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November 20, 2006
Dear Dartmouth students:
As you prepare for the Thanksgiving holiday and for the end-of-term rush, I
wanted to share with you a few observations and to seek your engagement on an
important matter. I write here out of a deep sense of institutional and
personal concern about the situation.
Last week I met with a group of Native American students to discuss the
distress they felt following a series of racist and insensitive incidents. They
have not felt supported by the administration or by the community during this
time. I assured them that they were not alone and told them that I would
publicly affirm this. I understand that the Native American Council is also
preparing a communication [now published] and I believe that Dean Dan Nelson's
letter ten days ago reflected well the College's views on these matters.
I have also learned that other students have recently been subjected to
racist and sexist comments. Unfortunately, Dartmouth is not immune to the
prejudices, ignorance, or racism of the larger society. These have no
acceptable place there or at Dartmouth, where we have higher aspirations for
our community and share closer bonds of responsibility to one another. Racial
taunting or name-calling is unacceptable. It harms us all. When any one
individual or group is singled out to be demeaned or diminished, the entire
community is the victim, and we all should share in the response. I apologize
on behalf of the College.
In the early 1970s I worked with some faculty colleagues and Native students
to establish the Native American Studies program and I joined with others,
including students, to end the College's use of the Native American mascot and
symbol. We were successful in the latter because nearly everyone, when they
thought about what it meant to appropriate a race as mascot and plaything, was
quick to respond. Many Dartmouth people who had used or accepted the Indian
symbol for years had not thought about some of the deeper consequences.
Understanding them, they were willing to cease the use of Native American
culture and history in this way.
Dartmouth was one of the first institutions to discontinue the use of the
Indian symbol and mascot. Some schools still refuse to acknowledge this
problem-including institutions with whom we compete in athletic events. One of
them, the University of North Dakota, will be participating in a hockey
tournament here in late December. We clearly must be more thoughtful in our
decision-making on such events and we will review our policies in this
area.
Since the Dartmouth Board of Trustees decided in the 1970s not to use the
Indian symbol the College's position on this has never wavered. Nor will it.
American Indians are a rich part of Dartmouth's heritage and a strong
contributing part of our community. Collectively and as individuals they
deserve our respect and our admiration. Dartmouth was founded under a charter
that provided that the College's purpose would be the education of Indians as
well as English youth and others.
The Mohegan Indian Samson Occom went to England on behalf of Eleazar
Wheelock and raised the money that enabled the organization of the College. He
stands as a founder of the College. But within a matter of a few years,
Wheelock had shifted the emphasis away from Native Americans. In 1970 President
John Kemeny recommitted the College to its charter purpose. In the intervening
two centuries we slipped away from our mission and lost a sense of our true
history. Our first students were forgotten and their more abstract presence
became the object of caricature; we neglected our history and our collegiate
ancestors and founders.
Boston sportswriters in the 1920s compounded this loss of memory when they
started calling our athletic teams "the Indians" as a criticism and
dismissal. And we came to adopt what was intended as a negative as our symbol.
This was easier than confronting our history. What should have been a proud
history became the subject of jokes and a significant failure of historical
purpose became a part of the College's amnesia.
We have worked for thirty-six years to remedy that failing, and we take
tremendous pride in our Native American graduates and all that they have
accomplished. But tasks such as these are never over. As Calvin Trillin wrote
in a New Yorker article on this subject in the 1970s, the symbol itself became
emblematic for those who were disenchanted with the changes that marked the
College in those early years of coeducation and of renewed commitment to
diversity. We moved on, even if some individuals did not.
We can take pride in what we have done to resolve to maintain our charter
purpose. Native American students are here because they have worked very hard,
many of them overcoming tremendous and unique obstacles, and they are subject
to the same academic and financial aid standards that all applicants face.
There are no free admits or categorical scholarships. They are members of this
community and they contribute to the whole range of academic programs, students
groups, and teams. They are your classmates and your friends. And they deserve
more and better than to be abstracted as symbols and playthings.
There will always be individuals - including some who are members of this
community - who empower themselves by disrespecting others. They are few in
number but this is not about numbers. Some who have engaged in the incidents of
the last few months may be unaware of the disrespect that is entailed and the
hurt that is felt. That should no longer be an excuse. The rest, those who know
of the hurt and disrespect and persist nonetheless, are simply bullies.
"Free speech" rights are regularly asserted by the latter.
Certainly, freedom of expression is a core value of this institution. The
College is not going to start a selective dress code and we do not have a
speech code. Free speech includes the right to say and to do foolish and
mean-spirited things. We have seen several examples of this exercise this fall.
But free speech is not a right exclusively maintained for the use of the mean
and the foolish - it is not unless we allow it to be, and then the free part
has been minimized.
Let me exercise my right of free speech: I take it as a matter of principle
that when people say they have been offended, they have been offended. We may
apologize and explain, we may seek to assure that offense was not intended, but
it is condescending to insist that they shouldn't be offended, that it is
somehow their fault, and that they are humorless since they can't appreciate
that what was perceived as offensive is merely a "joke." And it is
the worst form of arrogance for anyone to insist that they will continue to
offend on the basis of a "right" to do so. Communities depend upon
rights. But they also thrive upon mutual respect. This community thrives
because each generation of students understands and advances this principle,
which finally is more effective than any administrative sanctions or speech
codes.
This College is sustained by you, by the commitment of Dartmouth students to
fairness, to each other and to the wholeness of this community. I am encouraged
by those of you who have reached out and have spoken out. I respect and thank
those who have acknowledged and apologized for actions that proved to be
hurtful. Yet many students with whom I have spoken over the last few weeks have
not engaged in this conversation. We all should do this. This is not an
abstract debate but a real issue. Dartmouth's strength is the sense of
belonging and inclusiveness that marks our values.
Words and actions do matter - let us use our words and actions to make the
Dartmouth campus a truly welcoming and inclusive one.
Sincerely,
James Wright
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