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No Time for Museum Exhibits On a cold, rainy day at the end of March, in the middle of Massachusetts, about 350 Hampshire College students walked out on classes to protest the college’s failure to actively implement anti-racist policies. Hampshire’s student population numbers 1,350. The walkout was organized by students of color working on behalf of the Students of Under-represented Cultures and Ethnicities (SOURCE), an umbrella coalition of international student and students of color groups. A core of white anti-racist activists, numbering about thirty students, served as allies.
Conventional media reports, riddled with phrases in quotation-marks such as "anti-oppression training,” framed the walkout as the culmination of Action Awareness Week. And while that week, which featured a teach-in, speak-out, and writing workshop on oppression, was certainly a catalyst, the walkout was in actuality building for far longer than that. Resolutions still unmet According to SOURCE's official press release, the walkout was the culmination of years of negotiations between students and administration, with some of the 17 demands actually repeating demands that had been made during a similar crisis — one “resolved” in 1988. That crisis, peaking with a dorm takeover by black students, produced what came to be known as The Dakin Agreement, which the college website describes as “a legally binding document signed . . . by Hampshire administrators and students of color.” An exhibit about this artifact of the three-decade old college’s history is in fact on display right now at the school’s art gallery. It is named, simply, “The 1988 Dakin Takeover Exhibit.” While school administrators may prefer to see the takeover and agreement as history or art or PR for its progressive image, anti-racist student activists tend to see it very differently. Many of the commitments in that “legally binding document,” commented SOURCE member and spokesperson Romina Ruiz, remain unrealized. “We’ve been talking about this stuff forever.” The 2008 set of demands range from re-establishment of a Dean of Multicultural Affairs position, to the creation of at least one residential hall designated for students of color (termed identity-based housing by the students themselves), to closing of the college on Columbus Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day for campus-wide teach-ins on racism and imperialism, and “divestment in countries that practice racial apartheid.” Negotiations continue SOURCE members most directly involved with the walkout, now titling themselves The Action Awareness Week Movement, re-entered negotiations yesterday, April 15th, with the Hampshire College negotiating committee. Neither side was willing to comment, given the sensitive nature of negotiations. AAWM members agreed, however, after some consensus-based deliberation, to talk to WACAN about the role of white allies in the walkout and its continuing wake. In a phone interview, Romina Ruiz took time from preparations for negotiations to explain that meetings of the group are closed to white allies, whose potential involvement in any particular action is negotiated within the group, with white allies being informed after. “There is always a power dynamic,” she said. “People have a tendency to listen to a white person. Leadership must come from the community most affected.” White allies What role did the Hampshire college white allies play in the walkout? They were useful, Ruiz reported, in dealing with the white backlash, which was considerable and included anonymous flyering of the campus with a picture of near-nude woman in a gas mask along with the text Stop demanding. We’re on the same side. White allies organized teach-ins and expanded their base, reaching out to and energizing silent supporters among other white students. Many white students did, in fact, as one white person’s makeshift poster goaded them to, “show solidarity.”
“They were great in supporting us,” said Ruis, “absolutely wonderful.” They seemed able, she observed, to “check themselves” well enough to remain real allies. That checking was apparent at the White Anti-Racist Summit held April 5 in Springfield Massachusetts, where a few of those allies—three current Hampshire college students—were approached by WACAN for this article. “We’re trying not to have white people be in the media for this,” said Ana Gordon-Loebl. She recalled a news story about the March 31st walkout that quoted one student only — a white one. In light of WACAN’s unique mission, though, the three consented to an interview at the close of the one-day summit, which itself closed the 9th Annual White Privilege Conference. Judging by the energy and commitment of these three, however, those closings might more accurately be termed openings. “Our biggest challenge as white allies,” Dana Finkelstein began, “is learning how to communicate with other white students.” Her aim, she said, is to “sympathize, really personalize it.” Another key challenge is to manage “a balance between stepping back under people of color but also working hard and taking initiative.” Finkelsetin feels she has a “twenty-four hour a day involvement” and is very much “on call.” The walkout created momentum, a momentum that she and other white allies hope to continue: “challenging racism in a context of whiteness.” Seeking truth Will Hampshire college students of European descent benefit in any way from the walkout (and is that a question one ought even to ask)? Ana Gordon-Loebl responded that, “the analysis is only coming from people of color, but, yes, sure, we definitely have a stake. All of the demands really affect our education. We’ve really been robbed of the truth.”
Added Julia Metzger-Traber, another white Hampshire college student who participated in the summit, “For the students of color these are not just revolutionary demands. They are demands for survival.” Given that harsh reality, there is, the three agreed, an understandable “urgency difference” between themselves and the students of color. “But we do have a huge amount of urgency.” Indeed they do. The three rushed off to a conference to be held the following day at the college, where they planned to staff a white allies table. It doesn’t seem like they’ll have a whole lot of extra time for things like visiting art gallery exhibits about the school’s history of past activism. Good thing. What you can do The Action Awareness Week Movement welcomes letters of support. These can be sent to President Ralph J. Hexter, asking him to respond seriously to the 17 demands put forth by SOURCE at the end of Action Awareness Week. Copy AAWM representative, Romina Ruiz. EMAIL ADDRESSES: You may also wish to copy: Printed letters may be sent to President Ralph J. Hexter, Cole Science Center, Room 110, Hampshire College, 893 West Street, Amherst, MA 01002.
Photos reprinted by permission of Stephen M. Emmanuel from the blog, Queer Kid of Color.
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