Karishma Mehrotra is a first-generation Indian-American and the former executive editor of The Emory Wheel. This opinion about the Trump chalkings does not reflect the opinion of the Wheel.
Almost two weeks after we woke up to “TRUMP 2016” plastered across our campus, we are still missing the point.
The national media extracted a story from Emory that they know little about, subsuming our student activists into the trope of the “hypersensitive college student” that has captivated those across the political spectrum for the past couple of years.
As we fall into the trap of justifying that narrative, we allow ourselves to ignore the very questions of race and difference these campus activists, who are predominately Black and Brown students, are raising.
To those of you who are reluctant to believe that structural and colorblind racism exists on Emory’s campus, my commentary is not for you. I will not be able to prove the pervasiveness of racism on this campus through one article. To those of you who support Donald Trump, this commentary is also not for you.
For the rest of us, we need to do the work of uncovering the story of race at Emory. We cannot allow a conversation that should be about racism be hijacked by a conversation about freedom of speech. We cannot blindly follow a shallow narrative fed to us by disappointing media coverage that misleads us to believe that all Emory activists are calling for the censorship of Trump endorsements. When we argue about the minutia of the recent events on campus and when we micromanage student activist methods and when we trivialize the moments that trigger campus unrest, we distract ourselves from the broader message struggling to rise to the surface. How can we begin to unfold how race functions on this campus?
Since the first Black student joined this community, campus activists have been calling for Emory to pay attention to the same conversation. Protests about symbols and language seem like overreactions when distanced and isolated from previous moments of racial controversy: our president’s column, the Dooley Show’s remarks, the Clifton Road protest and the buried moments outside of our institutional memory. Those moments are only the bubbles that sporadically rise to the surface.
But contemporary racial inequality is a daily fact. It’s seen in everything from a faculty that does not demographically reflect the student body to a Eurocentric curriculum; from the racial differences between Emory’s service staff and those who are being served to the weight of studying for exams while your Facebook feed endlessly fills with tragedies involving people who look like you in Chicago, Nigeria, Ferguson, Pakistan, Waller County, Charleston, Central America and even here in Atlanta. I cannot fully explain racism on this campus in this commentary, but as a person of color on this campus, I can say that I have felt like the “other,” I have been marginalized and I have come to understand that an integrated Emory is by no means a welcoming Emory. I can say that there is a story about race on this campus that we need to address.
****
Waking up to the name “TRUMP” scattered across campus was a symbol of this broader narrative. For many students, Trump is a real symbol of a country that calls for the deportation of their families, that bans people of your religion and that exhibits violence at political rallies. I suspect that this is only the beginning of the name being used as a symbol of hate.
We know that these students are not upset about just seeing the name of a presidential candidate. We know that they are not “afraid of chalk.” We know that Trump is not just another presidential candidate (or we will realize this when it is too late). Once we see that there is a visible connection between his name and the larger picture of racism, will we distract ourselves once again?
When we ask protestors why they are upset about what happened, we miss the fact that they are asking us to pay attention to something much bigger than any isolated incident. Racism is not always easy to point out, but that should not allow us to ignore those who are pointing to it.
Still, I often hear the argument that Emory’s student activists are unclear about their goals, that they place themselves in the position to be misconstrued, that their language is overly dramatic or that they should not run to the University president to combat racism. Let’s widen our historical lens: we now know that the Americans in the 1950s and 1960s who did nothing more but criticize the methods and goals of the civil rights era activists were on the wrong side of history.
If we wait for our students to find something less controversial to protest, if we micromanage their methods, if we complain about their actions, we permit ourselves to ignore them and we relieve ourselves of the moral anguish that comes along with understanding race. We sit back, and we wait for the solution to be served to us in a 10-point plan on a silver platter. We decide that we cannot ourselves do the work of understanding racism and white supremacy, and we ask for the messengers to do a better job.
Should we accept the unfortunate reality that the same people who need to hear the story of race on this campus have the choice not to care?
****
Campus activism never has and never will be easy, straightforward and widely agreed upon. That is not its purpose.
Activism is a student who struggles between caring for herself, studying for her test tomorrow and then taking on the burden to translate her racial experience into words and action for the broader community. Activism is searching for the purpose of your presence at a University that was not initially built to serve people who are like you. Activism is about the life-long, messy journey of figuring out your role in your institution in a struggle much bigger than any one of us or any one institution. Activism is about pushing the University to ask itself new questions about inclusivity, belonging and safety.
Campus activism will be messy, unclear and confusing. That often makes it easier to never completely ask or completely answer these questions. It is much easier to quash cries for justice than to imagine their roots and reasons.
The point is not the Trump chalkings. The point is not freedom of speech. The main core, the main point, the entire reason we are talking about this at Emory is racism.
Just because the message about racism may not always be clear or easy to understand doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do the work of understanding it. And distracting ourselves from that conversation allows us to pretend for just a little longer that racism doesn’t exist on this campus.
Karishma Mehrotra is a College senior from Cupertino, California.
2015-2016 Executive Editor Karishma Mehrotra is a College senior and has been interested in journalism since her freshman year in high school. Her major is journalism and international studies with an unofficial minor in African studies. She became a writer for the news section of the Wheel when she began college and became news editor that year. She has interned at CNN, The Wall Street Journal, the Boston Globe, USA Today, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Palo Alto Weekly and KCBS Radio. She studied abroad in Ghana last semester, which inspired her to join the African dance group on campus, Zuri. She recently worked as a tutor at the Writing Center. She is also a Dean’s scholar.
We–the people your are trying to silence and intimidate–have spent our entire lives being told we are “racist,” “hateful,” and that everything our culture has accomplished is tainted by evil. Your insults no longer matter. We no longer care about you, your feelings, or your alleged victim status. We are finally learning that you are nothing but weak, dysfunctional, fragile parodies of human beings who can accomplish nothing without the collaboration of a corrupted and politicized administration. Your time is finished. Tomorrow belongs to us.
This this this one hundred thousand times this.
“Tomorrow belongs to us” sounds like the slogan of white supremacists. Nobody is saying white people didn’t accomplish a lot. But if you think that the plantation owner gets all the credit for his wealth (built on the backs of slaves) I would find that highly objectionable. Also what is white culture? Just curious, as a white person
http://cdn.meme.am/instances/500x/58499916.jpg
It’s funny how you have these little snowflakes writing article after article about how no one but them really understands, but pretty much everyone over the age of 25 and a few years removed from college can’t help but shake their heads at how insanely naïve these children are. To the author of this piece, you will never be in an environment that is less “racist” than what you have on your college campus BEFORE any additional protests you may think are justified and/or required. Your professors and college administration are far more “sensitive” to your concerns than your boss and coworkers are going to be in the real world. Out here we all have problems, all races, religions, ethnic backgrounds, we all have real world problems that we struggle with daily. The stuff you think is a big deal in your brain so completely uncluttered by actual experience is next to meaningless. The sooner you start to get use to the idea the less shocked you will be.
Don’t worry, she is already angling for a position in some leading news organizations. In 10 years she will be a spokeperson for a democratic politician.
Simple stuff
D’s want to criminalize political opposition to D candidates, memes, and goals. University Administrations are doing all they can to help. Do you see it now? So, what are you going to do about it?
Not sure if these kids want a superior education or just to be relax. For 35k a year (maybe its higher now) I would assume I would want both. I believe there is nothing the administration can do about racism–there is neither a way to abolish it or to declare it totally removed from society a.k.a. the “post-racial society”. The only way to combat racism is with kindness. I believe that is something we’ve all forgotten.
This unrest is a direct result of affirmative action. Here’s how it works:
1) School admits minority students with lower test scores/GPA due to affirmative action
2) Minority students fail to keep up with smarter kids who deserve to be there on their merits.
3) Minority students notice that school support staff is primarily the same race as them.
4) Minority students become insecure due to academic and social inferiority.
5) Minority students become easily triggered due to low self-esteem.
6) Instead of blaming their own lack of initiative and intelligence, they lash out against the University with cries of “RACISM” as the reason they are not succeeding
Lather rinse repeat at colleges across the country. And it’s all because of affirmative action.
Or maybe there are systemic educational inequalities that affect minorities…
Don’t make me bust out the race/IQ studies for you, bruh. Those will really leave you triggered and violate your safe space.
Because drawing on eugenics is always a fantastic way to show that you’re not a racist…
Conflating the study of biological difference between races with eugenics. How edgy and original. It’s like you people are working from a checklist. Do you ever come up with anything new?
Sounds like God is the real racist, brochacho.
If you think that minorities are dumber than white people, you are scum of the earth with no scientific knowledge whatsoever and you embody the definition of racism. It also tells me you’re waaaayyy too dumb to get into a school like Emory and you waste your time populating the comment section of our newspaper.
And all that comes to you from a white person, thank you
Sorry science doesn’t confirm your narrative, bruh. No reason to resort to name calling. You’re probably one of the dumber whites.
Science absolutely DOES confirm my narrative. What you are arguing for is a Darwinian view of the races, also known as scientific racism. Don’t believe me? Google ‘Scientific Racism.’ And as a straight A science student at an elite university I will have to say I don’t think I am particularly dumb
You don’t seem to understand. You’re finished. We’ve heard all your excuses, all your disingenuous “arguments,” and all your word-salad gibberish that means anything and nothing. We now realize they were only ever smoke and mirrors. We no longer take you seriously. Here’s just one example of why, apropos of your social-studies nonsense statement about “muh systemic inequalities”:
“A second, somewhat surprising, finding is that more money is spent in districts with the highest percentages of minority students ($4,514 versus $3,920), holding other school district and community characteristics constant. This finding should be further explored by school finance researchers.” Source: NCES-95-300, National Center for Education Statisitics http://www.nces.gov
You’re staring down the barrel of your own demise as a movement and a social force. You and your freak coalition of misfits, professional victims, and racial extortionists are not only losing your grip on power, but have so alienated the typically sympathetic American populace that you will become a reviled and ostracized minority. Tomorrow belongs to us.
Just realized your avatar is a Waffen-SS officer, which puts your comments in a different light.
Are you really surprised the man writing “Tomorrow belongs to us” in the context of rebelling against modern racial dialogue is a neo-nazi?
Which have to be addressed much earlier than college both with additional financial resources and also with community support. While it’s not politically correct to put any of the onus on minority communities with worse education outcomes to try and change the culture around education within their own communities we know that this is a large part of the solution. How? Because the best students (on average) in the US aren’t white, they are Asian who are “brown” and often discriminated against in their personal lives yet, somehow, miraculously, they seem to do well in school – very well! Why? Because they have a tradition within their own community of valuing education, parents setting expectations for their kids, and they don’t have a cadre of people who make money off of racial conflict telling them that they can’t possibly succeed because the deck is stacked against them.
What you said. ⬆️
Or, MUCH more likely, the standards have been lowered for admission. The bar certainly has been lowered to graduate.
The system is no longer based on merit.
This is evidenced by what’s going on at Emory, and across the country.
I bet you got kicked off yik-yak???
Perhaps the real divide is that people who believe in free speech are finally tired of being relegated to the back-burner by people who are hijacking the real meaning of racism in order to quash the free speech rights of others. Chalking Trump 16 is not a racist act. The act of claiming that it is a racist act is the real insult here. Claiming that every slight, that every incident of bigotry is an act of racism is an insult to the people who struggle with real racism every day. It’s an insult to the people who bravely stood up against real racism every day. How dare you equate such moments as Rosa Parks refusal to move to the back of the bus, an act against very real racism, to college “activism” over such stupid things like chalking Trump’s name on campus.
Racism is not just about calling people names – racism is all about the use of power. The people who chalked Trump 2016 have no real power – at most they are bigots – and too often, people confuse bigotry with racism. I blame institutions of higher learning, like your own Emory University, for failing it’s students by not teaching them this difference. I also blame the media, including publications like yours, and the people who work for the media, for failing the people by watering down the meanings of words and not reporting factually and truthfully.
A store-owner kicking you out of his store because of your skin color is a racist. A customer at the same store who calls you a name because of the color of your skin is a bigot – he has no power to force you to leave the store (other than your own sensitivity and leaving would be your choice). Government requiring Rosa Parks to sit in the back of the bus is racism – a passenger voicing the ugly opinion that Rosa Parks should move to the back of the bus is bigotry.
I call on you, and your colleagues at the Emory Wheel to do a real investigation of racism on campus, rather than just calling everything you don’t like, or accepting at face value what other people try to call what they don’t like, racist. Go prove that there is actual racism on campus rather than just bigotry that you lazily call racism. Go find those professors that grade students of color lower because of race (and not academic standing). Go find those food service workers who give students of color less food than white students. Go find those administrators that treat students of color with less concern than white students. Go find those coaches that give students of color harder workouts simply because of the color of their skin. I challenge you to find stories of true racism on your campus and expose them for what they are – people using their power to obstruct, suppress, or otherwise diminish students of color.
And when you don’t find any evidence of it on campus, I challenge you to admit that there is no racism on your campus, but that there is bigotry on campus and that the administration, the faculty, the staff, and the students all face an uphill battle together to fight bigotry on campus and that it is unreasonable to expect any one group to take responsibility and fight bigotry alone.
I totally understand where the author of this article is coming from, saying that the Trump Chalkings are not just about a presidential candidates’ name being written all over campus, but are also reminders of racism that minorities and oppressed people feel in their daily lives. Nevertheless, the author clearly misses the mark when she says “we know that these students are not upset about just seeing the name of a presidential candidate. We know that they are not “afraid of chalk.” This quote is simply not true–the students who protested did feel triggered and upset–if there had not been the Trump Chalk writing, this protest would not have occurred! The author of this article needs to wake up and realize that just because you feel triggered by something doesn’t mean that you can cry racism and try to prevent its appearance on campus. You have every right to protest an ideology you disagree with, but you have no right to call Emory racist because you see in chalk the opinions of a tiny minority of the school.
Poor poor Karishma, having to deal with the awful racism everywhere as a “1st generation Indian-American” (got to get the oppression bona fides up front). Perusing her bio, you learn that she went to Monta Vista High School in California (78% Asian, 16% White, 0% black, hmmmm). The median house price is a a mere $1.5 Million; median income a bit north of $105K. But she is “upset at the tragedies of people who ‘look like her’ in Chicago, Nigeria and Ferguson” etc. But oh, brothers and sisters (sorry, inadvertent gendering there) she is OPPRESSED and felt like the “other” while living in one of the richest cities in the country, attending one of the priciest schools in the country, interning for CNN, WSJ, USA Today and travelling to Ghana.
So yes, Ms. Mehrotra, most people think you are a spoiled, entitled child who has been given far more opportunity than most in the country yet goes around acting like you are horribly oppressed by people writing in chalk. In fact, it seems to you oppression is a badge to be sought, not a burden to overcome; that you revel in your ersatz otherness, because perhaps, maybe the alternative is too horrible to bear; which is you stared into the abyss of the privileged only to see yourself stare back at you.
Emory 94L
Well said
You hit it spot on!
But she was forced to study abroad last year in Ghana! Not Paris or London…but Ghana! The poor marginalized child. I will pray for her despite the fact that, even as a first generation brown immigrant, she is a 1%er and more privileged than 95% of white Americans.
Karishma, this may be impossible for you to understand given your programming, but you are not oppressed. You are, in fact, very privileged. Extremely privileged – precisely because you live in a nation founded by post-enlightenment Europeans and which remains “Euro-centric”. You believe that being of Indian ancestry should grant you special consideration, but it does not and it SHOULD not. You and other minorities (like myself) have to compete in the market place of ideas through persuasion and through the use of reason. Stop infantalizing yourself. Shouting people down, running people out of campus, censoring speech in the name of [ insert here ], huddling away from dissent in “safe spaces”, does not make you progressive, it makes you regressive. Free speech is a value that has been hard fought. The regressive lefts vision of a world where ideological correctness trumps reasoned debate hearkens back to an age of darkness and violence to which everyone, PARTICULARLY minorities, should not want to revisit.
What Ernie said!
The idea that protesting against Trump and his ideas (if you aren’t familiar with them, stop reading this article and go read Trump’s actual quotes and beliefs) is considered more outrageous and threatening to minorities than Trump himself is pretty thick. If you don’t see how equating ‘Euro-centric’ to privileged is an argument against yourself, maybe you should do a little research
Instead of asking me to do “research” perhaps you should persuade me instead.
You are saying that we are privileged because we live in a “euro-centric nation,’ which equates euro-centric (white) with priveledge (good). And implicitly, equates non-European (presumably non-white) with bad. First of all, Europe has been a great destroyer of progress, science, philosophy, etc for centuries. I am not saying great progress hasn’t come out of Europe, but the only reason many European people came to America was because of religious and ideological persecution. Imagine being non-white and non-European in America, a ‘Euro-centric’ nation. That is called being a minority. Because the country caters to the ‘euro-centric,’ it reduces your experience, your culture, and your background, and puts you at a disadvantage to those who are ‘euro-centric.’ Understand?
Actually, you’re privileged because you, or your parents, have the means to send you to a $35,000 a year private school in Atlanta while most people struggle to be able to afford community colleges and state schools.
If you work hard and earn scholarships to get to a school that will cover your educational expenses, you are fortunate, but you have also earned it. Most low income students don’t pay the full price tag. That doesn’t erase their struggle or experience.
You’re so privileged you don’t have to accumulate hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt in the form of school loans like the white students? Lucky!
Yes, living in America, a Eurocentric place, is a great privilege you have through the random chance of birth. If you were born in central Russia, much of South America and most of Africa, you would greatly desire the many things that are the result of western civilization, that you enjoy and take for granted: Electricity that works 24 hrs a day, clean water, working sewers, disease free food available 24/7 at cheap prices, refridgeration, HVAC, rule of law, (relatively) corruption free government, etc etc etc.
I’m curious, do you have even a basic understanding of how these things even work? Why they work? Can you look under the hood of a car and identify the basic components? Do you understand how the operation of a modern car is founded upon 17th and 18th century science? Carried out almost exclusively by flawed European and Asian men.
A country doesn’t exist to make you feel good about who you are, including your culture and your background. its also the height of regressive left thinking to believe all cultures are morally equal and deserve the same level of admiration at the expense of the native Western culture. There is no intellectual justification for this. The only purpose for tearing down western culture to elevate a foreign culture is to make a foreigner feel good about themselves- it’s completely childish and belittling. Western culture and civilization, by almost any conceivable measure, has accomplished so much more than any African culture. To say otherwise is willful ignorance. Furthermore, even if you disagree with that statement it’s irrelevant. Western nations have every right to defend and elevate their way of life and their norms over others.
The problem isn’t that the students were protesting against Trump – the problem is that the students were protesting against the free speech rights of people who support Trump.
What makes those students look pathetic in the eyes of the “outside world” is that their complaints about “being triggered” by chalked words and that they now need counseling is laughable on it’s face, is insulting to folks like war veterans who can be truly triggered by something and face debilitating anxiety, and is insulting to people who have real mental health issues that need counseling that may not be available anymore because a privileged student is claiming a need for counseling because they saw the name (trigger warning for all you sensitive Emory types) Trump chalked on campus. When people think of students from Emory College now, they’re going to remember some students whining about the name (trigger warning again) Trump.
Sure. But the reason this is ridiculous is that the story is built on lies. No emergency counseling was offered. That was made up to fit a narrative that college students are weak. Nobody claimed to be triggered by Trump chalk. Nobody is afraid of the word Trump. What students were protesting was that somebody wrote Trump over 300 times, mostly outside of the Latino and Black student unions, with phrases like the ‘build the wall’, in spaces where it had to be hand washed, which is against university policy. Typically the university swiftly removes such chalkings when they violate university policy, but they did not do so when it was reported. Nobody has any issue with Trump being written on the ground, even though students do have the right to protest the man and his ideas being propagated across campus (freedom of speech and assembly). The reality is people like you don’t care about the true story, you just REALLY want to fit this narrative of the weak liberal student. Nobody sought counseling, however there is such thing as anxiety and stress directly stemming from being a minority in a threatening environment, and there has been extensive documentation of this leading to higher depression and suicide rates among minorities. Just because there are many severities of mental health doesn’t diminish each from receiving treatment.
This article doesn’t even make sense. Incoherent rantings about how chalk is racist.
I bet if I moved to India and got a scholarship to a university there, they would only have classes about the history of India. How racist.
Of course, NOBODY is moving to India to go to university. And I doubt they are handing out scholarships, especially not to non-Indians. Wonder why not?
If I were President Wagner, I would put every one of the protestors on suspension for the semester without hesitation. Emory is a private school, if you don’t like things here, feel free to leave. The college doesn’t owe you anything at all, and it’s clear that you are not taking advantage of the education they offer, as you would rather protest about others thoughts then form thoughts of your own.
Hi Cory. I assume you’re a big proponent of the first amendment. Well, protestors have that right too, so suspending them would be much bigger news than this protest. Also, you meant to use the word ‘than’, not ‘then.’ Education is great and that’s why we are here. You should try it too!
What don’t you understand about the concept of “PRIVATE COLLEGE”? The College and stop people from speaking, writing or protesting for any reason whatsoever or no reason at all. That’s the wonderful thing about “freedom of association” and that’s also why anti-white bigots hate it so much.
You mean like they can stop people from writing pro-Trump slogans? Look at the corner that you backed yourself into
The protestors are arguing that students do not have the right to support one of the nation’s leading political candidates. As a Trump fan, I feel marginalized that I can’t voice my opinions on my own college campus–a place that is supposed to foster diversity of opinion and belief. I may disagree with Bernie Sanders, but I have never tried to censor his supporters. The protestors’ attempts to stifle others’ free speech is egregious and should not be tolerated.
Nobody is stifling free speech… Nobody said people can’t anonymously write Trump in chalk at 3AM, much less openly support him in less cowardly ways. I’ve encountered several students openly supporting Trump here on our campus. You misunderstand what happened entirely. Granted, barely any college educated people support Trump because he is such a terrible candidate with such nonsensical economic and social policies, but the dialogue is definitely not stifled. You do risk being identified as unintelligent for supporting Trump, but that doesn’t violate any of your rights
This comment is demonstrably false. The protestors stormed Wagner’s office – why? Because they felt “unsafe” and wanted him to do something about it because they demand college to be a “safe environment”. What caused them to irrationally feel unsafe? Seeing Trump slogans. What did Wagner do? Sent an email denouncing the dastardly villains that chalked the name of a leading political candidate, pledged to provide a “safe environment” and to review security cam footage. He backed off this position in the face of global mockery. Happy to discuss further if the above is too complicated for you to follow.
I really get you Karishma. To distill your point, all White people are racist because the ethnic makeup up of the faculty at Emory University is not, as you allege, proportional to the racial makeup of the student body. There you have it folks. Racism defined. Do you even believe the completely nonsensical crap you wrote?
hahah u guys are really trying hard to justify the protest,
while it failed miserably.
and ruined our school’s public image.
🙂
Admit it, even the liberals all around the world laughed at you guys
Silly girl. How much more bigoted can you be to say that Trump’s name will soon be synonymous with hate? That is a truly despicable statement.
Several corrections.
One: Eurocentric curriculum is Eurocentric because the western (European) culture has been the doer and dominant one in the last 1000 years. Mozart, Copernicus, Voltaire, Marx, Disney all the way to bill gates are Europeans or of European decent. So are the 98% plus of science Nobel prizes. If you have a problem with that, then invent your own science and make your cultural contribution to the history of the world, just as relevant. Otherwise you are just envious and whining. It is not today’s white people’s problems or fault that was their ancestors were the ones who invented the telephone, airplanes and went to the moon. So stop the whining. Live with it or make something better.
Two: schools are for learning to become doctors or engineers or what have you. Not places for displaying phsychological traumas. If the social dynamics of the place are so traumatizing for you, then move to a psychological therapy center. I dealt with all agreement and disagreement in school, so when I felt depressed over stuff, I didn’t expect my Calculus teacher to serve as therapist. For those services I went to professionals outside my school.
Three: I’ve seen pictures of Jack the Ripper or Bounty or Hitler. Just because they were white too doesn’t traumatize me because “they look like me”. So draw a pair of two about your weakly soul being traumatized because Detroit or Fegusoon look like you. I mean, come on….
Four: sympathy from others come and go, but your problems are yours, not of the ones who serve you in the cafeteria. If it bothers you they are white, then move somewhere else where they are not.
Stop this nonsense.
White people: We destroy, ravage and steal eastern medicine, inventions, practices. We use crusades. We burn books. We deny science. We bleed people for their ‘health’. And then we say that we are the smartest people in the world.
Clarification: Nobel Prize was started by white, European men, and disproportionately awards and recognizes white men. Does this mean women and minorities are lesser? No.
Do you think that colonialism did a lot of good for the non-european world? Because that’s what it sounds like. Newsflash, everyone in the historical and scientific world disagrees.
You happen to know dozens of white and european philosophers and scientists. Wanna know why? Euro-centric society and education.
Are you equating individuals like Jack the Ripper and Hitler (certainly examples of ‘doers’ and dominant figures) to poor and oppressed people of Ferguson and Detroit? Do you not know what structural racism is?
I could go on and on with the issues in your arguments
Colonialism did both, a lot of good and a lot of evil. How do you measure one against the other? Would the world be a better place if no colonialism ever occurred? What would the world look like now if that was the case?
Well for one, we wouldn’t have destroyed progress in Africa, so they probably would be a lot further off. We wouldn’t have killed 20+Million native americans, so they would probably be better off too. Not saying good didn’t come from it, but hailing the white man and the European as the savior doesn’t make any sense to me, and I’m FROM Europe. First-gen immigrant from Germany
MREStudent – I believe you need to engage in some critical thinking, beginning with gathering the basic facts. For one moment, put your pre-conceptions and bias’s aside. To begin, take another look at your population estimate for native indians. The number is much closer to about 2 million, the majority of those perished due to disease. When you talk about Europeans destroying African “progress”, do you even know what you are talking about? Do you understand that northern Africa had already been colonized by Muslim Arabs prior to Europeans? Do you understand that life-expectancy and mortality rate sky rocketed in Africa after European colonialism? Did you know democracy, rule of law and individual liberty were completely foreign concepts in Africa prior European colonization? Gather the facts, analyze them, think deeply – let go of your programming and try to come up with an original thought on these subjects.
You just don’t get it, do you? Your bluff has been called. Nobody is buying your pseudointellectual gibberish about evil white people anymore. Nobody is afraid of your fingerpointing and accusations of racism. EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES. People of Europe and their genetic and intellectual heirs are responsible for overwhelming majority of civilizational gains. Deal with that.
“You happen to know dozens of white and european philosophers and scientists. Wanna know why? Euro-centric society and education”
This is priceless. MREStudent, you are gloating about your own ignorance about the people that shape the world around you. Let me ask you, what type of medicine do you use? Who invented the technology you use from day to day? I am sure you don’t shop around for products that are untainted by white inventors. When you turn on the light, or pick up a phone, it does not make you morally superior that you do not know who invented these amazing things. It makes you ignorant – and apparently you are happy about it… jee wiz.
“We destroy, ravage and steal eastern medicine, inventions, practices. We use crusades. We burn books. We deny science. We bleed people for their ‘health’. And then we say that we are the smartest people in the world.”
It seems you have been hoodwinked into believing the West invented war and privation, when in fact, it is only because of the West that a level of peace and prosperity can be enjoyed. However, in order to learn that, you would have to rely on facts and not sentiment. The sooner you let go of your sentiment that all people should feel that their histories and cultures are equal (which is not so, not by a long shot), the sooner you will be able to take off the blinders and see things for what they are.
Final notes – 1) European colonialism, on a balance, was better for the rest of the world than it was for Europe. 2) Crusades, completely justified – it was blowback against centuries of murder and aggression from Muslims (however, in your estimation, Christian lives are not worth much, I am presuming)
Oh please enlighten us on the pictures of Jack the Ripper you’ve seen – where can we find them since it will solve a mystery well over 100 years old?
I can recommend a safe space for those “traumatized” by Trump in chalk. Bagram Air Force base, Kabul, Afghanistan. While you are traumatized by seeing Trump in chalk, there are US soldiers your age who have to face threats from Al Qaida, Taliban and IEDs every day. Spoiled twits
Is your recommendation that since there are people suffering somewhere, all people with any grievances should subject themselves to that or shut up? So when you complain that its too hot out, I should tell you to shut up because there are poor people in Africa living in 110+ degree weather? Or if you say you’re hungry I should remind you that people are dying of starvation? Or if you have a headache I should remind you that millions of people have Alzheimers or some other disease? Try to use proper arguments next time
You mean proper arguments like yours where instead of addressing the point, you attack the poster? You man those kind of arguments?
Herb has a great point about perspective here and all you can do is belittle it. Perhaps the problem is he didn’t sound-bite it. So ok, here’s the sound-bite in response to the protests: Sounds like a first world problem to me.
Sure. It is. So is access to healthcare. So are most issues dealt with at colleges and universities. My point is that these issues are still issues. The response of most people to this scenario is “wow these students are so weak! They should be taking bullets like soldiers or live in countries with real problems.’ Just because these issues are first world problems doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do anything to solve them
How do you “solve the problem” of the fact that some college students support a different presidential candidate than you do? Re-education camps, or do we just kill them outright?
You’re missing the point.
It’s not that anyone should be taking bullets as you say… it’s about the fact that these children, these snowflakes don’t have any real problems and that they were only in self imposed “pain”. They were being kindergartners.
Everyone has problems, John. You don’t know a single one of them, so I think it’s about time you return to your real life.
Yeah, I’ve never been a college student during turbulent times. I don’t know anything about it. REALLY?
C’mon. You’re being intentionally pedantic?
So the threat of deportation for undocumented students and muslim students from abroad isn’t a real threat worth protesting?
My brother, you’re confusing the message with the action.
No one is downing the protester’s message as much as they are downing the ACTIONS they took.
Don’t confuse the two.
My point is that, since these actions have been confused by the media, it is really people like you who are misunderstanding the protests. http://www.snopes.com/emory-students-trump-graffiti/
Oh, NO. Doesn’t fly. Heard all that before. And from people who “were there”, actual students.
Too many direct quotes from the protesters themselves and from the school’s newspaper.
Heard all that before.
Based on MREs posts, I’m convinced he’s a Trump-planted troll to make anti-Trump SJW Emory students who went directly to an authority figure to shut down the speech of those with whom they disagree look even more ridiculous. I advise not to feed the troll.
And as people know, SJWs are not interested in either.
These days, nothing would surprise me either way.
And to put it in perspective, did you know 14,000 children died TODAY of starvation? Yet the snowflake protestors who are receiving a $30,000 to $60,000 yearly education find themselves abused and in pain by chalk writing (“racial quota imbalance”). Get a life!
so I guess seeing some stuff in chalk is equvalent to starvation or Alzheimers disease. Doesnt speak too well for an Emory education. Good luck getting a job when you graduate, there is already a large oversupply of whiners
Already have signed an offer (from several options) to do finance for $110K a year. But continue to enjoy the narrative you want to fulfill
Good for you. Hope you don’t get fired when a team member disagrees with a position you take and you attempt to report them to higher-ups for “microagressions”. Hint: it won’t go well in the real world.
Why would I literally ever do that…
Hopefully (for you), you won’t.
But the whiners at Emory have done nothing to help real Emory grads and student look good upon the world stage.
If I were an Emory grad, I would be quite unhappy with the chalking whingers for embarrassing the school.
Doesn’t bother me at all. Most of the world has let this get under their skin, and it has triggered a national outrage full of angry, hateful shaming of a handful of young people. The unreasonably disproportionate reaction wasn’t the protestors’, it was the thousands of people posting so aggressively on articles like this, saying that our democracy is coming to an end and hailing neo-nazi ‘anti-white racism’ complaining.
Nope.
Just shaming a bunch of snowflakes who don’t know anything about real pain (they weren’t in any) and worst of all,
they were trying to suppress views they don’t like and worked to suborn the school administration to do the same.
That’s the issue here. And they got what they deserved. Derision for being totalitarian snowflakes.
Didn’t realize a handful of 18-20 year olds could get such a strong reaction. Too bad it’s always a negative response, rather than anything constructive
I would agree.
Too bad they chose to complain about something the rest of the world would simply either ignore or speak out against by talking rather than “being in pain” and trying to suppress opposing views.
People with real life skills wouldn’t have made such a stink.
I would agree. Retreat to your SAFE SPACE I say!
I’m triggered by your use of the word “trigger” in that context.
Well it looks like education is already wasted on you
You used the word “trigger.” “Trigger” is a trigger word for me. Are you micro-aggressing again?
You literally didn’t use literally correctly. You have succeeded in devaluing my Emory degree yet again. Thank you.
you’re welcome
hope your employers like whining
Enjoy your full time position as internet troll
oooh, that was microaggression. I need a safe space
Waaaaaaaaaaah
Wow….nice. I’m sure you paid your whole way through too.
I think he’s referencing that there are far greater degrees of oppression and injustice elsewhere in the world, so your choice to focus energy on something as arbitrary as something written in chalk is pretty ridiculous.
Mrestudent, I’ve read your postings. You accused someone here if being a troll– you’re the troll on here. And, you come across as an anti-white bigot. Just calling it as I see it.
Hopefully white people are now beginning to see how much of a threat that whinorities pose to America and the freedoms we love and which our fathers and brothers died for. These hateful, bigoted anti-white racists are now openly admitting their their ideology is incompatible with the Constitution of the US and the freedoms afforded thereby. What that means is that these people are bona fide “domestic enemies” of the American people and should be dealt with accordingly.
“how much of a threat [minorities] pose to America and the freedoms we love and which our fathers and brothers died for”…YIKES. And then you try to say that ‘bigoted anti-white racists’ are the problem. Lets deal with real racism in your first sentence before we deal with fake ‘racism’.
Please go back to your “safe space”, conjure up a substantive response. Then wait. When you are called upon, you may be allowed to re-enter the discourse.
When can we talk about the “structural black racism” of Nigeria? When can we talk about the “structural Hindu racism” of India? When can we talk about the “structural Han racism” of Chinese society? When can we talk about the “structural anti-Christian racism” of Israel and the Muslim world? WHEN?
Go for it. Talk about it. Read about it. Does one racist structure justify another? Are you suggesting that it is natural or fair for us to be racist or support structural racism? The argument you are employing is distraction. Its like running to a murder crime scene and yelling ‘can we just stop and talk about all the other murders going on in the world?!’ instead of trying to solve the one at hand
So if racism on college campus is like a murder, why is it so hard to show us the body?
It seems that the more people at Emory try to do whatever this is, the deeper in the quagmire they get.
What ARE they “teaching” at Emory anyway?
We need to bring Milo Yiannopoulos to speak on our campus!
Methods do matter.
“we now know that the Americans in the 1950s and 1960s who did nothing more but criticize the methods and goals of the civil rights era activists were on the wrong side of history.”
Not really. The protesters of that era where not all the same. Their goals and methods were not the same. If you mean the protesters practicing non-violence and advocating room at the table for racial minorities then yes, history went their way.
People who were protesting for the violent overthrow of the government, I think you have a harder case to make.
So no, not all methods and goals were ‘validated’ by history. Not all methods and goals currently possible would be justifiable either.
Yes, people can use the messiness of activism as an excuse to ignore issues. It is an unfortunate reality. But does that mean that people should automatically support any protester?
The protesters at Emory took an instance with uncertain motivations, were immoderate in their interpretation, were immoderate in their reaction, and tried to interrupt free speech.
Their behavior undermined their message. It called their judgement into question. The author states that “I can say that I have felt like the “other,” I certainly won’t question the author’s feelings, but the reasonableness of those feelings is open to question. If the author was part of the protests the other week then that reasonableness is automatically suspect. Because she would have shown herself to be capable of poor judgement.
When a whole lot of people tell you that you overreacted it may just be possible that you overreacted. That may or may not matter to the protesters, but their overreaction makes it easy to dismiss them, their views, and the basis of their views.
With the call to not distract oneself from the issue there can be a legitimate call to do better when protesting.
The fact that so many Emory students (among others) are so staunchly
trying to defend the indefensible actions of these petulant, whining
child-protesters is testament to just how coddled these people really
are. Indefensible because their main goal was to suppress. Plain and
simple.
They think they’re special little snowflakes and that
“their” experience is somehow unique and that others “just don’t
understand their pain” shows just how protected and sheltered from the
real world they really are.
They’re in for one really rude awakening.
Unfortunately, it is not their failing alone. They have intentionally been failed by the “progressive” university system. Half of these university students are illiterate in basic subjects of human knowledge – history, philosophy, science, literature etc. They have no foundation upon which to form their own ideas and challenge assertions of fact made by their Marxist inspired professors and curricula. The Univeristies have to be torn down, classical education must make a resurgence.
I agree completely!
oh god “a eurocentric curriculum”…. the horror, the terror.
https://youtu.be/JGOwpWptt18
From Mehrotra’s own words:
“For the rest of us, we need to do the work of uncovering the story of race at Emory. We cannot allow a conversation that should be about racism be hijacked by a conversation about freedom of speech.” AND “Just because the message about racism may not always be clear or easy to understand doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do the work of understanding it. And distracting ourselves from that conversation allows us to pretend for just a little longer that racism doesn’t exist on this campus.”
If Free Speech is the mechanism by which the so-called conversation about racism is crushed, as the cartoon shows, then the conversation isn’t a very healthy one. Indeed, “conversations about racism” percolate any time one of our darlings of nascent hyper-sensitivity feels “othered”.
Since we all have that feeling from time to time, it is a personal matter for the counselor’s office, not the University President. Besides, these racism-catharses have been ongoing, non-stop since before I attended Emory in the 1980’s. What they have evolved into are ill-defined fits–at best, conversations about conversations of ill-feelings that do not stand up to any logical scrutiny. As Mehrotra proves in her own words, she can’t even explain it.
You see, since neither she nor anyone else can explain the anxiety leftists feel when threatened with a good old argument, free speech has got to go.
Good luck with that “conversation”, Ms. Mehrotra. Even in the left-leaning Emory Wheel you have failed to “do the work of uncovering the story of race at Emory” you claimed to be interested in.
What a childish, ignorant, and self absorbed rant.
I am more concerned about the attack on free speech and dialogue, in the name of addressing the specter of racism that allegedly exists at Emory, that these protesters are embarking on their broad brush witch hunt against supposed evils and intolerance.
Yes, it’s showing tolerance by being especially intolerant of whatever THEY say does not CONFORM to Emory values.
Right. Intolerance and conformity–a fine summary of the protesters’ methods and mindset.
Great thoughts by Rushie… On Emory’s campus a year before this recent chalk craziness.
“To put it simply, the defense of free speech must begin with what offends you” !!
http://news.emory.edu/stories/2015/02/er_salman_rushdie_lecture/campus.html
Also here is an article
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/page/ct-trump-emory-salman-rushdie-political-correctness-page-perspec-0406-jm-20160405-story.html
If the special snowflakes didn’t want the story to be about their hypersensitivity, they shouldn’t have wailed (as reported by the Emory Wheel) “you are not listening! Come speak to us, we are in pain!” over some completely harmless chalk marks.