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Bearing the educational burden

By now, almost all of those reading this will have seen University President Eisgruber ’83’s campus-wide email regarding the recent social media explosions of former student group Urban Congo’s performance last week and of the student-led protest of rapper Big Sean’s upcoming Lawnparties appearance. Reactions to the email, naturally, have been wide-ranging. Many students took issue with the conflation of anger over Big Sean’s performance and anger over Urban Congo’s performance, pointing out that the two issues are so disparate that the email almost smacks of laziness. Some have also complained that the “objective” tone of the email gives legitimacy to those complaining about and publicly shaming students who have stated that they feel unsafe on campus. This, they would argue, tacitly endorses the notion that Princeton is unimpressed with the plight of students of color. Other reactions I’ve heard range from appreciation that the University actually acknowledged this issue to incredulity that people are taking Urban Congo’s performance so seriously.

Personally, I think that this email may have been, as one student argued in a Facebook comment, “a very political move.” The email played it very safe, vaguely supporting the debates “fundamental to the life of any great University” that spark from these “controversies.” This kind of noncommittal move seems to assume that those within the debates are on even turf, something that is impossible when students from one side of the issue are being verbally and anonymously threatened on Yik Yak. In a debate characterized by passion and ugliness and colored by subconscious racial biases, the cool, academic tone of the email didn’t particularly help the situation at hand.

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However, I do think the crux of Eisgruber’s email was entirely valid. As a white student, I’m admittedly not in an entirely legitimate position to unilaterally declare what the campus should do next, but I think Eisgruber is bang on the money when he quotes a University statement affirming that “fostering the ability of members of the University community to engage in such debate and deliberation in an effective and responsible manner is an essential part of the University’s educational mission.” Here’s the thing: if we are to ensure that something like Urban Congo doesn’t happen again, we must be able to communicate to those involved in organizations like Urban Congo what, specifically, about their actions was racist.

Although I believe that we all unintentionally hold some racist beliefs — conditioned by social norms to retain unconscious biases which then manifest themselves outside of our own perceptions — I really don’t think that anyone on this campus deliberately does so. Indeed, the overwhelming sentiment I’ve heard my classmates voice to those who have been most active on social media in denouncing Urban Congo is, “Why do people care so much all of a sudden?” Or, in other words, “I don’t understand why this is so offensive.” We — that is, people who do understand why this is so offensive — have to understand that the diversity in perspectives the University brings together inevitably means that some students haven’t yet become fully aware of the systemic racism that permeates our society. As someone who went through this process only a few years ago, I know it’s not easy to admit for the first time that America isn’t the kind of post-racial utopia some information outlets suggest it is. The experience of realizing that you — as a human — have socialized racial biases is a painful one in the beginning.

This is why I think it’s absolutely essential that we follow Eisgruber’s urging (however watered-down it may be) to engage our peers in the kind of tough interpersonal conversations that social media apps like Yik Yak tend to squelch. Eisgruber “implore[s]” us as Princeton students “to recognize the pain being felt by some members of our community.” In these discussions, we need to ensure that assertions of “This is how I feel” take precedence over assertions of “This is how you should feel.” This kind of openness goes both ways — some students have to be open to explaining in detail the kind of pain and sadness they’re going through, and some students have to be open to receiving the delineation of that kind of pain without making snap judgments about the people rendering themselves vulnerable in front of them.

Over Facebook, I’ve noticed that some students of color have referred to this education as a “burden.” It shouldn’t be up to us, they say, to personally explain to white students why their potential racial insensitivity can be so destructive. I agree with this sentiment to some extent. It’s absolutely not one student’s job, or even the job of a sizable group of students, to endure the arduous process of educating a privileged group about its privilege. However, I also believe that somebody or something needs to be able to provide that sort of education. I hate to conclude with what seems uncomfortably similar to a “Kumbaya moment,” a phrase some students have used to describe the email’s goal, but we — students who understand and are able and willing to explain why, exactly, people “care so much” about Urban Congo’s performance — need to be the impetus for changing people’s perspectives on our society. People won’t typically change their beliefs on their own – many stubbornly cling to their own parochial perspectives, as I do sometimes – and we need someone, if not absolutely everyone, to be able to provide the groundwork for that change. It may be a burden, sure, but it’s a burden that I believe all of us — not just people of one shared identity — must bear.

Will Rivitz is a freshman from Brookline, Mass. He can be reached at wrivitz@princeton.edu.

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