To the Editors:

I’m not going to lie, I’m really pissed off. This is the second time that The Oberlin Review has misconstrued a quote that I have given during an interview. Most recently, I take great issue with the April 30 Review.

I was interviewed by Tristan Jones on my involvement in organizing an ad-hoc group to go to Washington, D.C. for the World Bank/IMF protests and March for Women’s Lives. I know Tristan personally and gave my interview under
the premonition that my statements would be interpreted correctly based on our friendship and that they would be used for his article.

The Review chose to ignore the fact that about 20 students from Oberlin successfully organized and went to DC for the World Bank/IMF protests as well as participated in the radical feeder march for the March for Women’s Lives.

Not only was this monumental issue off the Review’s agenda, but a statement from my interview was used by another writer (Milena Evtimova in her article “Marching for women’s lives”) without my prior knowledge or consent.

My comment, “Personally, I thought the whole thing seemed like a push to get everyone to vote for Kerry, which seemed shameless and of little use,” was taken out of context and was used to suggest that I thought “the march’s politicized nature minimized its impact,” which certainly is not true.

In fact, I would say that the march was not politicized enough and that the real issues of women’s rights and health were glossed over in an effort to mainstream-ize the event and turn it into something simplistic and single-issued enough to get people to vote for John Kerry.

Ignoring the true patriarchal and imperialist nature of steadily eroding women’s rights to win some votes for a mediocre-at-best candidate is what was (and is) shameless and of little use.

I am, yet again, disgusted at the shoddy, selective journalism of The Oberlin Review. I do not believe that this won’t happen again. I’ve been told this before, and it happens time and time again to those who provide
interviews to the Review.

The Review owes everyone who participated in the World Bank/IMF protests an apology for glossing over the issue, as well as a correction on my statement.

–Arthur Richards
College first-year