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YALE DAILY NEWS · TUESDAY, JANUARY 20, 2015 · yaledailynews.com
OPINION
.COMMENT “It has always taken courage to defend freedom of thought and expresyaledailynews.com/opinion
Justice in principle and practice W
IF WE CANNOT BUILD A MOVEMENT COLLECTIVELY, WE CANNOT WIN However, as we clamor to join the movement in the charged moments after a non-indictment or another black death, we often forget that the reasons behind our actions can, and will, affect the value and impact of our work. These events, rather than acting as catalysts for sustained organizing, frequently allow people to feel like they’ve contributed to the movement without making a long-term commitment. Often, actions following moments like Ferguson are driven by a feeling of “having to” respond, rather than by a broader commitment to addressing the systemic issue that the incident reveals. Responses with a lack of purpose are perhaps more harm-
ful than inaction. How we execute these events is just as important as why; and when carried out uncritically, they can perpetuate the oppressive systems we’re trying to subvert. We have seen people center their attempts at activism on their own privileged experiences, leading to the alienation of those more marginalized in our society. At times, this means placing oneself at the center of a narrative in a way that excludes others. This selfish brand of organizing reinforces elitism and patriarchy and often prevents real solidarity. If we cannot build a movement collectively, we cannot win. We must be intentional in every aspect of our organizing, and root it in active practices of anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-elitism. We should support grassroots organizing efforts that empower communities to take their lives into their own hands. We should amplify their stories rather than our own. That is how we build a movement. Even in the Civil Rights Movement, there were deep internal tensions about how best to organize. The Ella Bakers and the Bob Moseses committed themselves to a vision of freedom that valued radical democracy over immediate gains. People like King, despite valuing the grassroots organizing that drove the movement, fell into a model of top-down charismatic leadership that devalued bottomup organizing. So while it’s true that King had a radical vision for society, he didn’t always work to realize that vision within the movement. He had a mixed track record in terms of cultivating the leadership of women and young people in the movement. Although he was aware of how his celebrity status could stifle the development of those around him, he failed to rectify this. Ultimately, we believe in our communities’ ability to create equitable spaces within movements for justice. The action taken both in Ferguson and across the country in recent months has been breathtaking in its ability to reclaim narratives around blackness and power in America, both visually and in terms of sheer numbers. We don’t have all the answers about what meaningful action can look like on this campus. But we are hopeful that Yale can join in this historical moment with action that advances the cause of justice in its practice, as well as its principle. ALEXANDRA BARLOWE is a sophomore in Branford College. Contact her alexandra.barlowe@yale.edu. ESHE SHERLEY is a junior in Morse College. Contact her at eshe. sherley@yale.edu . They are board members of the Black Student Alliance at Yale.
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mous “secrets” indicates that something has gone wrong in our campus political discourse. If the rationale of the University is for a community of thinkers to arrive at the truth through discussion and debate, then a campus culture with one set of ideologies so dominant such that some opinions are not expressed means that we lose the opportunity to convince each other. A Facebook page devoted to secrets indicates a campus culture where we keep too many. Is Yale PostSecret, itself, a good forum? In some ways. There will always be people who feel marginalized from Yale’s community, and Yale PostSecret is an effective way for them to express their thoughts, even if they are shouted down in comments. And until we do a better job supporting each other as friends and as a community, generic advice and sympathy from an online audience is better than nothing. Yet, we should remember that every post on Yale PostSecret that anonymously expresses anxiety, frustration and unpopular opinions is an indictment of our community: not only because of the content of the post, but also because we haven’t found a better forum for it yet.
about academics and unrequited love, to name a few. Yet, when a sizable fraction of our community SCOTT converges a GREENBERG around space of disThe Segue course, we should examine whether that forum is conducive to the types of discussions we want to have and relationships we want to build. Last month’s temporary suspension of Yale PostSecret should serve as a wake up call; the page’s very existence points to aspects of our campus culture that could be improved. Discourse on Yale PostSecret tends to fall into a few, set patterns. There are people who post humorous observations, which are responded to with either humorous rejoinders or outrage. Some students express anxiety about their self-worth, and receive assurances and validations from complete strangers. Many of the posts express frustrations of various sorts — about academics, sex and relationships — and receive generic advice and likes as consolation. Some are outbursts of joy and excitement. The most interesting posts are those that make controversial
(read: not leftist) political assertions, which are usually met with an outpouring of indignation, ad-hominem attacks and sarcasm. I doubt any of us think Yale PostSecret is the ideal way for our community to be having any of these sorts of conversations. People who doubt their selfworth should be comforted by those who know them best, not by people on the Internet unfamiliar with their lives. And, ideally, when things get frustrating, we would all have networks of friends who could serve as a support system. The fact that these anxieties and frustrations remain “secrets” is an indication that our community has failed many of its members.
Meanwhile, the fact that, by the looks of it, many Yale students feel they can only express their political views as anony-
SCOTT GREENBERG is a senior in Ezra Stiles College. His column runs on Tuesdays. Contact him at scott.greenberg@yale.edu .
Respecting tough choices
criticize anything and everything that falls in a gray area. But imagine this scenario: You are tasked with protecting the lives of hundreds of thousands of men and women in your nation’s uniform and millions of civilians in a given territory. You have reports that there is a suspected suicide bombing soon that will likely take many lives, both soldiers and civilians. You have an uncooperative captured co-conspirator who has critical information about the attack. What do you do? Would you permit someone under your command to yell, threaten, beat up or pour cold water on the prisoner in order to save the lives you are tasked to protect, or do you do nothing and let innocents die at the hands of terrorists? These questions, and much more difficult ones, are what men like McChrystal and Negroponte deal with in service to this country. Speaking with those who have made those tough calls can help Yalies, many of whom will assume similar positions in the future, decide what to do when we are faced with our own stomach-churning options. Epstein is wrong to criticize the place of these men in teaching in the Ivy League. As a history major, I am ashamed that someone getting a doctorate from my department can make such a simplistic and naïve argument against the virtues of learning
from those “men in the arena,” whose faces were, as Teddy Roosevelt would have described, “marred by dust and sweat and blood." Letting a bias cloud your learning and research by dismissing a source out of hand is exactly what a historian should not do. Epstein’s conclusion is right when he says we should question these men of action and achievement who made difficult decisions on massive scales, but we should do so respectfully, to learn from them, not to debase their actions or their records. If your class is discussing the ethics of American intervention in Central America, it is reasonable to ask Negroponte about his specific experiences in the region. But if you’re discussing Thucydides in Grand Strategy, it is unproductive to interrupt discussion and take him to task for something that is completely outside the parameters of the syllabus. And if you do find the chance to ask them a pointed question or two, do so with humility and the recognition that these decisions were made in an imperfect world by men with real-world experience who didn’t have the luxury of hindsight.
mong the many spaces for discourse that the Yale community creates — including seminar rooms, dining hall tables and bulletin boards — a popular and uniquely interesting one is Yale PostSecret. Yet, in late December, the moderators of the page temporarily halted the publication of new submissions, writing, “We have become concerned recently over the types of comments being posted here.” Founded in February 2013, Yale PostSecret is a Facebook page dedicated to sharing “secrets” submitted anonymously by Yale students. To explain the rationale of the page, one of the first posts reads, “All secrets are meaningful and worth sharing … Hopefully, through learning of our peers’ secret joys, struggles, thoughts, and dreams, we can be further united.” There is no doubt that Yale PostSecret has united the Yale community, in some sense. Over a third of Yale’s undergraduate population is “friends” with the page, and there are very few other spaces on campus in which so many Yalies read the same things and participate in the same discussions. Posts on the page that receive hundreds of “likes” give us a sense that there are common experiences shared by much of the student body: joy over hockey victories, stress
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EDITOR IN CHIEF Isaac Stanley-Becker
'SHADRACHSMITH' ON 'IN THE FACE OF CRITICISM'
Too many secrets
GUEST COLUMNISTS ALEXANDRA BARLOWE AND ESHE SHERLEY
hether through Facebook, Tumblr or that one African-American Studies class you took last semester, many of you have learned by now that Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is about more than his dream where “little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” Although the actual narrative of the Civil Rights Movement has been coopted by eliding the more militant parts of the movement, the real story of King persists through oral histories and the counter-storytelling of black activist spaces. King was well aware of the need to dismantle systems perpetuating economic injustice, militarism and white supremacy on the path to black liberation. Though he was a man whose actions and tendencies may have sometimes compromised the success of the movement, he nonetheless maintained a radical vision that was mostly at odds with the country that now claims to honor him with a national holiday. Honoring King must go beyond a simple acknowledgement of his legacy, even if that acknowledgement highlights the lesser-known and more radical aspects of that legacy. Actions like the #ReclaimMLK protests around the country yesterday (which linked King’s confrontational politics to the #BlackLivesMatter movement and current struggles for black liberation) are a better example of translating knowledge into meaningful action.
sion.”
In a column in last Thursday's News (“McChrystal, Negroponte must answer to students,” Jan. 15), Andrew Bard Epstein GRD’19 criticized General Stanley McChrystal and Ambassador John Negroponte. He questioned the decisions they made in their careers and their role in teaching at Yale. He called on students in their seminars to take these men to task for their alleged misdeeds. In writing this column, Epstein demonstrated a remarkable naïveté, doing a disservice to his fellow students and disrespecting these two long-standing public servants. Although Epstein excoriated the two men for some of the more notorious decisions they may have made over their careers, he did not include in his column any discussion of the contexts in which they were made. Even if we are to assume all the allegations are correct, are these the kind of actions for which one must be called to account? General McChrystal led a major U.S. operation that oversaw the capture or killing of hundreds of terrorists and insurgents. There is collateral damage in war. It is awful, but is more tragic than unjust and has been a reality of every hostile engagement. The specific incidents Epstein described — being doused with water and made to stand in front of an air conditioner, being kicked until vomiting, punched until passed out — are potentially troubling if true. But, in the same century as the 9/11 attacks or the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians in Syria, these allegations hardly constitute “the greatest crime of the 21st century.” I’m not saying all of either man’s actions were perfect, but what I am saying is that we live in an imperfect world where real leaders need to make tough choices. From the comfort of Yale, it’s easy to take the high road and
A FACEBOOK PAGE DEVOTED TO SECRETS INDICATES A CAMPUS CULTURE WHERE WE KEEP TOO MANY
SAM SUSSMAN Jan. 19 The writer is a junior in Davenport College .