Ouellette: Intolerance at Dartmouth
By Torrese Ouellette, Contributing Columnist
Published on Thursday, January 26, 2012
One night, my girlfriend and I were taking an evening jog. When we stopped to take a break in front of the Rockefeller Center, a group of male students walked by. One looked over his shoulder at us and sneered, “niggers.” One of his friends, not objecting to the insult, simply cautioned, “shh.” Another night, just last term, I was walking up South Main Street when a group of students drove by in a car. Unmistakably, one male voice shouted out the window, “nigger!”
After each of these incidents, I found myself wondering if I had done anything to “provoke” these insults. Was it the clothes that I wore or the way I carried myself? Was it the company I did or did not happen to keep? Or did I simply not belong at Dartmouth? I suspect that many students have asked themselves similar questions when they sense that they are not accepted here. Yet the ability of one group to make another feel guilty simply for existing represents the ultimate triumph of bigotry. Just like women do not do anything to “invite” men to belittle, harass or assault them, minority students do not need to act in any particular way to be insulted and stereotyped. Sometimes, all it takes to be a target of intolerance is for one to “be” at all. In any community where people are made to feel unwelcome, unsafe or inferior simply because of who they are or who they appear to be, then maybe that community has some issues that need to be addressed.
What troubles me is not that such narrow-mindedness exists at Dartmouth, but how persistently Dartmouth officially and unofficially sells itself as some shining bastion of inclusivity, even when many of our personal experiences tell a very different story. What I find frustrating is not the pride and loyalty students feel toward this institution, in spite of its flaws. It is the fact that every year, when it’s time to lure prospective students into the ostensibly inviting arms of Dear Old Dartmouth, many of us — even those of us who have been stricken by those same arms with the pain of prejudice, exclusion and isolation — plaster smiles over the bruised, embittered and disillusioned spirits that lie beneath to attract those students unprepared for a similar fate.
Although we often assemble in classrooms, common rooms and auditoriums beneath the non-committal mission statement of “promoting campus dialogue” about important issues of identity and community, we seldom seem to talk about the things that truly need to be said. We rarely talk openly about the pain of being excluded, slighted or ignored because of our sexual orientation, gender, race, class or Greek affiliation status, or of the social insecurity that can cause us to victimize others for fear of being excluded ourselves. At least we do not talk about these issues directly. We can congratulate ourselves for the presence of indistinct phenomena like “dialogue” and “diversity” supposedly demonstrated in the form of easily ignored community “talks,” or in the form of days sporadically assigned to commemorate some ethnic group or social issue. These discussions always seem to be occurring somewhere, even if they do not in any way affect our own lives. Yet if each of us is not committed to filling our own lives with the type of acceptance and sensitivity toward others that we take for granted in our community, how can we be sure that it really exists at all, in the way that it needs to?
When instances of bigotry occur so blatantly or publicly that they cannot be reasonably ignored — when we find homophobic slurs secretly scrawled on the windows of our residence halls, or when we hear misogynist chants in the basements of our fraternities, or when racial slurs are spewed at minority students under the cover of darkness — campus leaders often issue a denunciation claiming that the act has no place within our community. This is a peculiar concept, for intolerance evidently has a place here. Otherwise, there would be little need for statements decrying it. The real question is: What are we going to do to change it? And when are we collectively going to be honest with ourselves and stop hiding the reality of intolerance at Dartmouth beneath the convenient mantle of denial?
This is deep. I am speechless. The writer added great depth to the article. It makes me happy that I go to a HBCU, but also sad that the acceptance we have here (of all races, religions, etc) is not something every student gets to feel.
By Nichole on Jan 26 | 9:11 am
Torrese, you’re one of the nicest people I’ve met here. Great, great article.
By ‘12 on Jan 26 | 11:38 am
There is only one guarantee you can have about Dear Old Dartmouth: it will somehow always manage to embarrass you. This incident and the latest hazing news are only the most recent in a long string of activities that should’ve been left far, far behind. When, with the exception of the Aires, was the last time you saw anything positive about Dartmouth in news?
By SC on Jan 26 | 1:04 pm
Taking this issue head on, as you have done in this article, is exactly what is needed. Great piece.
By ‘10 on Jan 26 | 2:28 pm
This article is about as deep as a puddle. Taking the actions of the two students the author encountered as a sign of the attitude of the entire campus is about as moronic as it is ironic and offensive. The author has no more right to make generalizations about my school (or the fraternity system) based on the actions of two wretched individuals than they do of his race based on minimal data. Produce a survey showing that even 2 in 100 students have some racial prejudice, and I’ll agree there’s a problem. But the author has personally encountered 2 in more than 4000, under circumstances that are remarkably dubious. In short, it is the author who is terribly bigoted, and needs to be more open-minded.
By hmm on Jan 26 | 4:21 pm
Thank you for the courage to share this. I couldn’t be more disappointed in the administration of President Jim Yong Kim. I’m not at all saying these narratives are because of his regime, but he’s been so, so focused on ‘strategic planning,’ and worse yet, his grandiose vision-plans, that his team has really neglected the bread-and-butter issues that his leadership is supposed to facilitate and improve — like systemic campus problems.
By Anonymous Alumnus on Jan 26 | 4:27 pm
To hmm:
If you think the author’s experience is an anomaly at Dartmouth, then you are either very, very lucky or blind to bigoted behavior. Based on my four years at Dartmouth as an Asian female that took part in “mainstream Dartmouth” to my shame and regret, even 2 out of 100 would be a far too charitable guess.
By ‘11 on Jan 26 | 8:32 pm
@hmm See https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/ I think students taking stats courses should look into giving implicit association tests as surveys. The only challenges are 1) that this is not a three question survey 2) obtaining a truly representative sample
Perhaps someone could apply for funding to pay participants, which could help solve both issues.
By ‘10 on Jan 26 | 9:01 pm
The two individuals who said the slurs are pathetic. It’s inevitable that a bad apple will slip through the admissions process and matriculate. Does not mean they define the school? No.
Now how do you reach them? How do you educate them (because that is the goal of Dartmouth, right?) It’s a tough question, but if you want to solve this, writing sad stories about name calling is not the answer. Find out how you get those sad, lonely souls to live with and eventually befriend people outside their skin color.
Honestly, the majority of my black friends came from my team and my house and forming those deep friendships is the best combat against racism you can ask for. Not something Jim Kim or OPAL would do.
By ‘11 on Jan 26 | 10:35 pm
@hmm Your argumentation and logic are just terrible. Point out to me the exact sentences and phrases where the author generalizes the attitude of the two specific students to the entire student body or the fraternity system. That’s right, he/she doesn’t. The author never claimed that the entire student body (or even a prevailing majority) was racist, only that he/she has a problem with Dartmouth’s tendency to parade its status as a paragon of tolerance through various “talks” and “dialogues” while it’s not necessarily the case and many students do indeed feel uncomfortable or left out. Please read the column more carefully and refrain from straw-manning (or just straight making up) the author’s argument.
By ‘13 on Jan 27 | 3:21 am
Am I missing something ? Were there not several other students accompanying the two who made the slurs? It is a deeper problem than just the two bigots.There is also the problem of those who encourage,condone or fail to object.
By Anonymous on Jan 30 | 2:17 pm
This is excellent.
By Anonymous on Feb 3 | 12:43 pm
As a member of this community, I fully agree and support Torrese’s message.
Unfortunately, the power to address issues such as these at Dartmouth is – as this article points out – essentially non-existant, the only avenues of redress being effete public discourse, or irrelevant op-ed musings in the D (where angry students are sent to vent, while the motive for the anger remains unchanged).
Torrese, there are some of us who want change. There are some of us who want to stand up. Contact me if you’re interested.
By Emery S. Coxe ‘12 on Feb 5 | 3:47 pm
Torrese, I’m sorry this happened to you. These incidents are unacceptable. Dartmouth is yours as much as any other student.
To ‘11, Torrese in particular and further any student at Dartmouth should not be subjected to ANY bigoted speech. None. Zero. One incident is too many. Two is a crisis. '11, your comments are not helpful; your intent is hateful. Please, if you can’t offer solace and support, if your worldview doesn’t let you acknowledge that even one incident of hate speech wounds the targeted individual, then keep quiet. You are part of the problem and so far you show no ability to acknowledge this. Introspect a little please. Find your humanity.
Dartmouth is a place that tolerates zero hate. As an Alum, I cannot accept that my institution harbors such misanthropic individuals. They need help; they need counseling; they need to broaden their experiences and realize their prejudices will hold them back in life later.
By Jesse Beach ‘04 on Feb 6 | 10:50 am
Lolz. @ ‘10 – What individual is going to take a survey pertaining to racism and admit to being racist? And I don’t know what statistics course you’re taking at Dartmouth, but it just goes to show that an Ivy League school can even have its shortcomings. There are more than 2 minority students at Dartmouth. Instead of asking the majority their views on racism, a better survey would be to focus on how minorities feel at Dartmouth. I go to a school in the South and I’ve never heard of this happening at my institution.
By J on Feb 7 | 12:36 pm
Thanks for this article. Your experience is definitely not unique. As a freshman and international student coming to Dartmouth with expectations well raised by the College’s various programmes for incoming students, I was really surprised when I experienced something like this. I was walking back to my dorm one night when a group of male students in a car drove by and shouted racial slurs at me, probably drunk. While at the time, I passed the incident off as just ‘what sometimes happens when people get drunk’, on hindsight I don’t think that alcohol makes it any more excusable. If anything, alcohol merely exposes underlying and hidden prejudices, and the combination of drunkenness and bigotry only makes the incident all the more pathetic.
By T ‘15 on Feb 7 | 3:51 pm
J, I agree that focusing on how minorities feel at Dartmouth is most important. Re: IATs, an implicit association test is designed to assess implicit attitudes of which a person has no conscious awareness. They are not without criticism, but I imagine a student doing a project could determine what constitutes best practices today. The Harvard study is something I just did online for fun. I think gathering data on students at Dartmouth would be an interesting but slightly oblique method for getting the pulse on racism at Dartmouth. Again, I agree that focusing on minorities would be the best way to get a sense of the problem.
By ‘10 on Feb 7 | 5:13 pm