Commentary

Oberlin needs to avoid stereotypes of two types

To the Editor:

Like many other students on campus, one of the primary reasons that I came to Oberlin was because it felt like a welcoming and accepting environment. It has been more than disheartening to find that stereotypes and prejudices run just as deeply here as they did in my high school. The comment made by one forum participant in your coverage of the beauty forum, "I feel like I can't go to the bathroom and put on eyeliner because someone might see me," touches on this serious problem at Oberlin. Have we grown-up and gotten wiser or have we just shifted our prejudices and called it improvement?

I have found that the back-lash prejudices of our demanding faux-counter-culture are dehabilitating to attempts of pursuing a well-rounded education academically and socially. More disturbing than the fact that we have these prejudices, is the fact that we fail to recognize them on campus. Why should a student feel uncomfortable about being openly Christian, Republican, or wearing make-up?

I am from rural Appalachia. My first year at Oberlin, I never talked about being from a part of the country where we drive pick-up trucks to the fire hall and go line-dancing on Friday nights, where `y'all' is considered proper English, and where we not only shoot animals like `Bambi,' we eat them and enjoy it.

I can't even begin to count the number of times I have heard the term `dumb hicks' since I came to Oberlin. I know full well that the part of the country I come from is far from perfect, but there are some mighty fine lessons to learn from people who come from communities like mine. Limiting ourselves to a mono-culture that excludes this input is limiting our education drastically.

We are who we are. That doesn't necessarily make it right, but at least it is honest. And until we are honest and real and open, we are never going to change for the better at all. We will just create the ultimate irony by following on the footsteps of other oppressors.

-Ellen Kazary (College Junior)

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