LAST WEEK University President John T. Casteen, III sent a letter to faculty members deploring recent racist slurs and graffiti. He condemned the racist acts in the strongest of language and suggested it would be appropriate to use class time to address the incidents.
This letter has insulted some members of the faculty. By requesting condemnation, it assumes that some professors might harbor sympathies for the racists. It also isolates as potential racists professors who don't choose to address the incidents. Finally, it is insulting to the students, implying that they might not understand the gravity of the situation if not for the professor's pious condemnation of racism. Neither professors nor their students need the administration to guide their response to racism.
Classics Prof. Greg Hays stated in an interview that the administration has a legitimate role denouncing racist acts on Grounds. However, our response is stronger when it springs from the grass roots, with the student-led demonstrations, for example.
It is not the role of the administration to direct the community response to threats. Rather, the administration should support collective expressions of solidarity. Casteen's recent speech is an example of an appropriate and productive response.
A deeper problem with our treatment of the problem of racism in our midst is our misguided attempt to isolate the racists as moral lepers, undeserving of human treatment or consideration. Casteen's letter to the faculty, like the "I will not tolerate intolerance" papers taped to lawn doors, falls victim to this dehumanizing viewpoint. If we are to combat intolerance over the long run, we must address the question of why some members of our community wish to reject others from society.
The current discourse assumes some reincarnated antebellum ogres paid midnight visits to the University to scrawl racist graffiti on Beta Bridge and commit all sorts of other crimes against personhood. They are indeed assaults upon personhood, but let us not become absorbed in our revulsion to the extent that we deny the personhood of the criminals themselves. They are not ghosts. They may drive the buses we ride to class. They may have held a door for someone yesterday. They may sit in the classes of the faculty members who find Casteen's letter offensive.
The faculty's role is not to categorically reject any of her students, or any members of her community. Rather, should remain free to facilitate human understanding and to recognize thatour racists cannot be put in boxes. They are us. We are not fundamentally separated, and it is morally presumptuous to assume that we are.
Beyond the question of dividing ourselves in groups of the righteous and the sinners, there is the practical question of combating racism on campus. Ultimately, we must cultivate that community of tolerance and mutual respect, because the various assaults on personhood are unacceptable. This collective project requires our reconsideration of our treatment of our racists. Until we acknowledge their human existence, their nightly visits will continue.
If the University refuses to tolerate intolerance, it effectively precludes understanding of the people who harbor racist sentiments as well as the cultural roots of that bigotry. It is not the role of the academy to condemn.Our community's role is the pursuit of understanding, including of those individuals and actions we find most abhorrent.
In that amplified pursuit we may encounter humanity where we have long denied its existence. As we deconstruct the boxes we have placed around the caricatured devils and angels in our midst we will find traits of both within each of ourselves.
Zack Fields' column appears Wednesdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at zfields@cavalierdaily.com.
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