Response to Posters Lacks Conviction

Early last month, posters appeared on the Oberlin campus announcing a game of “smear the queer.” As much as the posters themselves were wholly unacceptable, the responses from the College and community were not only lacking in their condemnation of the act but propagated the dangerous fallacy that Oberlin is fundamentally different from the rest of the world.

In a Feb. 15 letter to the editors, Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith said, “We maintain an abiding commitment to creating a campus environment of dignity and respect for all. Language of this nature is in violation of College policy, and must not be tolerated.” Admittedly, as an official of the College, Goldsmith needed to make note of the fact that the posters were a violation of College policy.

However, the posters were ultimately offensive not because they violated College policy but because they belittled individuals on the basis of sexual orientation. The idea that the community should condemn these posters because they don’t fit the atmosphere of the campus is pathetic. The community should condemn these posters because they are inherently discriminatory.

Discrimination is unacceptable in any environment, not just one where it may not appear as often as others. And even this statement is itself part of the Oberlin fallacy. Oberlin may be in a bubble, but only to a degree. Discrimination occurs here perhaps just as often as other places, but it has become more subtle, although no less dangerous and destructive.

This community must not witness blatant acts of discrimination and pretend that they are rarified occurrences in the utopia of a radically liberal Oberlin. That approach does nothing to examine the causes of such discrimination and only further internalizes discrimination into the minds of those who have been continually oppressed. It starts no dialogue to examine why such acts of discrimination occur and provides no route to examining structures of social interaction in order to produce more just communities.

Moreover, condemning these discriminatory posters because they have no place in our open community does nothing to prepare Oberlin students for the larger world, where they will face more blatant discrimination. Having a community where students can ask politely for more consideration may seen like a privilege, but it can be a great disservice in that it denies students tools they will need to face discrimination in a hostile environment — this is by no means an apology for racism, nor should it be seen as legitimizing hate. The Review merely wishes to point out the sometimes hard truths of the world outside Oberlin.

The fact that these posters may have been put up in complete ignorance of their offensiveness is all the more reason to speak boldly against them. The fact that students on this campus may not realize their offensiveness is intolerable — not because they disrupt the happy open Oberlin community, but because it is unacceptable anywhere, anytime that people are oblivious to other people’s plights and suffering.

The LGBT community should not feel that they have to diminish their anger and consequently their struggle for equality of life. The discourse should remain civil, but those who are offended should be vocal and explicit about why they are offended.

To think of Oberlin as a bubble where this kind of thing should never happen is wrong-headed and dangerous. Acts of discrimination such as last month’s “smear the queer” posters must be condemned, not in respect to the isolated Oberlin community, but in respect to the community of humanity everywhere.