Outside the Science Center Friday afternoon I read this chalking: “If you don’t like chalking, don’t come to Wesleyan.” Now, I’m not an enthusiastic chalking supporter, and I am also not viciously opposed to it. But none of that matters in this case. I don’t like it when chalking, intentionally or unintentionally, creates an undemocratic environment, one that is fundamentally uncomfortable to certain types of people or identities.
I am almost sure that many of those people chalking are also those who would nominally support the idea of “ Diversity University ,” a place of learning in which all types of people are accepted— regardless of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation or political affiliation. I am also sure that those people chalking have defended the action as one that increases communication, rather than stifles it.
Nevertheless, the chalking that I, and that tour that walked by, just read, makes me uncomfortable. What if I didn’t agree with the idea of chalking? What if I find many chalkings offensive? To the point: chalking, a tool that could be used to further effective communication has instead become something that smothers debate. It does this primarily by intimidating more conservative pre-frosh who come to visit this campus.
Please understand, all you reading this Wespeak with pens in your hand ready to retaliate: the general idea of chalking is great. Chalkings like the one above ruin it. I don’t ever want, especially on this campus, to feel or know that someone else feels the need to keep his or her thoughts on anything uncomfortably hidden. (Yeah baby, first Wespeak.)
Leave a Reply