I am furious. To the Oberlin student body, to the Oberlin administration, to certain members of Oberlin's faculty, I ask how dare you . Students. Thinking you're the end-all-be-all because you made it to this hot-shot so-called progressive institution, who think you know the ins and outs of your history and this nation's history, who think that all the fresh greenery in your twenty-year-old heads somehow has given you some invincible wisdom. How dare you. How dare you turn your backs (your white backs for the most part) on a man, a revolutionary, who was giving his life for your freedom, for your liberation, decades before you were born and who, in spite of you, continues his dedication to his cause even today. How dare you turn your backs on one of the greatest and the last catalysts of the Civil Rights Movement, a movement that sparked the fights for freedom of minority groups in the US (and no, not just Blacks). How dare you turn your backs on a man who, despite grave illness, strives continually to challenge your so-called intellects, your perspectives, and hopes to advance your conception of justice. How dare you. Before you ever again dare to label yourselves liberal, open to challenges, progressive - and I emphasize this word, progressive - please remember when you turned your backs on Kwame Ture, of all people. I hope, for your own sakes, that your consciousness - not your conscience, but your consciousness - never forgives you.
Administration. How dare you. The letter I received in my mailbox on Monday made me wonder if something truly scandalous was happening here. Like a Klansman being invited to campus to speak. Like homophobic hate crimes happening in the Women's Collective. Like the MRC falling apart. Like Asian-American students and Queer students on this campus going unsupported. Like racist slurs being spray-painted on the Memorial Arch. But no. Instead I was being warned about Kwame Ture's lecture Monday evening. At which I just might feel a bit of empowerment. At which I just might get a taste of what was truly meant by the term Black Power. At which I, as a Black woman, might feel, finally, the real purpose of my time here in college and my future beyond it. But, instead of embracing these possibilities, the administration shuns them, turns its back to them , invalidates them. Are they perhaps too progressive? Is it too much to imagine that the margin just might start getting a little too close to the center for comfort? Apparently so. This college picks and chooses who it wants to support and who it doesn't mind seeing slip between the cracks. 1993. Racist slurs appear painted on the Memorial Arch in Tappan Square. Students, threatened and afraid, struggle to have their voices heard. The administration remains silent. 1996. Kwame Ture, revolutionary teacher, comes to campus. All Jewish Student Meeting at 10 p.m. And the administration? Same-day postal service twice in a row.
I am a resident of Third World House. For the past weeks, my housemates have been made to feel as if they should somehow be ashamed of having brought such a "controversial" figure to campus. Somehow they should be apologizing for it, instead of celebrating such an achievement and reveling in the fantastic opportunity it provided for the entire campus and community. I contend that Oberlin, though, should truly be ashamed. Ashamed of how it calls itself a liberal, open-minded haven for students interested in progress. Ashamed of so eloquently bullshitting about how even one of its students will eventually change the world (approximately $100,000 later anyway). Ashamed of turning its back on one of the most outstanding agents of change in the later half of this century . . . and ashamed also of how it is now treating the students who worked hard to bring him.
Copyright © 1996, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 124, Number 18; March 15, 1996
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