Oberlin's President Says No

MomOnALaptop
Sun, 24 Jan 2016 02:01:26 +0000

I think the activists are very young and struggling for a way to express the fear they feel in a world where social media is full of reports of what appears to be increasing racial bigotry and violence – but which, for the most part, they can’t fight because it’s far away and doesn’t really raise its head much in their daily lives. So a single guy shouting out a racial epithet becomes something that you don’t just shrug off as one jerk, but evidence of the tip of a fearful iceberg. And when you’re 19 and living in what is really a very sheltered and safe college world, what do you do to “do something”? I sympathize with the urge to make a stand. But how do you stand up against a dark mood in the country?

Maybe there are ways, and it’s not what they’re doing, which does seem like ridiculous over-reaction and tantrum throwing. But that’s part of what happens when you’re young. In years past, the immature way they’re expressing themselves (been there done that) wouldn’t have been Facebooked and re-tweeted ad infinitum; they’d have passed around their Xeroxed statements and grown up to be, well, Oberlin administrators doing their best to be inclusive in the real world. But there they are: 19, immature, worried, anxious, seeing a world full of increasing problems that you can’t tackle well from a college campus … so they come up with their “demands,” and in this case, the Oberlin president makes a response that’s just exactly right. The issues are real, or at least have a connection to genuine dilemmas and concerns; it’s the approach that’s off-base … and now bouncing around in the social media echo chamber / magnifying lens / intensification machine.