A year and a half ago, our campus witnessed incidents of racism and hate-speech that resulted in a heated campus-wide debate over the distinction between free speech and academic speech. Two weeks ago, Americans elected Donald J. Trump, a man who has endorsed racism, misogyny and hate speech, to the presidency. What does Mr. Trump’s ascent say about us? What does this say about the state of our nation?
A year and half ago, as SGA’s Chair of Diversity and Equity, I investigated the dehumanizing speech directed towards a group of people undergoing both violence and marginalization. I denounced Professor Pessin’s Facebook post, which likened Gazans to “rabid pit bulls” deserving of their maltreatment by their Israeli “owner,” as racist. As a result, I was vilified on right-wing conservative media outlets and blacklisted on Canary Mission, a bogus conservative pro-Israel site. It was considered controversial for me to say that dehumanizing speech is wrong and a form of racism. Many who classify Professor Pessin’s comments under the umbrella of free academic speech forget that he was speaking casually about a war that resulted in the death of over 2,000 Gazan civilians, mostly women and children. Shortly after Professor Pessin’s comment surfaced, another incident followed. A community member outside of Connecticut College vandalized our Cro bathrooms with the words “No N*ggers” written all over the walls as part of an effort to intimidate a staff member. The Pessin post and the vandalization of our bathroom are not isolated instances of hate. We dehumanize groups of people as a form of intimidation. To put down groups of people and legitimize the violence directed against them is prevalent in our society.
Americans should not be surprised, then, that Trump’s victory is indicative of a deep systemic problem in the United States. In our country, dehumanizing and racist speech is tolerated despite its ability to incite violence against marginalized communities. The “bad hombres,” the “nasty women,” the criminal Syrian refugees, the terrorist Muslims, the undocumented aliens, the “Mexican rapists,” the black thugs and the “pedophile” LGBTQ communities are all forms of speech that President-elect Trump, as well as our campus and society at-large, has internalized. Following the incidents that occurred on our campus, my inbox flooded with hate mail, Yik Yak was full of racist online-bullying and students felt their personal safeties at risk. However, the attention that was given to vulnerable groups in order to calm their fears angered another base–the privileged white Conservatives on campus who felt they could no longer express their political views without seeming racist. These students felt that their interests were threatened simply because, for once, students of color were making their long-time and overdue grievances heard.
Today, America has shown that equality for the marginalized is a threat to the privileged. Misogyny, racism, Islamophobia and homophobia are considered political platforms just as legitimate as protecting freedom of academic speech. Fighting against violence on vulnerable communities is an assault on white America. As long as we can freely dehumanize the “other,” white America will remain safe at the expense of the lives of “the other.”
