Residents of the RipWoodSmith dormitory cluster met last night in a forum intended to ease racial tensions heightened by a string of Blitzmail messages that circulated through the cluster the last week.
In the angry exchange of electronic mail messages over several days, residents of the cluster accused each other of racism and intolerance.
Students said the 90-minute forum helped relieve tension and said they would urge The Dartmouth Review to develop a new distribution system in the cluster.
Relations in the cluster have been tense since April 20 when two freshman students, a black man and a white woman, angrily confronted each other in a Woodward hallway over the collection of copies of The Review, the off-campus conservative weekly.
Ripley resident Amiri Barksdale '96, who is black, was part of a campuswide effort to remove copies of The Review from dormitories where they are distributed.
Erica Greenwood '96, a white Woodward resident, confronted Barksdale as he picked up copies of the paper. Controversy followed after Greenwood demanded her copy of The Review, racial epithets were allegedly shouted, and Barksdale allegedly pushed Greenwood out of his way.
Cluster Council President Tina Courey '96 said the consensus at the forum was that she should ask The Review to stop delivering directly to students' doors, and instead leave the papers in a pile in the lounge to allow students interested in reading the paper to pick up a copy.
"I thought the meeting was very productive," Barksdale said. "The new system is basically freedom of choice. I think the solution is great."
Barksdale and Grace Chionuma '96, who was also a part of the campuswide effort to collect The Review, promised they would not touch copies of the paper left in a pile in the lounge.
Some students at the forum voiced concern over the new plan.
"I'm not sure how many people would want to make the effort to get the paper," Woodward resident Chris D'Addario '96 said. "It's like registering to vote; unless you make it easy for people, they won't do it. The Review might lose a few readers with the new process."
"In terms of the specific proposal, I'm hesitant," Review Editor-in-Chief Oron Strauss '95 said. "For people who wanted to interfere with the distribution of the Review it would be that much easier."
Strauss would not say whether The Review will change its distribution method in RipWoodSmith. He said he would not want any change to set a precedent.
Courey, who moderated the discussion, said she thought some people were afraid to express objections to the new system because they thought they would be branded as racist.
According to Courey, the discussion was not meant to reach any conclusions, but rather to provide students with an open forum to exchange ideas. Courey said students would continue communicate by Blitzmail and that another discussion would be planned for next week.
The main thrust of yesterday's talk was the issue of whether The Review has the right to distribute its paper to students.
"For the most part it eased tension," James Budd '95 said. "I think some people got a little divisive and made it an us versus them in your face kind of issue, but for the most part it was good for the dorm."
"Our cluster was basically a cluster under siege," Chionuma said. "I was very apprehensive about even going tonight."
At the meeting, Barksdale and Chionuma said their removal of The Review was an act of protest against The Review's ideas and what it represents, and was not an effort to limit free speech.
Others present urged the two to find alternate means of protest that would not limit the availability of the paper.
Courey and cluster resident Calvin Daniels '96 said they proposed the forum because they were concerned about the ill will.
"We are so polarized in this dorm," Chionuma said at the forum, "that I wake up in the morning and there are people I don't want to see as a result of my Blitzmail correspondence."
Chionuma sent the first message requesting that students stop ripping down Student Assembly candidates' posters, an act she said hindered the dissemination of ideas and amounted to censorship.
Budd replied that it was ironic that Chionuma, a student who had picked up copies of The Review, would condemn removal of posters.
The next blitz came from Daniels, who accused all Anglo-Saxons at Dartmouth of being racist.
James Rich '96 responded, "Your naive statement is an absolute joke. If you think that every 'anglo-saxon' on this campus is a racist then you have a serious problem ... I am sick of people pinning me as a racist just because my skin is white."
Daniels replied that Rich was a "dumb ass." He continued, "Why are you taking it so personally? a wise man once said that 'the truth hurts!' do you have a grudge on your shoulder's or something? I sent that blitz earlier, so that you may begin to realize what's it like being a minority on this campus. So that you may begin to realize what we are thinking everyday ... I appologize to those I offended, that was not my purpose."
