As a pre-frosh visiting during April Hosting three years ago, I was pleasantly surprised by the civic engagement I saw on campus. For the weekend of Take Back the Night and Fashion Speaks, Princeton students seemed to dispel the stereotype ...(back to the article)
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It's a shame you are more focused on spewing blather than using correct grammar.
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radical action spurs talking-- much more discussion than is happening here. (parts of) the country is engaged in a dialogue about friedman's views on energy because of the brown incident; columbia's activism spurred an intense campus debate about immigration. it's a shame our campus is more focused on eating club's than national issues.
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The minutemen shouldn't have been invited to the campus in the first place. They are blatantly racist and quite unhinged. But I agree with many of the sentiments below. One of the reasons the Frist Filibuster was such a successful demonstration was that, by it's very nature, it was about using "talk" in an organized and pointed manner. It was not physically disruptive but impressive in its growth, in the organizers stamina and PR-genius, getting us all to Capital Hill at the end. But I do think there's room for disruptive demonstrations in cases of clear racism and other forms of bigotry.
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Cindy is not advocating that Princeton students rush controversial speakers off stages, or throw pies in their faces and the like. She is warning against the culture of complacence that pervades the campus, which she aptly captures in her last thought: "When non-confrontational activism is the mainstream, is it really activism at all?" I agree that the use of force is definitely not a good or effective form of activism. However, the fact remains that there are less extreme forms of activism that could still be considered "radical" and would garner significantly more attention - and thus, awareness - than circulating pamphlets and petitions, and that Princeton is on the whole reluctant to use these methods. Amnesty International's reluctance to stage the water-boarding protest is a perfect example. Kudos to Cindy for this article.
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I second the previous comments. I feel very lucky to be at a school where the students are mature and level-headed enough not to resort to childish disruptions or even violence. I would feel ashamed if a speaker was rushed off the stage and not allowed to present his opinions, if someone was pied in his face, or shouted down. If you believe you are right and the speaker is wrong, you will get a chance to confront him in the Q&A after his talk. If, however, the best you can do is throwing sth in his face, then maybe your arguments/views are not that strong to begin with. Radical action is immature, childish, unpersuasive and, usually, tells you much more about the protester (and reveals him to be an idiot) than about the speaker.
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Boy am I glad I didn't go to Stanford, Yale, or Columbia. I am quite glad that my campus is full of people more level-headed than Cindy who realize that informed, intelligent debate and discourse is much more likely to be taken seriously than radical action. I would be mortified if the Minutemen came to Princeton and instead of students asking tough questions that pointed out possible flaws in their strategy, they rushed the stage. Talk may be cheap, but action without talk is childish.
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I abhor "activism" in all its strains. I like debate. I hate dialogue. Throwing pies at speakers, or forcing them from stages so that they can't speak is called hooliganism, it's not to be applauded, nor should we aspire to it as a campus. Yech. For the time being (at least) there's still some diversity between different educational institutions, I think that's a great thing.
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Of course! She's not really advocating physical confrontation, only pointing out and lamenting that others are better at it than Princetonians. I'm sure her attitude would be the same if a pro-life group of students forced a pro-choice speaker off the stage...
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sorry... wrong wording at 7am... meant to say, no mention of it winning an award and no discussing what a huge success it was.
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If you read the article, it definitely doesn't seem like CH is advocating forcing speakers off of the stage if their viewpoint is controversial or if you don't agree with them. She's pointing out much more active forms of campus activism... and re: Fact Check, she mentions it. Read much?
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No mention of the FRIST FILIBUSTER? It won "best protest of the year" from Mother Jones. Do some more research next time or I'll organize a boycott of yout columns.
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"When leaders of the citizens' border control group, The Minutemen, spoke at Columbia, students stormed the stage and forced the speaker off." Do you believe this to be a positive and valid form of protest, Cindy? To prevent an individual from speaking by use of force? Regardless of your political ideology, this is a disturbing and unsettling idea.
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another great column from cindy hong -- keep it up!
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