October 15, 2014 - 22:52
Name--
so: a couple of directions I’d like to pick up here. First: the potential of on-line forums as a site for real conversation (and/or the degree to which they inhibit such exchange): how much do you think the lack of mediation (or in-person encounter) opens up the conversation? Makes it more-or-less productive?
Along these lines, I’d add to your review of YKYWTBMCW the recent petition posted on change.org: http://www.change.org/p/bryn-mawr-college-take-the-necessary-actions-as-requested-by-current-students-to-confront-issues-of-institutional-racism-on-campus-and-to-create-an-environment-safe-for-all-students
This was initiated by alums who “knew they went to Bryn Mawr” because the most recent incident had resonance for them—they were there when Perry House was shut down in 2010, when the Halloween party had a Blackface theme in 2008, when the Ching Chong Song sounded in 2007—and they know that these are “only the more obvious forms of racism and discrimination that students of color have faced/continued to face on this campus… that these types of incidents have been poorly handled in the past and have contributed to a growing culture at Bryn Mawr that undermines and excludes people of color.”
I’d be curious to hear how this petition strikes you: Heartening to see their claiming of that activism? Or: not quite in touch with what is happening on campus, so not quite in line with what is needed @ this moment? Or: an empty gesture—along the line of Teju Cole’s dismissing “the power of YouTube, Facebook, and pure enthusiasm to change the world”? Or: something else…?
Second: this is all really background--or @ most a particular example--of your disgust with and horror at the lack of empathy shown to Mawrtyrs of color on YKYWTBMCW, and of your larger statement that “the goals of modern white feminism do not match the needs of all black women.”
If that is your argument, what is your agenda for change? What interventions seem to you possible? (Which maybe loops us back to item #1?)