During my time here, student organizations, faculty members from various departments, and members of the administration have hosted numerous forums and discussion about race. I have covered many of these as a reporter for the Daily, and have followed the progression of dialogue on this campus. Students and faculty have established courses so that we can understand and embrace our differences and similarities. Many have tried to start "effective dialogue," as it is often referred to, on this complicated issue. Unfortunately, many of these discussions have been futile. In fact, there have been very few - if any - tangible changes in policy or sentiment surrounding this topic.
In spite of all my cynicism about Tufts' dealings with race and race relations, I am hopeful that someday - I'm not quite sure how - something will change. As a reporter I wonder if panels are the jumping-off point for an improvement in race relations on campus. In Monday's Daily, I reported objectively on the forum entitled "Disciplining Race" that I attended last Thursday night in Cabot. Today however, I would like to offer my opinions, not as a Daily reporter, but as a Tufts student.
When I walked into the auditorium, I saw a sea of student faces, which was certainly promising. However, my perspective quickly changed. Seeking out a good seat, I rushed to the front of the room, and was a little timid to sit where I had initially hoped, because I thought I had stumbled upon a VIP seating section of sorts. Deciding that I had to be close to the panel, I sat amidst faculty. I was the only student in sight. As I turned my head to see where my peers were, I noticed they had all positioned themselves in the back of the room. Though I knew many of them were interested in the subject and happy to be in attendance, I also knew that many were in the back so that they could leave early. This was a little disheartening. As the forum began, I realized that perhaps I should have done the same.
As Barbara Rodriguez, organizer of the forum, began speaking, I saw where all this was going. Yes, there was certainly going to be scholarly discourse about this intensely important matter, but there was going to be little discussion. In fact, as the first speaker began, the forum seemed more like a contest over who was the most intellectual. Now, let me say this right off the bat, Williams, the first speaker, and the others, had interesting vantage points to share. However, the academically loaded jargon was far from necessary. And let me also make clear that my problem with the speeches was not one of comprehension.
The problem was not that the discourse was over our heads - Tufts students are very intelligent individuals capable of complex analysis and thought. Rather, I was just struck by the ridiculousness of the speeches. Each speech began with the traditional resume read and, of course, the professors slated to speak were leaders in their fields. Yet, they seemed a little too proud. Matory, a professor from Harvard, made sure to note a change in his resume. How dare we think that he was only an associate professor when he was really a full one! Another common theme was the speakers noting - in a phony British accent, of course - how difficult they were to get a hold of. Matory said, and this is paraphrased of course, "It was a good thing I was reminded at a HARVARD faculty dinner that I had this speaking engagement. It's just I'm so busy with all of my scholarly and important work that I forget these meager events."
To add to Matory's self-importance kick, he also made up a number of words during the course of his talk. Apparently, his tenure at Harvard has taught him that if you add "ility", "ality", or even the letter "y" to the end of almost any word, you sound more intelligent. Thus, at one point, he felt the need to explain his "positionality." Is that even a word? My spell check doesn't seem to think so. Oh, and one more, if you say, "If you will," or "in short," at the beginning or end of a sentence, that seems to be effective as well. So, let's put those both together. Professors here should try this, for example. Instead of saying, "Excuse me, I have to go to class," they could say the following, and they would automatically seem more intelligent. "I will use my inherent directionality to conduct me in the proper way to the threshold of knowledge in which I will pontificate with a number of inferior beings all of whom will glean a certain amount of knowledge from the vastiality that I store in my extra large cerebral unit, if you will."
All mockery aside, the point here is that this forum had lots of potential. Members of the departments worked up an interesting lineup of speakers, and the students who were present were interested in a vitally important topic. However, after the speakers had gone on way over their time limits and suffocated the audience with their lofty-sounding language, students had fled the scene. They were, in essence, alienated, which I would venture to say was not the aim here.
In short, with plenty of forums to come, I can only hope that organizers and speakers will clean up their act, if you will.
Kim Fox is a junior double majoring in history and Spanish. She is features editor of the Daily. Her article on the disciplining race forum appeared in yesterday's Daily.
