Jim Earle sent out an email to the entire campus on Monday, March 31, at 1:53 in the afternoon. It was an email that I never expected to get, at least not here and not now. Perhaps I was being naive but here in this place, where we are all so lucky to be so highly educated, I did not expect bigotry and ignorance to find us here, especially not in the year 2008. Five instances around campus of swastikas drawn on walls and an anti-Semitic phase on a desk, this is horrifying because the truth is that one is too much.
Rather few people at this school would openly admit to being anti-Semitic, racist, sexist or homophobic but that doesn't really matter. It's not enough to simply not be a bigot. Jim Earle, in his letter to the community, called the perpetrators of these acts "cowardly and hateful," but I think it's the rest of us who are cowards. These things have happened because we let it happen, somewhere along the way these people learned that it's ok to do this. We as a community, as a society, as educated citizens of the world have a responsibility to correct this misguided, verging on sociopathic belief.
This problem has an answer and it is both the hardest and the easiest thing you will ever be asked to do in your whole life. It's easy because you don't have to change your routine, you don't have to join a march or sign a petition. It is the hardest thing in the world because you have to stand up to your friends, family, peers, co-workers and that stranger at the party. It's easy to pat your self on the back and tell your self you've never written a swastika, its not so easy to tell your dad, that the "black" joke he just told was unacceptable, it's hard to tell your boyfriend or girlfriend's family who you really want to make a good impression on that it's not ok to say "fag," and its not easy to tell your friend that it's not ok to draw a swastika.
My friends know that it's not ok to make comments like the ones just mentioned or else they'd hear it from me. I knew someone who drew a giant swastika in the snow in front of Monadnock because he thought it was funny. I almost never talked to that person again and I did not resume the relationship until I had talked to the person about how hurtful and wrong it was to do that. We've all been at a party where a person falls asleep with their shoes on and so are fair game to get written on, well this very phenomenon occurred at a party I was at just a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, someone decided to draw not one but several swastikas on the passed out person. I was so upset and frustrated that I couldn't stop it from happening that I broke down and started crying. Not my most dignified moment, but the person responsible was able to see first hand that what they were doing was hurting someone and it got them to stop.
The point is that you have the power to stop bigotry in its tracks, not only do you have that power, but you have a responsibility as a human being. If you are present when someone is saying a hate word or righting a hate symbol or even just making a comment that has values rooted in bigotry, you must act. Silence and complacency solves nothing. Speak up; tell them that you do not abide that kind of behavior or language in your presents. If they tell you they don't mean it like that or it's just a word or a joke, tell them they are wrong, that it is so much more than that. If they don't listen to your reason speak louder, if your logic and your arguments don't sway them try using your passion, tap into your empathy and show them how much it hurts you personally that they are saying those things. If nothing else works throw dignity to the wind and just break down and cry. Trust me, you'll feel a lot better about yourself having cried in public than not being able to tell your children to stand up for what's right, just like their mom and dad.
