A group of Ohio State
students have created a Tumblr site, OSU
Haters, to expose the
microaggressions and hate speech that shape their daily lives. Quite
brilliantly, this group is remaining anonymous, determined to focus attention
where it belongs: on the atmosphere that OSU provides for them. In this way,
the site continues the activism of the last academic year. On the heels of domestic
terrorism—including the burning of a Muslim student’s home while he and his
roommate slept and the racist murders of Trayvon Martin and Shaima
Alawadi—students formed OSU Stand Your Ground and dramatically asserted,
“Enough is enough!” Yet, what was most striking about student testimony was the
insistence that racist incidents were not unusual. Though the media outlets covering their activism failed to
highlight this refrain, it reverberated throughout the organizing meetings and the sit-in. Also, whenever the hate crimes came up
during a conversation with an alum who wasn’t white, the first thing they said
to me was, “That’s nothing new!” or “So, it hasn’t changed, huh?”
Arson and vandalism upped
the ante because the former was attempted murder and the latter made the
attitudes more public by involving school property, but students routinely said
that unsolicited antagonism was part of their experience as Buckeyes and United
States residents.
OSU Haters is valuable, then, because it acknowledges what
students have been saying all along: that racism and other –isms shape their daily lives. If we truly listen to
these students, the vacuity of the administration’s most consistent responses
becomes painfully obvious. President Gordon Gee has been quick to say that
racist behavior does not represent Ohio State, and other administrators claim
that there is “no place for hate” here. But I have to ask, “Are you sure
about that?” These students have been brave enough to explain how much other
people’s hostility has shaped their reality. When the first reaction is
to insist that ugly attitudes are held by a small number of aggressors, we
discount their testimony. To launch into how little these tweets
represent Ohio State is to suggest that what these students endure does not
matter nearly as much as the picture of the university that we prefer.
By its very existence, the
OSU Haters tumblr challenges
the assumption that racist comments are insignificant or that they do not
accurately represent the climate at this institution. First, the site illustrates
the ordinary nature of the most persistent racism, reminding everyone that an
attack does not have to be physical (or even extreme) to do violence. Seemingly
thoughtless, off-hand comments send the powerful message that some people’s
presence is tolerated, not welcomed.
As importantly, because
the site exposes hateful tweets, its existence ends up shining a light on that
which most allows hostility to persist: apathy. As more people learn of the
tumblr site, if they do not feel personally attacked by it, the reaction is
often to defend the tweeters, whom they believe should never have to worry
about facing consequences for creating a hostile environment. The experience of
students who are hurt and offended by these tweets barely seems to figure for
these defenders. They argue for the tweeters’ right to “free speech” and “privacy” (though Twitter is
the most public forum I can imagine). In other words, such responses confirm
what OSU Haters suggested in an
interview with the local newspaper: “Even
though the number of students posting hate speech compared to the entirety
of the student body is small, they
have a large audience in their online social circle, and the students who are
seeing these hateful messages aren't exposing or reporting them for hate
speech. Apathy is more widespread” (my italics). When these kinds of comments
are so acceptable as to be tweetable, how much do students who are not targeted
care about the experiences of
those who are?
The Tumblr site exposes
hate as well as indifference about the conditions created by that hate, and in
the process, it reveals how easily any of us can be lulled into apathy. Many
are tempted to dismiss aggressors as “ignorant.” When we use this label, we are
suggesting that they are “just ignorant,” so why give them attention? Why worry
about what they think and say? Why bother addressing them at all? The
implication is that you should not waste your time and energy on those
“ignorant” people. OSU Haters
shows that this sort of response is misguided.
To dismiss individuals who
spew hate as “ignorant” is to deny what the Tumblr site so clearly reveals, that
these are informed people. Whether their articulation of hate is blatantly
aggressive or casually so, many of those exposed by OSU Haters demonstrate a keen awareness of U.S. and world
history. Tweets refer to the bombing of Hiroshima, “summer camps” as a
reference to internment camps, lynchings, and honor killings.
The violent force of many
of these tweets emanates from the fact that their authors understand the
function of bias-based violence: to keep certain groups from enjoying the
rights and privileges of citizenship, to deny certain groups a sense of
belonging within the community and the country.
Given the historical
awareness underpinning these tweets, we must remember what dominant assumptions
encourage us to forget: racial violence is often a response to success. What have people of color and gays and Sikhs, for
example, done to deserve these attacks? What have they done “wrong”? They have
managed to succeed despite the many obstacles put in their way. These tweets
are therefore part of a much longer tradition of what I call know-your-place aggression. The messages
conveyed by antagonists go something like this: “You may have a higher g.p.a.
than I do, but you are still just a ‘ch**k’” or “You may have a law degree, but
you are still just a ‘f*g’” or “You may have outstanding credentials, but you
are still just a woman” or “Barack Obama may be President of the United States,
but ….”
In this country, people
who are white and/or male and/or heterosexual and/or Christian and/or “able”
and/or middle class will be respected when they achieve, but when those who do
not fit these categories succeed, they can expect aggression as often as
praise.
Of course, even those
targeted by this aggression sometimes insist that it is rare; doing so fuels
their success, they may believe. That is, they choose to focus on the positive
and give the benefit of the doubt. But targeted groups are expected to give
the benefit of the doubt (“she didn’t mean it” or “it was just a joke”) even in
the face of blatant malice. Given this very american expectation, it is
important for members of marginalized groups to believe in their capacity for
reading their surroundings accurately. You must be able to trust your ability
to interpret what is happening, no matter how many times someone else says,
“That’s just not the Buckeye way” and “We are better than that.” You must be
able to know the difference between those claims and something like, “That shouldn’t
be the american way” or “We can be better.”
When faced with evidence
that the environment is hostile, especially when that hostility is inadequately
addressed by those in power, it is important to empower yourself and others to
call a spade a spade. Clearly, bias is leading many to prioritize the comfort
and “freedom” of dominant groups, even when it is at the expense of those who
become their targets.
I am therefore impressed
by the students’ insistence that the tweets, and the hostile atmosphere they
represent, cannot be ignored. Building on the work of OSU Haters, a town hall meeting was held on Tuesday,
September 4, 2012. It was sponsored by student organizations—the Asian American
Association, the Multicultural Greek Council, GradPAC, and OSU Stand Your
Ground—and the Multicultural Center. Substantial time was allotted for
attendees to share personal experiences with bias and discrimination.
Several students were
eloquent in their critical reading of the environment that OSU provides them.
For example, one young woman said that she is disturbed by peers who denigrate
others, but she can accept it as a simple expression of opinion. However, those
same individuals will also insist that they “hate when people are overly sensitive
or politically correct.” With great insight, this student explained that when
denigrating comments and admonitions against sensitivity and political
correctness go together (and they usually do), then the remarks are not just
casual judgments; they are active attempts to silence others.
As importantly, a student
leader said that it is simply too convenient to suggest that the attitudes
exposed on OSU Haters belong to
a “fringe” group. With many in the audience nodding in agreement, he shared that
walking down High Street (the main drag near campus) and having racist comments
yelled at him has simply been part of life at Ohio State. In other words, the
incident described in “Hate on High” is not
a rare occurrence. And, of course, what happens at OSU is a reflection of what is happening all over the
country.
When these students stand
firm in what they know about Ohio State and the United States, they are
operating as citizens of the spaces they inhabit. They are acting out of their
belief that they belong. In doing so, they approach hostile tweeters as equals.
Just as the tweeters assume that this is their school and they have a right to
feel that it is designed with them in mind, so do the creators of OSU Haters. The group behind this tumblr site is not accepting
the idea that so-called “minority” students must be suppliant, must put their
case forward as injured subordinates and hope for sympathy. They are
presenting themselves as equals who know that they deserve space.
Some have suggested, even
at the Town Hall gathering, that those
behind OSU Haters should not be
anonymous. Such calls for the online organizers to reveal their
identities should be understood as a sign that some resent dealing with members
of marginalized groups as equals. Some people want to be able to identify them
so that they can intimidate them or more directly dismiss their concerns and
downplay the significance of their experience. In an environment structured in
dominance, the group’s anonymity is one of the only ways that they can be on
equal footing with those who are privileged within the institution. And if you
wonder what being privileged in this environment might look like, please refer
to my post “The AmericanWay: Mediocrity,
When White, Looks Like Merit.”
The Town Hall meeting
focused on generating solutions that will add to the work of the OSU Haters tumblr, but the site itself makes an important
contribution that should not be lost on any of us. These online organizers
clearly reject the idea that they should tolerate hostility and just be glad
they are here. They know that they more than earned their space, and they
(unfairly) keep having to earn it every day.
Know-your-place
aggression is a way of asserting
that certain groups do not truly belong. I am always proud when targeted
communities refuse to accept that painfully consistent message.
