Recently, Melissa Fan ‘08 e-mailed out to campus, apologizing for her role in approving the now infamous “Hip Hop in the Hood” dance party-exhibit (“Students oppose hip hop party,” Apr. 17). Fan was one of the two senior interns responsible for organizing the event. The following sentence from the last paragraph of Fan’s letter captured my attention: “I am exhausted and am trying my best to live my life with integrity.” It struck me because it contains the entire truth about the incident. The people responsible for “Hip Hop in the Hood” are not racist. In fact, they have decent intentions and are probably not tools of a patriarchal hegemony or of their own repressed racial prejudices. They made a mistake and that is all. There doesn’t need to be another reason.
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By
Andrew Chu, guest columnist and co-chair of the Dartmouth Asian Pacific American Alumni Association
To Alex Felix ‘08 and James Bleuer ‘08 and other members of the Phrygian Society who share their views, I would ask a simple question: Does this comic represent the “way of life” that you are fighting so actively to preserve from the “heavy hand of the administration”? From The Dartmouth article describing the Phrygian Society (“Secret society pushes anti-administration agenda,” Mar. 7, 2007), you define yourselves as a group of fraternity presidents, varsity captains and editors (and even a trustee) who are “troubled by [the College’s] direction” and who have taken upon yourselves the task of “personally passing down the Dartmouth traditions through the years.” From your self-description, I imagine that you see yourselves as campus leaders struggling to save a College that you are so passionate about.
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To the Editor:
I would like to express my concern for Dartmouth students who were pained by the recent student party “Hip Hop in the Hood” on April 11 held in conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, “Black Womanhood: Images, Icons, and Ideologies of the African Body.” Please accept our apologies for the distress and misunderstandings this event has caused. Museum and Dartmouth staff members have met with a group of students to listen to concerns, and we will welcome the opportunity to continue this dialogue.
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To the Editor:
Regarding Brian Solomon’s editorial (“A Corrupting Legacy,” Apr. 24) I would like to voice my concern at the author’s blanket view of legacies. In the article, unless I am very much mistaken, the author implies that the only thing a legacy student may offer Dartmouth is a “personal connection” with the college and wealthy parents — that a legacy only arrives at Dartmouth with a mediocre record and a silver spoon in his or her mouth.
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To the Editor:
Although I can appreciate Lydia Chammas ‘09’s well-written social critique of Aliza Shvarts’ “abortion art” (“For Art’s Sake,” Apr. 23), mere comparison to vomit or hair does not even begin to scratch the loathsome surface. Whether Shvarts is simply twisted or a simple liar is inconsequential; barely a whisper has been heard in support of her artistic expression. Near universal condemnation of “abortion as art” brings the gloomy, unspoken undertones of the pro-choice lifestyle into focus: an arbitrarily broken fetus on canvas.
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