Editorial
Letter to the Editor
By Professor Nigel Westmaas
February 18, 2016
Tags letter to the editor
Dear Editor,
The Spectator on February 11 carried a letter by Professor Maurice Isserman in “response to concerns over criticisms of two of his colleagues on the faculty”. I cannot presume to know from where these “concerns” originate. Isserman invokes the Freedom Summer of 1964 and cites the criteria proffered by his colleagues, namely the need for “coalition building, thoughtful long term planning, and coordinated action.” Terri Moise, an Africana Studies major wrote a fearless and powerful critique of the content of the article written by Professors Heather Merrill and Donald Carter in the Chronicle of Higher Education (CHE) and his retort was carried in both the Spectator and the CHE. If Isserman is directly responding to Moise’s letter he should let this be known. Instead, he has placed himself in the unflattering position of defending faculty from students while ignoring or misrepresenting the framework and experience of contemporary student activism. Moreover, his references to Bob Moses and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) while generally accurate and informative have little bearing on the matters raised in the student’s critique of Merrill and Carter’s article.
What then is the real motive for Isserman’s letter? As far as I can recall no black and other minority student activists and their organizations have ever criticized or disparaged the need for coordinated action and coalition building in their quest for inclusion and justice on this campus, other academic institutions, or in the nation. In fact, the student protest at Hamilton College that closed down College Hill Road in November 2014 in solidarity with Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and other victims of police violence, was a united, coordinated and effective effort by a diverse student body.
When “Freedom Summer” is blithely invoked without contextual reference to the existing, ongoing challenges of students in the struggle for social justice and diversity on campus there is some other intent afoot. As Moise indicated, there are other varied forms of student struggle, not only the selected historical forms with which Isserman and his colleagues appear to have a romance. Instead of intermittent intervention, tangible, long term solidarity can and should be extended to students and their contemporary experience on campus not all of which is related to public protest.
In essence, all Isserman has accomplished is to make a coded plea for white privilege and patronizing instruction to “black campus activists” that obscures the unmasking of the real problems at hand. In future, he should make careful evaluation about the layered nature of lived student experience and activism on campus before extending history lessons. Hamilton students can also be pragmatic teachers.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Westmaas
Westmaas is an associate professor of Africana Studies.