Blog Archive » 2007 » September

Saturday, September 29, 2007

Last week, Columbia University touched off a firestorm not only in New York but around the world when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a speech on campus. Many people expressed anger and even horror that a civilized, intellectual institution of higher learning would give a platform to someone that many regard as an agent of repression, terror and ignorance. Columbia President Lee Bollinger, well known in higher education for confronting difficult issues (his name is on the famous affirmative action cases involving the University of Michigan, where he was president prior to taking the helm at Columbia), compounded the controversy when he used the moment of his introduction of President Ahmadinejad to excoriate the Iranian President as a "petty and cruel dictator" with "ridiculous" and "preposterous" ideas (Ahmadinejad has denied the reality of the Holocaust.)

Many critics have applauded or lambasted both men. The New York Times supported Columbia. Rosa Brooks wrote a particularly pungent column in the L.A. Times. Critics of Columbia and Bollinger have said that the university had no business hosting a speaker who is hostile to the United States. One member of Congress has even introduced legislation to cut off funding to Columbia. Was Bollinger's opening salvo against Ahmadinejad just a ploy to appease his critics?

Should a university be able to host any speaker on earth, no matter how repugnant the person's ideas? Does the invitation itself convey some sort of legitimacy? Do the ground rules for creating the free speech forum include treating the speaker courteously, i.e., refraining from open hostility toward the speaker's ideas?

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. wrote one of the most famous statements about the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in his dissenting opinion in U.S. v. Schwimmer, a 1929 case in which an immigrant woman, a pacifist, was denied citizenship because she refused to swear an oath of allegiance which included a declaration that she would "take up arms personally" if necessary to defend the United States. Justice Holmes wrote that the First Amendment's guarantee of freedom of thought and expression protects "not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate…"

The university community is one of the great pillars of civilized society, along with Family, Government, Corporate Life and Church. Universities play a unique role in society as the places where freedom of thought and speech must flourish in order to advance higher learning and research on the way to the formation of new knowledge, a process that is continuous. While the First Amendment protects citizens against government limitations on speech and belief, American custom has long extended the idea of "freedom of speech" to many places, most importantly, to university campuses both public and private.

Some critics have said that, in recent years, higher education has become complacent, even afraid of allowing the robust expression of divergent ideas. College presidents have come under particular fire for being too cautious, too eager to please donors or lawmakers at the expense of free expression. (I have a lot of colleagues in this business who have told me that even my rather tame, middle-of-the-road expression of opinions on this blog would be far too much for their institutional contexts. Sad.)

University leaders must be good stewards of the climate for free expression. But does freedom of speech mean that every conceivable idea should be expressed? Hardly. The balance between freedom and prudence is also our responsibility to exemplify, since even Justice Holmes realized that, "…falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic…" could not be protected by the First Amendment (Schenck v. U.S.)

What do you think? I'd like to hear from students, faculty, staff and other readers about your ideas on freedom of speech, whether Columbia University should have hosted President Ahmadinejad, whether the current situation with terrorism and war should mean that certain speakers should NOT be invited to campuses. Please send me your thoughts via email to president@trinitydc.edu or click on the envelope icon below. Let me know if I can quote from you on this blog. Thanks.

See Professor Stanley Fish's commentary in the New York Times…

See Columbia University, Ahmadinejad,

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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

I have continued to receive comments on last week's Jena Six dialogue. Below are two particularly insightful comments from a faculty member and an alumna:

From Dr. Sharon Shafer of the Music Program:

"Although I do not usually reply or comment on blog entries, I wanted to express my appreciation for the presentations and responses that have taken place in this past week. What all of this brought to mind is an email exchange I had at the end of a semester a few years ago with an SPS male student who had taken my course titled Blues, Jazz, Gospel, and Ragtime. He wanted to know why I was moved to tears in a class session while we listened to Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit." The song is about lynching in the south and is one that Holiday sang in night clubs at the end of an evening with the requirement that the audience refrain from talking and focus on listening. If there was noise or negative response, she would leave the stage and refuse to return to complete her final set of the evening. I couldn't explain to the student what emotions I experienced, and still do, every time I hear the song. Now, with more time and perspective, I understand a little better; and I am grateful to those who are better able to articulate the issues related to layers of injustice, racial tension, and behaviors that have not changed but absolutely MUST be changed. Most especially, I am grateful to President McGuire who has never backed away from these issues but instead has confronted and embraced them and invited all of us to participate in being change agents in the present as well as role models for future generations."

Thank you, Dr. Shafer, for your very kind words and more, for your insightful reflection that calls all of us to listen even more carefully, to hear with open minds and hearts.

I also received a message from an alumna, Elizabeth Palmer, who had this praise for Trinity students:

[Regarding the Jena Six dialogue on this blog] "The voices of thoughtful, articulate Trinity women with a strong sense of justice and a willingness, even eagerness to further an important dialog made me want to be back on campus. I wanted to be in their classroom discussions and hear what they have to say on a plethora of other subjects. I wanted to hear what they talk about in the dining hall or the lounges, on their down time. That blog exchange really highlighted what uniquely impressive students Trinity draws to her halls today.

"…the blog discussion also showcased an important aspect of what sort of place Trinity is, in a manner that makes me all the more proud to be a Trinity alumna. It isn't just a place of books and pencils where you follow a syllabus and collect your GPA at the end of each semester. It is a place that challenges students in and outside the classrooms, and insists that they think critically and speak assertively. I love that it is a place where campus discussion compliments classroom discussion, and that it is also such a wonderful proving and training ground for women who are drawn to a vigorous place of learning."

Thanks, Elizabeth, for your strong words of praise for our students. I agree!

See today's Washington Post article on "Colleges See Flare in Racial Incidents"

Tomorrow: Universities and Freedom of Speech: Should Columbia University have allowed the President of Iran to speak on campus? Let's have a debate!

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Sunday, September 23, 2007

Monday, September 24 marks the 50th Anniversary of the day when nine African American students integrated Little Rock Central High School escorted by armed National Guard troops. This dramatic episode in the civil rights movement occurred three years after the United States Supreme Court ruled, in Brown v. Board of Education, that racially segregated schools violated the Constitution. Half a century later, with the echoes of last week's discussion and protests over the Jena Six still ringing in our ears, we know that the struggle for civil rights continues in too many places in this nation.

Segregation remains the norm in many urban schools, not only here in D.C. but in major cities around the country. School segregation reflects housing patterns and the demographics of local communities. Efforts to force school integration through busing students or other forms of social engineering received a considerable blow in June of this year when the Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot seek to achieve integration through using tactics that take a student's race into account.

During the last week, the Trinity community engaged in a vital discussion of issues surrounding the Jena Six. This week, let's broaden the discussion to include thoughts on what should be done as we approach the presidential election in 2008 to make the quest for civil rights and equal justice a more prominent feature of every candidate's platform. Please continue to send in your comments to president@trinitydc.edu or click on the envelope icon below.

Check out these sources:

Read Spelman College President Beverly Daniel Tatum's column "It's the Same Old Story in Jena Today" in the Washington Post, September 23, 2007

See Little Rock Nine

Democracy Now link to HBO Documentary on the Little Rock Nine

"The Women Behind the Men" by Gail Collins, column in the New York Times, September 22, 1007

See Chicago Tribune article

See and hear print and audio clips from the 2007 busing cases at the Supreme Court

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Thursday, September 20, 2007

One of the most important dimensions of this week's discussion of the Jena Six is the opportunity this case presents to have a direct, open, honest discussion of race, justice and the ongoing quest for civil rights in the United States. Many students have commented to me that they appreciate having this opportunity to speak about their experiences, perceptions, opinions and values on discrimination, due process and equal protection of the laws.

Not everyone agrees with those who believe that the Jena Six were treated unjustly. A blog comment from Pete Bauman, whom I do not know, expresses this point of view:

"The jena6 is a no-brainer. They tried to beat that kid to death. The nooses hurt no one. Trying to kick an unconscious boy to death did serious harm to someone."

Other comments, however, reveal other levels of reflection on this situation. A student, Holly Heintz Budd, shares this perspective:

"Last month, when my 17 year old daughter originally saw a reference to the Jena 6 on facebook we were skeptical: Many things that you read on the internet are not true and we certainly had not seen or heard any references to the incident on the news. Thank you for putting this issue in my face. As a white, woman, mother, professional, and graduate student at Trinity, it sure would be easier to not pay any attention to this story. I have a lot on my plate… Sometimes it is easy to loose track of why I do anything in the first place; for my children, for a better world, for self enrichment… I often feel like I am just treading water, like I am swimming against the tide and not getting anywhere. It is easier to just look the other way and to believe that there is nothing that I can do, that it is not my problem. My guess is that a lot of white people feel the same way; however, if I just sit back and do nothing, then I am communicating my approval. And so I want to make it loud and clear, I do not approve. I cannot see how anyone could claim that this is not a racial issue. I do not think that the African American youths in Jena Louisiana have received fair treatment. These statements may have more of an impact coming from a white person. I hope more non-minority people in positions of power will use their voices to make a difference. "Nothing we do as individuals matters, but it's vitally important to do it anyway." Gandhi

Another voice is that of Brenda Graham, a Trinity student and a wonderful colleague at THE ARC where she works with the Washington Middle School for Girls. Brenda writes,

"I am praying extensively as well as I have been assisting in raising the level of awareness in other to this serious issue. I feel that every time an incident occurs with white/Caucasians and black or African people of what ever descent there is always an issue of race. I feel that it goes beyond race. To me race is just a factor in a truly unjustifiable way some of our ancestors have acted for generations. I think we need to address the reason racial discrepancies develop. We as human beings find it so hard to break old behaviors even if it kills others, and change our own lives for ever. Those of us with the powers to be need to step up as soon as this kind of ugly behavior rare its ugly head and sever it. I know it sounds violent but if we nip it in the bud, it will never manifest as a wild flower, or should I say wild children."

Finally, I heard again from Tashayla Montfort, whose comments I posted first on Monday, September 17, including her poem on the Jena Six. Tashayla's insight into what this week's discussion really means seems like a suitable conclusion to this remarkable exchange of opinions and insights on the Jena Six. Here's Tashayla's final observation today:

"By you asking for comments on the Jena six issue, I have learned about things in which I would have otherwise been blind. I have enjoyed reading the students as well as the comments from teachers. Today in particular was quite strange. A student in one of my classes randomly starts talking to me about Jena 6 stating that many students were angry with her for not supporting the protest. I proceeded to ask her why she was not supporting the protest only to find out that she believed that the boys should have known better. They teach them in the south to stay away from Caucasian people and say anything to you out of the way respect them, do not put your hands on them and walk away. I began to become enraged, but I did not show it…I simply told her, "By not speaking out and taking a stand, you are subjecting yourself to an indirect slavery. I understand this is how you were brought up and I can not change that, however you can support the protest's goal of abiding by equal rights." I had no idea that this is how people lived in 2007. This case has definitely opened my eyes in more ways than one."

I hope that this discussion throughout this week has been a source of learning and reflection for others in our Trinity community. We all have different ideas and points of view, and as an intellectual community, a gathering of learners and scholars, our first and most important work is to open our minds, to hear each other, to examine facts and opinions critically, to embrace the discovery of new knowledge in order to craft better solutions to some of the most intractable social problems of our civilization. Injustice, hatred, prejudice, fear — these are the sources of most of the suffering, wars and human catastrophes in this world. We may agree or disagree about specific facts or actions in the Jena Six case or other cases, but we share a deep sense of solidarity about the need to work collectively for justice and peace. In this sharing of our common values, which are not just secular but spiritual, we find fresh hope and a renewed sense of our higher purpose in working, learning and living together at Trinity.

See Friday's Washington Post article

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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

On Thursday, September 20, some Trinity students will be heading to the U.S. Capitol at 7 am to join a march in solidarity with the Jena 6; others will be wearing black. Many comments continue to cross my desk about this case from throughout the Trinity community. These were posted on the message board in the Well:

From Sr. Patty Chappell, SND, a member of the SND Anti-Racism Team, and also a member of Trinity's Board of Trustees:

"The Sisters of Notre Dame Anti-Racism Team will be heading to Jena, LA on Wednesday. Please pray that the vigil and march will be without violence. Let us stand in solidarity with these young men and their families."

Unsigned:

"As a senior here at Trinity it warms my heart to see an effort being done here to keep the flow of knowledge and injustice in check. I wish so much that I could board a bus and head to Jena on the 20th. Jena is a town just a few miles from where I have family and spent a family reunion this past June! I will wear black in support of the solidarity of this important cause, and use my communication skills to keep others informed…"

Unsigned:

"The Jena 6 organization is great. There are so many forces out there in the world that are going to challenge us. We must stay strong and focused on Human Rights."

A different point of view, unsigned:

"Personally I feel like those boys should have known better than to beat a person within an inch of their death. The case in my opinion is not an issue of color, it's an issue of right from wrong. So, yes, you do the crime be prepared to do the time… The Jena 6 case is just another unfortunate case in which yet another young minority is sent to prison over a stupid decision."

Another point of view:

"The issue of the Jena Six brings many questions to mind, including — have we accomplished so little in the past fifty years? — did the sacrifices of so many mean so little?"

From Shantae J. Elliott:

"As for the 'Jena 6' receiving due process and equal protection of the laws, it's a 50/50 situation. The Jena 6 are being charged for their violent acts of crime, in which it is proven that they took part. However, there were young men (of the white race) who committed some of the very same crimes… yet they have not been charged or convicted. Do we propose that this is equal?…Could it simply be that even though the Jena 6 should pay consequences for a school fight, should their consequences be equal to that of an attempted murderer?"

Comments also continue to arrive via email. From Pathenia Proctor:

"I did a paper on Jena 6 in philosophy class during the summer. In addition, I signed a petition a about a month ago because these black teenagers' punishments are harsh. They were provoked to engage in a fight to defend themselves (hanging noose on a tree — to me and anyone who can read through symbolism knows that this is a threat and action is soon to follow considering that this took place in the deep south) over sitting under some tree called "the white tree." Their white counterparts did not get the same treatment. They received a slap on the wrist and were sent home. What an insult!! Anyway, these black teenagers are looking at during some serious time and it is nothing to sneeze at at all. To add insult to injury, the first teenager tried for the so called crime, did not received due process under the constitution. Not to mentioned, he was not allowed to have any witnesses to speak in his defense and his family was not allowed to be in the court room. … It goes to show that racial issues as far as hate and discriminatory practice are alive and thriving …"

Additional comments from faculty:

From Dr. Ray Adomaitis, Associate Professor of Counseling:

"Having lived and worked not far from Jena, Louisiana recently the sad news about this event raced through my heart and mind like one of my past multicultural counseling classes in which African American and White students sometimes squared off nervously because of their respective cultural and racial backgrounds. My black students cheered me for encouraging and supporting a debate on racial themes long overdue — as I recall one student said to me privately at first "finally, we're reading and talking about how I feel." I noticed her quietly crying in the hallway during a break during the following week's evening class — several of the white students in class spoke up strongly in class that evening expressing their displeasure with the concept and any related emphasis on "white privilege" past and present. There it was right in front of us our inherited and ongoing racial struggles filled with stereotypes, misunderstanding, apprehension, fear and anger just below the customarily suppressed and relatively calm surface.

"I recall asking myself then as I still do in these situations the rhetorical question I once heard R.D. Laing, the renowned psychiatrist from Glasgow, pose: What do you do when you don't know what to do? He paused and said, "To heck if I know." I paraphrased Laing in class and during the rest of the semester as they say "a whole lot of shaking" went on, and in the end we saw the crisis among us, and lived through it with newer understanding and sensitivity. So, I say the Jena 6 is a sad reminder of our collective experience that finds and needs open thoughtful expression in class, in the media, at lunch and work, and in our minds. If we face the reality of our experience as it is ("what to do when we don't know what to do"), I'm fully confident we can make further constructive strides toward learning about others and ourselves. That's my hope. I don't know what else to do just now, as I listen to the incoming news and as my own thoughts race through me, but I have hope and confidence."

From Dr. Eric Fontaine, Adjunct Professor in SPS:

"I believe that the Jena Six have had their constitutional rights trampled on, and that the underlying cause is racism. I say 'underlying' because the Jena Six were treated much more harshly than their white counterparts, and there does not appear to be any other distinguishing factors between the two groups of school children other than race. Had the matter not touched off such a firestorm of media attention; it is possible to imagine a scenario where the Jena Six would already be serving time for their 'infractions'. Our constitution promises each citizen certain rights, and among those rights are equal protection under the laws and due process, meaning procedurally, we can all expect to be treated the same. That was not the case with the Jena Six. Fortunately, our court system can make amends, and rectify this matter. It seems to me however, that only an exoneration of the Jena Six of all charges will make them whole at this point. They have already been sullied and mistreated and shown the underside of the American legal system. Complete exoneration would demonstrate a significant step towards righting the wrongs already visited upon these six children. What better way to uphold the importance of Constitution Day?"

From Dr. Suzanne Goodney Lea, Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice:

"My SOCY 306: Law Enforcement class talked about the Jena 6 case this week. I wanted to share a few themes that emerged from the students' impressions:

- The idea that the U.S. claims segregation and racial issues are a thing of the past when they really aren't. Racism isn't over and it won't be for a long time. When will more people stand up for what's right?

- The knowledge that racism is alive and well in this country tempered with surprise at such a blatant example.

- How color still determines so much about one's life in the U.S. and how some people of color who were foreign-born experienced this color-force only on arriving here.

- Concern that our ancestors fought to eradicate racism, only to have it still alive and well — the feeling that this is not what people want their kids to experience in this life.

- The observation that the judicial system would take such an extreme approach to what was a schoolyard fight — why isn't something taking place on the schoolyard handled within the confines of the school?

- Why weren't the white students prosecuted criminally for doing the same thing with which the black students were charged?

- Such racial situations happen up north, too.

"Being a student of criminal justice myself, I am no longer surprised to find such blatant abuses within the criminal justice system. While the Jena 6 case is a powerful example of due process violations, there are so many other examples of inequalities within the CJ system: the fact that inmates of color represent 60-70% of all inmates in many of our nation's state prison systems; the fact that a black male is about six times more likely than his white counterpart to be killed by a police officer; the fact that there are no national statistics kept on police use of force — even in cases in which the officer kills a civilian. Localities keep statistics, of course, but there is no federal-level data collection maintained (such as the Uniform Crime Reports data). On the other hand, if an officer is killed in the line of duty, hundreds of data points are collected and compiled into a national database for each incident. Since police killing of a suspect is relatively rare in any particular locality, it is hard to analyze those cases without national-level data.

"I believe that some of these inequalities might be more seriously addressed if there was greater representation of non-whites within the CJ system — especially within the higher echelons of that system (judges, state administrators, high level administrators at the Department of Justice, etc.). Many white people in this country do like to think that racism is a thing of the past, but — as I discussed recently with one of my colleagues over lunch — the U.S. has never dealt with its racialized past in the way that, say, South Africa has. And so, skin color continues to determine so much about a person's life chances but is now framed as a non-issue, which makes things arguably worse. If racism is no longer an issue, what do you do and who do you call when you see it? While there are protections in place within workplaces, even there it is often a matter of one person's word against another's. These forces are often now quite subtle and thus difficult to "prove."

"Of course, the bottom line with racism is ultimately power and position. If one looks at workplace statistics, one finds that there is more equality of employment by racial and ethnic breakdown in many sectors — until one gets to the top administrative positions or to the Fortune 500 boards. There, nonwhites are much less represented. White women now have more representation in higher administrative positions, but their non-white counterparts do not (see this chart which looks at race/ethnicity breakdowns for federal employees; if one looks carefully at the distribution by race/ethnicity of people in positions at the GS 11-15 levels (the highest federal positions), there is still a very low representation of non-whites—and the federal government is one of the more "progressive" employers in that they are highly regulated as to their observance of affirmative action protocols). And while women still only comprise about 12-13% of Fortune 500 board membership, their non-white female counterparts comprise just 3.6%. Until we see more integration in positions of power and authority, discriminatory practices such as those evidenced in Jena 6 will continue to be tolerated."

From Dr. Robert Redmond, Associate Professor of Education:

"It reminds me of the Emmett Till case back in 1955 in Money Mississippi. I thought we, as a nation, had moved past that kind of inhumane treatment. It is outrageous that they would charge those boys with second degree murder."

See this Washington Post article today…

See this CNN.COM article…

See jena

If you would like to comment, click on the envelope icon below or send a message with your comments to president@trinitydc.edu

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