Dear Editors,
Perhaps I am naïve – or out of touch – but despite my best efforts, I do not understand the student demands at the University of Missouri. From the published reports, the students are mad that University System President Tim Wolfe refused to get out of his car during a Homecoming parade when protestors physically blocked his car? Where I come from that is illegal and hostile. What would be the response if a group of white students surrounded an African-American administrator’s car and demanded instant dialogue?
Best I can tell, the protesters’ harms and demands are vaguely defined. Is the new standard that when some redneck students hurl disgusting racial slurs at minority students, the president is responsible and loses his job? Is demanding the president step down simply because he is white not a toxic form of bias and prejudice itself?
And from what I read, the “cure” to the problem – mandatory diversity training of all students – sounds downright Orwellian. Beware mandatory government thought training.
All said, our country, sadly, has no shortage of examples of institutional racism, but rarely do you solve one hostile environment by creating another. As there is no finish line in the pursuit of progress and justice, may all groups work respectfully together.
William Choslovsky