Alumni, faculty respond to BJL sit-in

The recent sit-in protest led by the Black Justice Leaguehas resulted in divided opinions among alumni and faculty, with some praising the efforts and others denouncing them.

There has been opposition to the protest expressed not only in online social media forums, but also through a counter-petition with over 1,300 responses and an alumni petition with 35 supporters.There is still support for the protesters in theoriginal petition with nearly 1,000 signatures.

On Friday, professors in the program of African American Studies wrote a faculty lettersupporting the protesters. As of Monday, the letter had 95 signatures fromfaculty in many departments across disciplines.

The 12 original signatories of the faculty letter either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment.

However,Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences H. Vincent Poor GS ’77 said that not all departments were aware of or represented in the letter.He noted that he had not seen the petition, so it’s likely that other faculty members didn’t either.

He said that a number of departments from which faculty haven’t signed include economics, math and physics.

Many alumni also expressed mixed opinions on the goals and method of the protest.

Briallen Hopper GS ’10 said she is inspired by student protesters who force students, alumni and faculty alike to reckon with past and persistent racism on campus.

“Whether or not his name is removed from its schools and buildings, Princeton needs to start being honest about how damaging Woodrow Wilson’s racial legacy has been,” she said.

According to Hopper, the matter is not simply that Wilson had racist views, but that he pursued an openly racist agenda. He was adamant about maintaining segregation at the University and reinstated segregation in U.S. federal offices at a time of widespread racist violence and powerful anti-racist protest, not unlike our time, she said.

“Unfortunately, most Princeton students don’t know that in living memory Princeton was a segregated university in a segregated town,” she added.

Get the best of ‘the Prince’ delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe now »

The history of hate, isolation and betrayal continues to haunt every space in the town and every space on the campus.

“Too many Princetonians want to love Princeton with an uncomplicated love. The Black Justice League is teaching us that we need to foster a different kind of love for this institution,” she said. “They want us to cultivate a conscious, awakened, fiery kind of love that refuses to whitewash the past; that refuses to settle for less than justice and respect for everyone.”

Clarissa Hayward ’88, political science professor at Washington University in St. Louis and author of “How Americans Make Race,” noted that the nation was founded on slavery, racial segregation and white supremacy. If people do not want to publicly honor racists, it is necessary to change the names of several buildings, she said.

“Although in many cases we should continue to learn from the intellectual contributions of self-avowed racists — an example being Kant, whom I teach regularly — there is no reason we can't continue to do that while no longer publicly honoring them,” she noted.

Ebony Slaughter-Johnson ’15 said that she saw BJL’s protests as expanding upon the active response to racialized police brutality at the University last fall. As racial injustice has become a greater part of the national dialogue, students have become inspired to localize that discussion within the University.

She was most fascinated by the responses to BJL protests, which she would characterize as ones of both downright anger and misunderstanding. Slaughter-Johnson believes that the labeling of BJL’s goals as “radical” is misguided, as several peer institutions have implemented cultural diversity training and affinity housing without controversy.

“As an African American student at Princeton, I was always aware of the covert racism hidden within microaggressive comments, but I never realized how quickly and easily those microaggressions could become overtly aggressive expressions of racism,” she said.

She noted that many comments posted by University students on social media, especially those telling unhappy students of color challenging the status quo to leave, were disturbing.

“During my four years at Princeton, I heard, understandably, about the extensive contributions Wilson made to the University, but not once were Wilson’s contributions to the racial hierarchy at Princeton and beyond mentioned in tandem, as they should have been,” she said.

When students of color see “Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs,” she saidit is with the understanding that the University is glorifying a man who was responsible for further entrenching the racial disparities within the country, which are felt to this day.

The awareness can be triggering, she added.

“As for the anger inspired by the renaming of the Woodrow Wilson School, renaming does not necessarily mean erasure,” she said. “I cannot speak for the Black Justice League, but I believe that the intent behind asking that the school be renamed is to have the University rethink its blind glorification of Woodrow Wilson.”

However, Darren Geist ’05, a Wilson School alumnus and winner of the Spirit of Princeton Award for human rights work, started an online alumni petition Sunday as a letter to University President Christopher Eisgruber '83, disagreeing with his choice to sign the agreement with BJL protesters.

He said it was a difficult choice to oppose Eisgruber because he had been his mentor and thesis adviser. However, when it came to the school he still loves, he said he felt that he personally had to do something.

The petition, “Preserve Princeton’s Commitment to Academic Freedom, Pluralism and Civil Discourse,” was written in part because Geist said he believed that BJL’s position should be engaged head on and countered substantively, he explained.

“I think there’s an unfortunate tendency today to want to silence opposing voices rather than embrace free and open debate,” he said.

Geist added that he wanted students who oppose BJL’s demands and tactics to know that they have the full support of University alumni.

He noted a tendency at many universities today to shortchange discussion and debate with accusations of racism and bigotry, using intimidation and bullying rather than persuasion. He explained how after drafting and publicizing the petition, he was accused of wanting to keep “uppity” people in their place, implying racist motivations on his part. When counter-argument is immediately met with accusations of bigotry, free speech becomes much more difficult, Geist said.

On BJL’s sit-in protest, he noted that the approach seems to be at odds with the best in the civil rights movement. Instead, it seems more in line with radicalism as in Malcolm X’s approach, which tends to devalue dialogue and people of all colors working together toward the same end. Disagreement in tactics and goals is healthy, he added, but he believes BJL is on the wrong side of it.

“Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would never have entertained the idea of saying that someone couldn't understand his argument or that it was useless to debate and enter into conversation with those he wished to persuade,” he said. “He would have made the best argument possible, engaging anyone and everyone, and he would have won the day.”

Geist said he is no stranger to human rights work, having worked for UNICEF in Sierra Leone and also winning the Vanderbilt Medal for human rights work at NYU Law. As someone who cares about human and civil rights, he is wary of any approach that looks like regression, as in the case of separate designated areas for marginalized people. King worked to end segregation, and this proposition seems to hurt the civil rights movement, he said.

He added that the goal is to make everyone safe everywhere, not to cut off certain areas at the exclusion of others. Students make an effort to include and respect classmates, and designation of a “safe space” implies that those excluded students necessarily pose a physical or emotional safety risk.

“By saying these safe spaces are unnecessary, Princeton students are affirming their commitment to making all of campus safe for everyone,” he said. “It actually challenges each student to make Princeton a safe, welcoming environment rather than saying safety is found in separation and exclusion.”

Geist added that BJL does not speak for all or even most marginalized or victimized peoples, and it is troubling that Eisgruber partially adopted the perspective of the most vocal and disrespectful group that broke the University’s rules.

“Princeton should be teaching its students how to engage in respectful, constructive debate because they will need it when they become professionals,” he said. “Princeton is doing a disservice to its students by caving to such tactics.”

“I think the administration was wrong to accede to any demands during the BJL’s occupation of school property,” he said. “The school has effectively excused and encouraged students to violate the rules and thereby shortchange civil discourse.”

However, he said that the University is right to carefully weigh BJL’s concerns, where both sides of the argument can be heard. The petition letter was directed at Eisgruber in particular because he has stated that he will personally recommend some of BJL’s demands, including the designation of four rooms for particular minorities and the support for the removal of the Wilson mural in Wilcox dining hall.

“I disagree with his decision to throw his weight behind what we know to be controversial demands, prior to consulting the rest of the University community,” he said.

Although Geist said he disagrees with BJL’s proposals, he supports their right to make those arguments. Civil disobedience is inappropriate when there are other means of recourse, he adds.

“Perhaps more importantly, I hope this petition reminds the University that the Princeton community is much larger than the students who occupied President Eisgruber’s office,” Geist said. “We hope that the administration thinks beyond the demands of these students and consider Princeton’s long and storied legacy of academic freedom, open discourse and respectful disagreement.”

He said that he was not against the idea of protest as a means of effecting change, explaining that he was involved in the 1978 protest to make the University divest from South Africa, which was crucial in ending Apartheid and change lives across the globe. However, he said, the BJL protest had come from the students' own narrow perception that they were being discriminated against.

“As a black student attending Princeton in the mid 70s, I can say with authority that you are marginalized only if you want to be,” Gregory said. “All this self-righteous victimization display is appalling and has no place in such a welcoming institution as Princeton.”

He added that while he did experience racism and discrimination during his time at the University, it was rare.

Mike Devine ’62 argued that “black” should not be in the name of any University organization — nor should “white,” “tall,” “bald,” “protestant,” “female,” “old,” or any other identifier that treats Princetonians as anything other than individuals. Although he said he has not met any of the protesters, he is sure that if he did, identifiers would not influence his opinion.

“[The University] has gotten itself wrong-faced on this by failing to oppose — indeed, encouraging — the grouping of people on campus according to superficial and irrelevant characteristics; whatever happened to judging by ‘the content of character,’ and only that?” he asked.