Repairing the Tattered Marketplace of Ideas
Last week, a cluster of posters appeared along two of the
principal streets that run through our campus. The signs with no elaboration
read, “It’s okay to be white.”
Crafted to seem innocuous, the statement first appeared as a
counterpoint to “Black Lives Matter.” It is a phrase that has become associated
with sympathy for and the indirect recruitment efforts of some white
supremacist groups
This is the fourth year that these posters have appeared at
a wide variety of colleges. Although the context of the message is in tension with
the University’s values of inclusion, that is not why they were taken down. The
signs were summarily removed because they did not comply with our posting
policies. We were not censoring free speech; we took down posters placed on
private property without permission.
Later in the day, I sent an email to campus to inform the
community about what had transpired, and that we were concerned about the
intentions of those who put up the signs. I rarely send an alert to the campus
indicating that an offensive graffito has been found, because those messages
magnify the audience for hateful imagery. This instance proved no different.
Friday’s story was covered by a local news outlet, then
picked up by a second one, provoking a swirl of divisive commentary—an outcome
surely hoped for by those who posted the signs. The bent of the majority of
comments made to the story has been troubling. Few commenters probably made it
past the headline or took the time to understand the message’s deceptive
meaning before adding their own vitriol.
I frequently state that inclusion efforts may be the most
important work we undertake in higher education. The next generation of
community leaders need to be better prepared to level the playing field for all
our neighbors than we were.
Of course, it is
okay to be white, to be black, to be straight, to be gay, to be any of the
innumerable things that make up the richness of humanity, but it is also
critically important to be aware of subtext. We need to help our students
recognize when language is being used to manipulate values and behavior, and we
need to help them to develop those skills for life after college.
It is just as important for students to learn how to
navigate difficult conversations and how to communicate about difference
effectively. Susquehanna recently received a grant
from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support the project, Promoting Civil Discourse in
a Polarizing World,
which is intended to do just that
Every
day, we see our social fabric fraying as our collective communication becomes
ever more fractious, as digital malefactors prey on the gullible, and as our ability
to bestow grace on others continues to ebb. Let us hope that today’s students
can help repair our tattered marketplace of ideas.
