I may be hopelessly old fashioned, but I keep thinking that the purpose of a college education is to expand students’ range of knowledge, help them to grow emotionally, and prepare them for entry into the post-college world.
With that in mind, I would like to show you several quotes – real ones, this is not a satirical piece – from Katherine Barnes, a student at Hamilton College.
Ms. Barnes was a class representative of the Class of 2020. But she has resigned, after reacting negatively to a Student Assembly meeting last week.
That must have been some helluva meeting, wouldn’t you say?
Well, here, pulled from Rob Shimshock’s article at dailycaller.com, are a few of her reasons:
“During last week’s meeting, many student representatives countered my argument that ‘the vast majority of members are white, straight, cis, upper-class men,’ by stating that 11 out of the 30 members are white men. While my assumption that these white men are also straight, cis, and upper class may be wrong, many people on campus perceive that Student Assembly is controlled by white males.
“This is because the majority of the conversation in Student Assembly meetings is dominated by those 11 people.”
Huh? Wah? Ms. Barnes is miffed because she was wrong about how many White males were in the Student Assembly? And that, in her opinion, the White males – who constitute roughly one-third of the Student Assembly (a little math here: that means two-thirds of the Student Assembly are not White males) – take over the meetings?
On the theory that all members of the Student Assembly have the right to speak, it seems to me that this is also an argument that two-thirds of the Student Assembly are not speaking up enough. Don’t the two go hand in hand?
The solution? If you are one of that two-thirds majority, then SAY SOMETHING.
But wait: Ms. Barnes is not through yet:
“When white men make up more than a third of all conversations, they override the voices of other representatives by infringing on their space to speak. This creates a hostile environment. Moreover, not only do white men fill conversational space with their predominant voices, but they also take up physical space in the way they sit and how they rudely shut others down.”
“It creates a power dynamic that makes people who are not white and/or male feel uncomfortable and/or anxious about speaking up. The most important part of the matter is that people are being silenced.”
Uh….oh, OK. Thanks, Ms. Barnes. We’ll give your poignant agonizing over those evil White men the careful attention it deserves…..
Identity politics, anyone?
FYI: whoever is paying for Katherine Barnes’ tuition and expenses at Hamilton College is being set back about $64,000 a year. I wonder how he/she/they feel about the fact that Ms. Barnes’ indictment of the Student Assembly, on the grounds that she thinks White men should not talk as much, is enough to make her quit and run away.
Does this come across as a person whose academic and emotional horizons are being expanded? As a person who is being prepared to function outside the college bubble?
I have a little advice for Katherine Barnes. I don’t even need full words to offer it, just four letters: GTFU.
In case this is confusing to you, three of those letters stand for grow, the, and up.
