So by relentlessly critiquing and protesting, SJWs run the risk of stopping the progress they hope to make, paradoxically hindering themselves from achieving the humanitarian aims which they claim to care about so vehemently.

When I see or experience a critique from a SJW, I cannot help but notice their vulgar pride. The kind of pride where they think their morals are that much purer than everyone elses just because they are capital P progressive. This vulgarity is as toxic as it is hypocritical and inevitably leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. They preach love, equality and acceptance, but only manage to spout hatred, division, and dissension. It is liberal hypocrisy in one of its purest forms. The examples that I could give substantiating these statements are endless, but I will focus on just four. Two will be personal anecdotes and two will be controversies that have effected and changed Wesleyan’s campus during my time here. I will discuss my experience working for the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) and my experience taking Critical Queer Studies. I will discuss the co-education of Wesleyan’s residential fraternities (side note: I think it is important to disclaim that I am an active member of Psi U and a member of the first co-educated pledge class). Finally, I will address the most recent SJW flavor of the week: a controversial op-ed piece about the Black Lives Matters (BLM) movement. I’ll begin with the co-education movement. Most supporters of co-education posited that if you did not agree with them, you were a rape apologist and a misogynist. If you recall, co-education was popularized by the notion that it would prevent or at least curb sexual assault. If you do not remember, refer to the petition that was signed by numerous students and faculty members, calling the community into action.

What baffles me about this movement is that not a single female who ended up pledging Psi Upsilon’s first co-educated pledge class actually signed it. How different would things have been if instead of yelling “RAPISTS!” at our residential fraternities, the females who were actually interested in becoming members of these organizations said “We know it doesn’t seem fair to you, but we want what only you have. The administration will not give us or Rho Ep a space and we want to have access to some of the most influential spaces on campus.We don’t want to change your societies; we want to make them better. We want to make these spaces safer and more inclusive. We can help you do this. Can we talk about it?” This isn’t what happened, is it? I am not even sure if anyone even bothered to try this sensible and civil approach. What a tragedy! What a missed opportunity! How much time was wasted debating the ethics of single sexed housing? How much more simpler and ci vil would our campus have been had we approached this differently? Co-education could’ve even happened faster and smoother but instead, the hatred that was spouted towards the fraternities made these societies dig their heels into the ground.

I personally believe that this anger, which seems to saturate the SJW mindset, is derived from how Wesleyan indoctrinates its students. Taking Critical Queer Studies my sophomore year proved to be an invaluable experience for me as a gay male. Despite this, I was distressed by how negative and pessimistic the articles we read were. I remember going to my professor’s office hours and asking her, which may have been a stupid question at the time, if we were going to read anything positive about being queer. My professor looked me in the eye and said to me, “Ignorance is bliss. If you are happy, it is because you are too stupid to understand what is really going on in the world.” Her response was tragic. It was a missed opportunity for us to engage in each other’s perspectives and have an enlightening conversation. I used the word “indoctrinate” deliberately because this conversation I had with this professor was not about teaching. She was not teaching me how to thi nk; she was teaching me what to think. This is the very definition of indoctrination. It is troublesome that many students here may not be able to tell the difference between the two. I should also point out that not all of my experiences with professors have been like this but if this happened to me, it’s happened to other students too. This is indicative of a larger cultural problem on this campus.

This type of indoctrination is also present in the Wesleyan’s Office of Residential Life. I worked for ResLife for four semesters and underwent social justice training four times. In this training, any voice that deviated from the very liberal status quo was silenced. The best example of this occurred during a seminar on heterosexism. A DKE brother shared a personal story about how he thought that one of their members might be gay when he brought another man to their formal, but since he never came out, they were unsure how to navigate the situation. “WHY DOES HE HAVE TO COME OUT?!” I remember everyone yelling at him. He explained that it would’ve been nice to know so he could ask him on a double date. “HE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO COME OUT!” They gave him no room to learn and he left that seminar just as unsure how to handle the situation of the potentially closeted brother. What a tragedy! What a missed opportunity! The point of social justice training is not so the capital P progressive Wesleyan students can feel good about the purity of their morals; it’s so the fraternity brother stereotype can maybe learn something. As I said though, this was not about education. It was about indoctrination. It was about silencing, not speaking.

Lastly, consider how the campus has reacted to the most recent SJW controversy: the article critiquing the BLM movement. I am not going to comment on the content of this article, but I would like to examine the campus’ response. I have yet to read an official article that refutes Bryan’s claims. Every single one I come across calls him ignorant and racist yet I am still confused on exactly how he is any of these things. As a “privileged white male,” I am sure I could benefit from reading a piece that would enlighten me further about the necessity of the BLM movement but I am still waiting to read such a piece that takes on Bryan’s article line by line. No one that disagrees with Bryan has asked him to coffee or proposed to have a discussion with him. He remains just as he was before but is most likely more determined to stick to his views. It was a completely wasted opportunity for education on both sides.

The majority of public commentary that I have seen merely denounces the article and blames the Argus for publishing it. If you claim to believe in the freedom of speech but… not racist speech… but not sexist speech… but not hateful speech… you end up classifying all of these “buts,” which actually carve out a profound disbelief in the freedom of speech. It’s that simple. You don’t have to support free speech, just don’t pretend you support it if you clearly don’t. You cannot have it both ways. I would argue that the correct response to this controversy should be refutation, not censorship. Censorship begets censorship and the activists at Wesleyan have managed to turn what could’ve been a pivotal moment for our campus in discussing BLM into a campus debate over free speech. What a tragedy! What a missed opportunity! Once again, the SJW has succeeded in preventing a discourse that our campus so clearly needs surrounding issues of race and instead is tryin g to defund our student newspaper, driving myself and many other potential supporters away from their cause.

I think I should point out my own slight hypocrisy in giving the SJW a critique; critiquing someone for being critical is a tricky thing. Arguably, my critique was given in a much different manner than the type I have discussed. I want to reiterate that most times, I agree with the intent of the SJW. I usually agree with their ends, just not their means. I believe their reactionary methods (such as being quick to protest or to petition against the Argus) can potentially worsen the situation they’re trying to fix by retarding the progress they hope to achieve. In conclusion, I would like to end with a quote by a historian and economist that many liberals have not read. Thomas Sowell writes, in his book Intellectuals and Society, “The capacity to grasp and manipulate complex ideas is enough to define intellect but not enough to encompass intelligence… Intelligence minus judgment equals intellect. Wisdom is the rarest quality of all—the ability to combine intellect, know ledge, experience, and judgment in a way to produce a coherent understanding… Wisdom requires self-discipline and an understanding of the realities of the world, including the limitations of one’s own experience and of reason itself. The opposite of high intellect is dullness or slowness, but the opposite of wisdom is foolishness, which is far more dangerous.”

Nucci is a member of the Class of 2016.

  • Gubra Lagima

    Don’t we all remember the classic tale of Mohandas Gandhi parading through Delhi and demanding that all British books be disposed of? How about the time Martin Luther King Jr. fought for a quota of black Americans in the US Senate, regardless of their skills or qualifications? Truly two of the bravest men of the twentieth century.

    What’s that? Neither of those things actually happened? Well, of course not.

    Black Americans are still disadvantaged in many ways, but the solution is not Affirmative Action, race quotas, or the ability to shut down any dissenting opinions regarding race. Every group that was disadvantaged in America at one point (Irish, Chinese, Koreans, etc.) has lifted themselves up through merit. As long as black Americans try to use “social justice warrior” tactics to achieve equity, no progress will be made. In other words, you can’t simply say you’re equal and throw a fit if someone suggests otherwise; if someone gets the idea in their head that you are lesser because of the color of your skin, prove them wrong.

    Mark my words: If the United States ever becomes a Utopian “post-racial” society, the means by which these conditions are achieved will have nothing to do with what we know today as “social justice warriors.” Identity politics has no place in a modern society. Every single person reading this is an individual. If all of you acted like individuals, the Argus wouldn’t be facing destruction at this very moment. This highly racial groupthink only serves to divide society.

    If you think that judging individuals based on their merit rather than the color of their skin is racist, then the racism is coming from you. If you signed the petition to defund the Argus and you’re reading this, please evaluate your own beliefs and think about who is actually being racist here.

    • Not Black

      Can you be any whiter?

      • Anonymous

        Racist and patronizing and in just 5 words. Impressive.

      • Gubra Lagima

        What about me strikes you as white?

      • df

        can u b more butt hurt?

      • Gubra Lagima

        On the contrary, I’m not “butt hurt” at all. However, I do find it a bit sad that the comments section of a university newspaper is populated by people who lack an understanding of basic spelling and grammar.

      • Not Black

        You don’t understand privilege and you’re being what mlk called a” white moderator.” Oh and thanks for your pedantry. But don’t have a race of people to pretend are just like you instead of spending all this time on the internet?

      • Gubra Lagima

        I know this probably sounds racist to most SJWs, but I don’t think black people are any different from white people. Skin color means nothing.

    • Yohance35

      The problem with your theory of “merit” is that it ignores the systemic cultural roadblocks to a meritocracy. Regardless of merit, people of color aren’t judged on a level playing field. And even if they were in terms of achieving economic equality, that doesn’t necessarily lead to social/cultural equality and security.

      For example, you point to the ways Chinese and Koreans “[have] lifted themselves up through merit.” As a Chinese-American, I have a number of issues with this characterization of my ethnic group as a “model minority”. Firstly, it broadly generalizes a large group of people. While yes, statistically, East Asians are better educated and make more money than most Americans, that sweeping view dismisses the many East Asians who are disadvantaged economically and socially. Secondly, even if you are part of that “model minority” demographic, that does not immunize you from racism. My family is more educated and wealthier than most Americans, and I grew up in a progressive city that is home to an Ivy League university. Nevertheless, I still have been called racial slurs by random people on the street. White people, as the majority in this country, do not have to walk around my city and worry about that — and when it has happened to me, my white friends who have been with me wonder why I’m not more shocked or confrontational about it. All my wealth, education, and other privileges do not protect me from the oppression of the majority. That is the definition of white privilege, and all you “model minority” standards and arguments of “meritocracy” do nothing to dismantle the fact that any meritocratic system will be dominated by a certain demographic unless proactive measures are taken to dismantle the systemic roadblocks they have put in place.

      • Gubra Lagima

        I don’t know what to tell you. When I lived in a Puerto Rican neighborhood as a kid, I was called racial slurs and beat up because I’m white. I have never been rich, and probably never will be. I fail to see how I have any kind of “privilege” simply because I have white skin. You’re wealthy and educated, yet I’m the privileged one? That makes no sense to me.

      • Yohance35

        I would have expected, then, given your upbringing in a Puerto Rican neighborhood, that you would understand what I’m saying. What you faced in your upbringing, minorities face in most neighborhoods not dominated by their ethnicity. And privilege can be based on something inherent, not just on things that are earned or born into, and it’s ok — even beneficial — to acknowledge that you have privilege so you can be more cognizant of it. You are privileged over me in being white in the same way that I am privileged over you by being wealthy and educated. I am privileged in being male, even though that is something inherent to me, because I don’t face the same levels harassment and objectification that women do in our society. Same goes for my being straight, and cisgendered. There is nothing wrong with having these privileges — they are part of my identity — but the key is to recognize and acknowledge your privilege and then listen to people who don’t have those same privileges when they air their grievances, rather than imposing your privileged viewpoint on them. So, when I discuss the adversity I experience based on being Chinese-American, you should acknowledge my experience in the same way that I should acknowledge yours as someone who “[has] never been rich, and probably never will be.”

      • Gubra Lagima

        From what you’ve said about your upbringing, I have no reason to believe that I’m privileged over you in any way. I have never benefited from my white skin, and I suffered for it many times as a child. To say that being white makes me inherently privileged is absurd. Your notion of identity politics gives you the right to say that I am more “privileged” than you, even though I am less privileged than you in every quantifiable way. This is the problem with looking at yourself as part of a demographic rather than as an individual.

      • Yohance35

        I would concede that, on the whole, I perhaps am more privileged than you. But identity, and therefore privilege, has different categories. So, while your upbringing sounds unusual for a white person, many white people did not have to face the adversity you did growing up. And that privilege carries over into adulthood, which is also something you have to acknowledge. Have you ever been treated with extra scrutiny by police based on your race? Or always seem to be the one pulled by TSA for a “random search”? Have you ever been asked by law enforcement to prove your immigration status out of context? Do people assume you’re not American and, when you assert that you are from the US, have people persist by asking you “where you’re REALLY from?” If not, then you have privilege over people who do experience those things by mere virtue of their race, or perceived race, and the accompanying assumptions and stereotypes.

      • Gubra Lagima

        I would ask the same of you.

        “Have you ever been treated with extra scrutiny by police based on your race? Or always seem to be the one pulled by TSA for a “random search”? Have you ever been asked by law enforcement to prove your immigration status out of context? Do people assume you’re not American and, when you assert that you are from the US, have people persist by asking you ‘where you’re REALLY from?'”

        If any of these have happened to you, please list specifically which ones.

      • Yohance35

        No for many of them, because I am privileged by my racial identity in not being subject to those stereotypes. The last one, however, happens to me on a regular basis. I was born in the US, raised in the US and under an American value system, and have lived here my whole life, yet East Asians (among others) are perpetually seen as “foreign” and “other”, no matter how long we’ve been here. So when I tell people that I grew here, they often persist by asking, “Yeah, but where are you REALLY from?”, sometimes more than once. Have you, as a white person who is not viewed as “foreign” on the basis of your skin color, ever been subjected to that line of questioning? If not, then congrats, you have racial privilege!

      • Gubra Lagima

        So what you’re saying is that you’ve had several misunderstandings because of your race, while I’ve had the shit kicked out of me on several occasions for my race. Tell me again who is supposed to be the privileged one?

      • Yohance35

        Privilege is contextual. I am not claiming to defend the actions of those who attacked you nor to say that I have been subjected to that. While in your neighborhood growing up, you were subjected to that kind of treatment because of your race and because you were in a racial minority. That is the experience of many POC in most other contexts in the US, because overall we are minorities. So many things such as the law enforcement and criminal justice system, the social service system, culture and entertainment, political enfranchisement, etc. are denied to POC because of their identity. What you experienced was a form of localized privilege being imposed upon you, but other forms of privilege are far more systemic.

        The key one, in the context of current political discussion, is that Blacks in the US are being harassed and killed by law enforcement often on the basis of their race, in situations where you or I would not be harassed or killed. And the reason they cannot rely on merit alone to remedy the systems that affect these harms is that through denial of equality in things such as employment, political enfranchisement, access to good education, and — crucially to the point I’ve been trying to make — the willingness of those in privileged positions to listen to their experiences and grievances without imposing their own, privileged experiences on them, they are denied the political, economic, and social tools necessary to do so. That is why we need proactive measures like school integration and the Voting Rights Act to level the playing field and enable the enactment of change.

      • Gubra Lagima

        There’s a mile of difference between school integration, the VRA, etc. and thing like race quotas. Affirmative Action and race quotas are damaging to companies where they are enforced, because it often leads to unqualified people getting jobs simply because not enough qualified minorities applied.

      • SwordofStorms

        I live in a mostly white area (like 80% white and 9% black, the rest being other races), and I’ve still been called racial slurs for being white, by black people. “Cracker” and “whitey” come to mind.

      • Gubra Lagima

        Also, that’s some very impressive backpedaling you did. You went from calling me privileged for my skin to saying minorities in “other contexts” experience things similar to me. This is exactly why Identity Politics has no place in a modern society. Calling white people inherently privileged is a disservice to the millions of white people that never benefit from any kind of privilege. Calling minorities inherently oppressed ignores the millions of minorities who are better off than the average white person in America. Why not let each individual stand on his merits?

      • Yohance35

        Let me be clear: I am saying that, in the context of your neighborhood growing up, you were not privileged because you were a minority in that context. In the context of American society more broadly, though, you are privileged. And that privilege extends beyond things like wealth and education. Remember when Professor Henry Louis Gates was harassed by Cambridge Police on his own property? It didn’t help that he is a Harvard professor who is “better off” in many ways than most Americans, he was seen as suspicious by law enforcement on account of his race. And that oppression came at the hands of a systemic force — that of law enforcement. In the context of American society as a whole, as opposed to the context of your childhood neighborhood specifically, that is the oppression faced disproportionately by black people and that people like you and I largely don’t have to worry about. Likewise, you don’t have to worry about people perpetually seeing you as not American in the same way I do, or South Asian American or Arab Americans do. That is a privilege broader American society grants to you, based on your identity.

      • Gubra Lagima

        You’re right. As I was getting the piss beat out of me, I closed my eyes and thought “I’m a cis white male. It truly doesn’t get any better than this. How lucky I am to be alive in this moment.” That’s exactly what I thought. Because I might’ve been in great pain, but in a BROADER CONTEXT, I WAS SO PRIVILEGED. YOU’RE SO RIGHT.

      • Gubra Lagima

        You say “privilege is contextual.” I agree. Don’t you see that calling all white people privileged and all minorities oppressed is playing a very dangerous game, especially when you ADMIT that privilege is contextual?

      • Yohance35

        Because in the context of the United States as a whole, white people are privileged over minorities. In the specific context of your childhood neighborhood, it sounds as if you were not privileged by your whiteness and I don’t dispute that because I acknowledge your experience and my privilege in not having been raised in a neighborhood where racial violence happened. Outside of that context, however, in most of the United States your whiteness grants you certain privileges (note, not necessarily more privilege overall) over other, non-white Americans

      • Gubra Lagima

        I’m done discussing this. Have fun being oppressed in your mansion or whatever. I’m going to go be privileged, like all white people do at all times.

      • SwordofStorms

        Tell me something: About how often are you called racial slurs for being Chinese?

      • Yohance35

        Do you doubt the authenticity of my experience? I don’t keep a log book or anything, but often enough to know that I am seen as an “other” in the United States

      • SwordofStorms

        No, I don’t doubt you, it’s just that from my experience Asians tend to be the most accepted racial minority in the US.

      • Yohance35

        Idk, maybe. But that doesn’t mean we don’t still face prejudice is my point, and why I think pointing to Asians as a “model minority” is dismissive of the experiences of Asians and of other minorities

      • Anonymous

        The famous Oppression Olympics, wherein the minorities, fully teased out into amazing subcategories, compete to prove that THEY are the worse-treated in the country. Have fun with that. There are more productive ways to spend your time. Like doing something to improve your lot.

      • Anonymous

        Wallowing in your pool of perceived oppression. Do you ever focus on anything else, like doing your job or raising your kids?

      • Anonymous

        How are blacks denied access to a good education? The schools are there, the teachers are there, any kid who cares to learn can do so–what is stopping them? Now, I do think they are being denied a good family situation, but that it the consequence of their parents’ bad choices.

      • Anonymous

        And you choose to take inquiries in friendly circumstances as insulting somehow? The fact is that American society now places more emphasis on race thane ver, directly as a result of social justice warriors and affirmative action, so you should not be surprised if someone is curious about your obvious ethnic roots.

      • Anonymous

        Yes. And I have been hassled by British immigration about my passport.

      • Anonymous

        And I’m saying that you, who know nothing about the person with whom you have been corresponding, are assuming, as the very bedrock of your arguments, that the person you do not know has enjoyed some form of “privilege.” This is irrational. But do continue–don’t want to waste those precious community college years.

      • interested reader

        Maybe it would help if you don’t look at this as a “zero sum game”. Any privilege or disadvantage you may or may not have vis a vis anyone else does not have to mean things are better or worse for one of you. It just means acknowledging your different circumstances and how they might affect you, your experiences, and opportunities. It is a way of trying to better understand each other.

      • Gubra Lagima

        If you want to understand me, look at me as an individual. I am a human being with thoughts and emotions, but all identity politicians see me as is a cis white male, and therefore I’m apparently the most privileged being on planet Earth, despite never getting any sort of preferential treatment and being treated unfairly for my race and gender numerous times.

      • interested reader

        What you are saying is more about your view of what you call “identity politics” and has nothing to do with my views of you whatsoever. We could all benefit from trying to listen as opposed to assuming we already know what someone thinks. When I say listen, I mean really making an effort to get past those strong initial reactions we all have at some point and being fair-minded.

      • Gubra Lagima

        I’ve been listening to Yohance for what feels like hours, and all that he’s told me is that I’m privileged because of my skin

      • Yohance35

        …in the context of American society broadly, and solely in the category of racial privilege.

      • Gubra Lagima

        Do you not understand why it’s useless to hold up white people and say “these people are privileged” even if they’re not privileged?

      • Yohance35

        I think the issue here is we are talking past each other on how we define privilege. I refer you to interested reader’s earlier comments, but idk if either of us is gonna shift the other’s paradigm at this point

      • Gubra Lagima

        Privilege – a right, immunity, or benefit enjoyed only by a person beyond the advantages of most.
        What rights, immunities, or benefits do ALL white people have that nobody else has?

      • Yohance35

        For example, by being they majority in the US they are not placed under a cloud of suspicion by society merely on the basis of their race. They are not pulled over for “driving while black”, they are not assumed to be undocumented or terrorists or Communists, like POC from various groups have been

      • Gubra Lagima

        How does that matter? In a country where white people can be extremely poor, homeless, and nearly starved, how does it matter that white people are less likely to be profiled based on their race alone?

      • Anonymous

        I know you are too young to remember this, but you remind me of Joe B#$%^&*(, a character in a on old fifties cartoon who traveled around with a black cloud hanging over his head.

      • Anonymous

        ??? Which critical [fill in the blank] courses were you subjected to as a young community college student?

      • interested reader

        I hope you can “hear” what I am going to say because, with all due respect, I think you have been “reading” but not really “listening”. Without making a judgment, can we all not acknowledge that in the US, those of us who are not black have the privilege of believing in most situations, law enforcement will not assume we are suspicious and/or dangerous merely because of the color of our skin, to name just one common area of privilege? To do so does not necessarily mean blacks or non-blacks have it worse than anyone else. Acknowledging this reality allows us to better understand why blacks and non-blacks often have very different views about the police. This understanding in turn might help us make changes to make life safer for blacks and the police. Again, life should not be a “zero sum game”. Understanding each other better should enable us to improve conditions for everyone.

      • Anonymous

        No, we can’t acknowledge that. Now what?

      • interested reader

        Hope for good will and an end to the indiscriminate insulting and baiting so common with anonymous comments.

      • Yohance35

        I am looking at you as an individual, aren’t I? I never said you were “the most privileged being on planet Earth” and I haven’t questioned the circumstances of your upbringing. I have acknowledged that I am, overall, probably more privileged than you are, and that in your childhood you didn’t have racial privilege because you were a minority in your neighborhood and were mistreated because of it.

        Yet, while you turned my question about things POC are subjected to on me, and I had to prove the authenticity of my experience to you, you never answered my question: Have you ever been treated with extra scrutiny by police based on your race? Or always seem to be the one pulled by TSA for a “random search”? Have you ever been asked by law enforcement to prove your immigration status out of context? Because those are things imposed on POC because of their perceived race and the assumptions that go along with that perception by a system (law enforcement) that reflects American society more broadly.

      • Anonymous

        I’ve been pulled out of TSA lines for extra scrutiny and I’m a principally Caucasian senior citizen. Rather than see this as oppression and attribute it to systemic racism, I attribute it to the idiocy entrenched in TSA–a form of oppression that we are all subjected to.

      • interested reader

        That is a privilege.

      • GL: If you want to understand me, look at me as an individual. I am a human being with thoughts and emotions, but all identity politicians see me as is a cis white male, and therefore I’m apparently the most privileged being on planet Earth,
        If you had been James Blake white male you wouldn’t have been slammed to the ground for being an identity theft suspect like the black James Blake identity theft suspect.

      • Yohance35

        Exactly. It’s not about me vs. you, or about who has more privilege overall. It’s acknowledging in which areas you are privileged and in which areas you aren’t, and knowing when to take peoples’ experiences as authentic.

      • Gubra Lagima

        Have you been to Appalachia? Many of the people there live in shacks, do manual labor work for a few thousand dollars a year, can barely afford to put food on the table, and would not be alive were it not for government assistance. But at least they’re white, so they have that going for them, huh?

      • Yohance35

        I have, actually, been to Appalachia — though, I suspect, not the really poor parts. On the whole, those people have very little privilege. But, yeah, at least they won’t get pulled over for driving while black or arrested for “suspicious activity” on their own property like many wealthy Blacks are or have to worry about. Does that mean that the Appalachian whites have it better off overall? No, absolutely not.

      • Gubra Lagima

        If someone is barely surviving in life, how does it matter in any way that they won’t get pulled over?

      • Yohance35

        Because getting pulled over or detained can, as we’ve seen, escalate into unjustified deprivation of life, liberty, and property much more easily for POC. That’s not to say that things are automatically hunky dory for them, but it does make a difference

      • Gubra Lagima

        So are the minorities who are never harassed by police also privileged?

      • Yohance35

        Yes, in that one respect, compared to the minorities who are more likely to be harassed by police

      • But there’s always a possibility that a minority will be harassed regardless of what he or she is driving.
        I live in a gated community. One Thursday night around 11:30 I had cleared the gate and had stopped at a stop sign to make a left turn.
        The cop pulled me over and told me I didn’t make a complete stop and he asked me for my papers.
        After he had returned my driver’s license, insurance card and registration he told me he thought I had stolen my newish SUV.
        Let that sink in for a moment. He knew that I owned the vehicle because he had just check my papers and ran my plates but he told me as an African American man just to make sure l knew my place.

      • Anonymous

        Really? You intuited that? You think he told you that to put you in your place? How about as an explanation? Like, a lot of SUVs have been stolen so we’re checking them at night more often. But no–you have to take it as evidence of oppression. Good luck with the rest of your cramped little life if you keep that up.

      • Why would he state that AFTER he had run my plates, seen my driver’s license, registration and insurance-all of which matched me as the driver and owner of MY SUV?

        Your post is nonsense because he never told me that other vehicles had been stolen.

        So GFY!!

      • ir: Maybe it would help if you don’t look at this as a “zero sum game”. Any privilege or disadvantage you may or may not have vis a vis anyone else does not have to mean things are better or worse for one of you
        But that is exactly how white racists in this country view everything.
        In the 1960’s southern whites felt as if they were losing their status if blacks were allowed to vote.
        Today whites in general believe that losing their majority to Hispanics/Latinos by allowing amnesty will relegate them to minority status and they will lose their privilege.

      • Anonymous

        No, it couldn’t be further from that. “Privilege” is a sword shaped to inflict damage upon people who have no connection whatsoever with slavery or Jim Crow, yet somehow need to be demeaned to satisfy the social justice warrior.

      • Gubra Lagima

        To me, your argument sounds like racism. I have less than you in every way, yet my skin makes me “inherently privileged,” so I’m meant to feel ashamed in some way because of a system that I’ve never witnessed or taken part in. Your skin color makes no difference to me when I make a judgement of your character, and it saddens me that mine matters so much to you.

      • Yohance35

        Ah, the classic “you’re racist for being aware of race” argument. I’m not saying your privilege is a bad thing, nor am I saying you are better off than me in every way. All I’m saying is you are inherently privileged in one specific way. And that is not an attack, or a fault, but merely something that should be recognized. If someone is more privileged than me in every other way except, say, they’re gay and I’m not, I may face more adversity overall but I will not be subject to homophobia like they will be. Therefore, I should give credence to their experience and recognize that it is not something I am forced to grapple with.

      • Trent Parsons (Xyele1234)

        So…privilege is inherent, according to you, but then it is contextual? The fuck

      • Yohance35

        Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying, actually. I cannot control, say, that I was born into a Chinese ethnicity. Contextually, though, in China that would make me the majority and give me privilege over minorities; in the context of United States, however, that makes me a minority and puts me at certain disadvantages over people in the majority.

      • Anonymous

        “Privilege.” The almost-perfect answer to the large number of people who have worked through the alleged systemic racism and succeeded in having regular middle-class or even more successful lives. How else do you explain people like Obama and deGrasse Tyson, to name just two?

      • Anonymous

        White people do not have to worry about being called racial slurs? I suggest to you that white people traveling through certain neighborhoods have the same odds of being hassled and called names as blacks traveling through certain white neighborhoods.

    • Every group that was disadvantaged in America at one point (Irish, Chinese, Koreans, etc.) has lifted themselves up through merit
      Ha,ha,ha
      Except that the Asians who are successful in America were at the top of the socioeconomic status in their countries before they came to America or their ancestors were.
      The Irish took several generations to improve their socioeconomic status and that only happened when Italians, Irish and other Europeans became ‘white’.

  • Anonymous

    Many SJW campaigns are more a specialized form of bullying than anything about justice. Take the latest Argus dustup. We have a list of demands for special treatment backed by threats. The aggrieved parties sound not unlike the mock victimhood the playground bully uses to justify his actions. And finally the disingenous claim that a boycott includes “disposing of copies of The Argus”, when this is clearly something to be imposed on other students. Bullying is a means of achieving social status and the feeling of being on top. Can anyone honestly say that this isn’t a major part of SJW culture?

  • 1Connman

    Racism comes in ALL colors!

  • df

    lol pls understand that radical=/=liberal. many of us out here don’t like the liberals as much as u do

  • General John Stark

    Probably the best thing I’ve ever read in the Argus. Very well done, sir. Excellent points top-to-bottom, and very well written. You’ve done Wesleyan and all its alums proud. Thank you.

  • h

    i agree with some of the things you said, but the fact that you’re using the term SJW kind of ruins this article. it’s a very “i’m a white male and don’t agree with these loud progressive women” term to use. also referring to women as “female”? really?

    i support free speech. but supporting free speech also means supporting the right for other people to call someone else’s speech racist/sexist.

    • Jim Prindle

      If you do not have “balls” , well you could be a “female” .

      However, a ‘ femnazi’ such as yourself, most likely glued on a pair during your Sophomore year just to fit in.

      If it’s just penis ENVY, any good strapon available today should do the trick!

      Which is to trick you into thinking you are not ” female” but something else.
      Please let us know what you’ve decided to become.

      • h

        dude… yikes. is this a joke?

      • h

        oh, never mind, going through your previous comments explains this.

    • Wyrdless

      As the author explained calling people names doesn’t work well

      Are you going to call him a msygonist for using the word female? Really?

      ……And don’t deny that you clearly implied that.

      It’s comments like that which make everyone dislike the SJW crowd

      Wesleyan students as a whole are being openly mocked in the national press in case you weren’t aware.

    • YES

      also referring to women as “female”? really?

      yes female. as has been done since time immortal. unless we are taking common words and turning them into devastating sexist barb wire words it’s perfectly acceptable

    • no

      it’s a very “i’m a white male and don’t agree with these loud progressive women”

      says who? you? you are mind reader?

  • this is stupid

    i fail to see how shutting down the argus contributes anything to racial equality.

    • Jacoban

      true.

      if you have a refute you use it and make it right. just saying shut up just makes it look like your arguments can’t stand up to scrutiny.

  • bwayjunction

    That was a thoughtful well-reasoned article which is why it is problematical. SJW don’t care about ‘thoughtful well reasoned ‘ anything. To them reason, facts, evidence and logic are just so much sound and fury. Their response: name calling. If ‘Black Lives Mattered’ they would not only be outraged by institutional violence committed against the black community but by (dear we speak of it) black on black violence. You are not going to be able to solve the one without solving the other. In my opinion of Black Lives Matter is a Jesse Jackson Al Sharpton hustle and it will be brought off and fade into obscurity.

    • bwayjunction: If ‘Black Lives Mattered’ they would not only be outraged by institutional violence committed against the black community but by (dear we speak of it) black on black violence
      That makes no sense but it makes you feel better if you conflate one with the other.

      Furthermore the black community is addressing black on black violence but isolated racists like you and the OP who criticized BLM don’t know enough about the black community except what they see on right wing tv or whatever.

      However the root causes of black on black violence are well beyond the control of the black community and is the result of the lack of jobs in the inner city which caused by the deindustrialization of American cities because low-skilled middle class wage jobs went away because American companies lost consumers to foreign companies and jobs were off-shored. Add to that trade agreements like NAFTA took even more jobs away from the inner cities and left them economic black holes which were filled with drugs and then came the War on Drugs which has sent a disproportionate number of blacks and browns to prison, and the list goes on.

      It’s hilarious when BLM challenges the biased justice system and the corrupt police force whites get all hot and bothered.

      What’s sad is that nothing has changed since the 1960’s when the police departments in the South were extensions of segregations who used dogs and fire hoses against the non-violent civil rights demonstrators to protect white live and property.

      • bwayjunction

        Where to begin?

        ‘That makes no sense but it makes you feel better if you conflate one with
        the other.’

        You can’t condemn one group of people oppressing you and ignore the
        other. If institutional violence were to disappear tomorrow, you
        still have the larger issue of black on black violence and how stop
        it. What are you going to do about it. Right now it gets a free pass
        because the ‘white man is oppressing me.’ The ‘white man’, ‘some
        man’, or ‘something’ is always going to oppress you. So what. In my
        opinion BLM is ill informed, ill advised, unlettered, run by a bunch
        armatures and in the end will be co-opted by ‘the white man.’ ,

        ‘Furthermore the black community is addressing black on black violence but
        isolated racists like you….’

        You proved the author’s point by engaging in an ad hominem , ‘racists
        like you.’ So now it’s my turn. What shall I call you, Trifling or
        Fool. I’ll use Trifling it rhymes ‘Lighting”. If you want to play
        the dozens, I can come up with some far more interesting names. Look
        Trifling, I’m black and grew up in Bed-Sty and if I understand the
        SJW’s hierarchy of power I can’t be a racist! Unless, of course you
        want to admit that a black person can be a racist?

        ‘However the root causes of black on black violence are well beyond the
        control of the black community and is the result of the lack of jobs
        in the inner city which caused by the deindustrialization ….
        BLAH,BLAH,BLAH…and the list goes on.’

        Trifling, Trifling, Trifling that’s a nice regurgitation of a bunch of books
        and articles you’ve read. If I understand we should ‘Lasciate
        ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.’ because it’s ‘beyond the control of the black community.’ I don’t think MLK or Malcolm would have agreed with that statement.

        ”What’s sad is that nothing has changed since the 1960’s when the police
        departments in the South were extensions of segregations who used
        dogs and fire hoses against the non-violent civil rights
        demonstrators to protect white live and property.’

        Trifling, lots of things have changed, You can vote for one thing. You need to spend some time talking to some old black people and let tell you
        what it was like then compared to now. It will straighten-out your…-oh, I can’t say that.

        Black on black crime is a serious issue and it needs to be addressed now by
        the Black community The author gave you a hint. You can start by
        reading Thomas Sowell. You won’t agree with everything he says, in
        fact, you won’t agree with most of what he says, but it’s a good place
        to start and make sure you read the footnotes.

      • “You can’t condemn one group of people oppressing you and ignore the
        other. If institutional violence were to disappear tomorrow, you
        still have the larger issue of black on black violence and how stop
        it.”

        That’s your uninformed opinion. The black-on-black violence that is occurring is mostly drug related and between people who know each other.

        Most middle class blacks like me don’t put ourselves in such situations and even though we are law-abiding have more to fear from the racist police state than we do from other blacks.

        “What are you going to do about it. Right now it gets a free pass
        because the ‘white man is oppressing me.’ The ‘white man’, ‘some
        man’, or ‘something’ is always going to oppress you. So what.”

        When a police officer can take a little boy’s life because he was playing with a toy gun in a park and some racist prick decided to ‘swat’ him instead of talk to him like a human being and the cop who shot him was declared incompetent and released by a previous police department then there is a systemic breakdown in law enforcement-from recruiting to training to disciplining officers.

        Maybe because I am not in drug gangs and I stay away from clubs and I choose with whom I associate carefully is the reason that I fear the police more than other blacks

        In my opinion BLM is ill informed, ill advised, unlettered, run by a bunch
        armatures and in the end will be co-opted by ‘the white man.’ ,”

        Wow a lot of ad hominems without any foundation. Can you throw in a few facts to back up your claims? Just a lot of angry name-calling.

        “Armatures?” You really should use spell-check but given the rest of your rant I’m not surprised that you just threw some slop together to impress your racist white friends.

        “You proved the author’s point by engaging in an ad hominem , ‘racists

        like you.’ So now it’s my turn. What shall I call you, Trifling or
        Fool. I’ll use Trifling it rhymes ‘Lighting”. If you want to play
        the dozens, I can come up with some far more interesting names. Look
        Trifling, I’m black and grew up in Bed-Sty and if I understand the
        SJW’s hierarchy of power I can’t be a racist! Unless, of course you
        want to admit that a black person can be a racist?”

        You sound like a self-hating black conservative like Ben Carson or Clarence Thomas who believes that they are that special Negro. LOL

        Keep believing that until they put you on the front seat of the bus.

        “Trifling, lots of things have changed, You can vote for one thing. You need to spend some time talking to some old black people and let tell you what it was like then compared to now. It will straighten-out your…-oh, I can’t say that.

        Ha,ha,ha. You claim that calling someone racist but your angry ad hominem.

        Maybe you haven’t been paying attention but since 2010 Republican dominated states have have made it more difficult for minorities and the elderly to vote. BTW schools are more segregated today than any time since 1968 so do please ask some old person who grew up during segregation and how familiar the rhetoric from Donald Trump sounds to them.

        “Black on black crime is a serious issue and it needs to be addressed now by the Black community The author gave you a hint. You can start by reading Thomas Sowell. You won’t agree with everything he says, in
        fact, you won’t agree with most of what he says, but it’s a good place
        to start and make sure you read the footnotes.”

        Why does black-on-black crime have to be addressed exclusively by black people and since you claim to be black no one is stopping you from addressing black-on-black crime, but you really don’t care about black-on-black crime. All you want to do is use it as a distraction from addressing the broken criminal justice system.

        BTW Sowell is another black who sucked on the tit of government and was able to get his education because he joined the Navy, but he doesn’t want other blacks to have that opportunity.
        I don’t need some white person to tell me what I need to read to understand being black from an Uncle Ruckus like Sowell because l live in my black skin every single day unlike you who claims to be black.

      • bwayjunction

        We can do name calling, whys, and wherefore Olympics all day. I stand by my opinion of BLM. Time will tell who is right or who is wrong. Who said black on black crime had to be addressed exclusively by the black community? I said the Black community needs to address it and not give it a free pass. Pick one problem. Tell us how you would solve it. Let everyone comment. So far the only thing you’ve done is to validate the author’s analysis? Here’sone example of what informed my opinion of the BLM. It should make you proud: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BnbwUT7lBg

      • bwayjunction

        Oh and let me know if there is anything incorrect from this site: http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2670

      • Anonymous

        As many have said: disjointed, incoherent, unavailing, and–yes–grossly prejudiced. And in this case, the added detriment of being long-winded.

      • So you have nothing to refute what I said so you attack with ad hominems .

        Good job deflecting.

      • Anonymous

        In the morning I will be sober, and you sir, will remain an idiot.

  • urbeingrudeandhurtful

    dude stfu already and go make millions as the republicans poster-gay. great life ahead of ya

    • Anonymous

      Yeah, stfu. Cuz, you know his opinion doesn’t count. You are an asshat.

  • Jim Scotts

    I am so sick and tired of hearing about white privilege and that minorities are at a huge disadvantage. The only true advantage is wealth! Those that are born into wealth have the privilege while those that are not have to work that much harder!

  • Laura Egendorf

    The problem with SJWs is that they think that because they are oppressed, they have the right to behave badly.

  • Anonymous

    What a wordy, immature , self righteous, little twit.

  • Dylan A-C

    You know, SJW is a purely derogatory term—nobody self-identifies as an SJW. I’m impressed that you managed to get 2200 words out on why SJWs should stop pointing fingers without dying from the cognitive dissonance. That’s more than a “slight hypocrisy.”

    If you don’t realize how important critique is for discourse and *critical* thinking then I have no idea what you think you’re doing at a university.

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