I’m at my wit’s end with this campus regarding the whole Traverse Square fence ‘issue’ (and yes it’s a fucking FENCE). It would be lovely and convenient to pretend/believe that putting up a ‘railing’ between Wesleyan and Traverse Square is just not a big deal – it’s just a little four foot high fence, right? First off, it’s only four feet high from the Wesleyan side – it’s SEVEN feet high from the T-Sq side because of the existing three foot concrete retaining wall – but of course no one has stopped to consider what it would look like form the T-Sq side.
This fence IS inextricably linked to serious issues of race/class/power in Wesleyan’s 30-year history of being neighbors with T-Sq. I can’t even begin to describe/list all the various incidents and acts that I know of which have characterized this history, suffice it to say Wesleyan has been racist, classist and elitist toward the T-SQ community for the past three decades.
Case and point, the idea put forth in last Friday’s editorial that “Few residents of Traverse Square seem to be upset by the construction.” This is the thing that has truly put me over the edge – the idea that anyone at Wesleyan knows how people in T-Sq feel about anything is beyond ridiculous and truly a symbol of the warped power dynamic at work. I have been working in Traverse for almost four years, I have developed some pretty strong relationships with some community members but I would never dream that I could speak for the community and tell you all how they feel. Not only can I not possibly have a full understanding of it, but even if I could understand, it’s not my, nor any other Wesleyan student’s place to speak for them. Last Friday’s editorial was only one of a dozen times I have heard Wesleyan students expressing this sentiment on behalf of T-Sq residents in the past two months. For another example, check out the first article regarding the filled-in stairs in which a couple community members were quoted. To think that a Wesleyan student can wander into T-Sq and ask questions of people for the student newspaper and get honest answers is to completely ignore and be insensitive to the power dynamic at work. As far as I know there has never been any attempt to create safe space for T-Sq community members to express how they feel about Wesleyan. Considerable work will be required to de-power Wesleyan in any dialogue that will be opened between Wesleyan and T-Sq if we truly want to hear the experiences/feelings of T-Sq community members.
And before this Wespeak touches off any noble ideas of community building with T-Sq, let me first say that we can’t start building community without first shutting up, listening to what community members have to say and then taking a long, hard look at ourselves and how we function in the community. T-Sq residents might not even want Wesleyan students in their neighborhood ‘building community.’ Wesleyan can’t use and abuse its neighbors for thirty years and then suddenly one day walk into the neighborhood expecting people to be thrilled that we have now chosen to build a community with them.
Lastly, let me just clarify that the main objective of the after-school program in T-Sq is NOT to improve relations with T-Sq. The main objective is to provide parents and children in the neighborhood with a service of their choosing. I am not going to lie to people and tell them Wesleyan is really great and really cares about them when it doesn’t. If Wesleyan continues its utter disregard and disrespect of its neighbors our program will not be encouraging anyone from Traverse to respect the Wesleyan community. As we are always trying to tell the children, you have to give respect to get it.
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