An open letter to President Bacow

    At the rally last week organized to protest anti-Asian racism on the Tufts campus, President Bacow did not speak. In his stead he did not send the provost, the dean of arts and sciences, the dean of engineering, the dean of students or the dean of undergraduate education. The surrogate he chose to speak for him nevertheless assured the assembled crowd that President Bacow cares deeply about the issue of racism on campus. The president's spokesman praised students for speaking out and urged them to continue having discussions on the issue.
    Here is what is wrong with this response: President Bacow should have been there. If he could not attend, he should have chosen a high-level dean to speak in his place. Further, the message delivered on the president's behalf was completely specious. To tell students to deal with the issue of racism on campus by talking about it is to shirk institutional responsibility. It is not the job of Tufts students to educate this community about the reality of racism on this campus, why it is wrong, and why hate speech is unacceptable. It is the job of the administration and the faculty to do that, and we are failing miserably. The allegedly racist verbal assault on Asian-American students in Lewis Hall and the racist and homophobic verbal attacks on anti-racist activists and allies in the comments on the Daily Web site reflect the depth of that failure. Other institutions take racism and homophobia seriously. Tufts needs to take them seriously as well.
    Our mission is education. Tufts needs to require all faculty to attend diversity-training workshops so that pedagogy, mentoring and courses actively model anti-discriminatory values. Tufts needs to require all students to take at least one diversity-focused course designed to show how systems of oppression and privilege operate in the United States, why they are undemocratic and unjust, and how to combat and dismantle them. Neither faculty nor students can discuss or deal with issues of racism or homophobia intelligently and responsibly in a culture of ignorance. Yet ignorance — including tolerance for hate speech — is what is currently allowed to prevail as long as we do not have a clear anti-hate speech policy in place and a comprehensive educational plan to actively counter discrimination.
    For at least 30 years, some of us have been pointing out the failure of the university to provide education for faculty and students that creates an environment where all faculty, students and staff have an equal opportunity to thrive. Also, many voices have been raised to call for a clear anti-hate speech policy at this university. Enough is enough. President Bacow needs to provide strong, personal leadership on this issue. Faculty and administrators need to demand proactive change.

Sincerely,
Elizabeth Ammons
Harriet H. Fay Professor of Literature    Department of English