To the Editor:
I am a recent Brown alum. Since I graduated in May 2012, two moments have made me proud to claim my alma mater. The first was the protest of former New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly’s speaking event in October. The second is the protest of Israel Defense Forces Sgt. Benjamin Anthony’s talk at Brown/RISD Hillel last week. These two moments best exemplify the spirit that made me choose Brown for my undergraduate career, the same reason I feel proud to claim the institution now.
Universities have often been accomplices to and creators of some of the most oppressive ideological technologies in modern history. I am currently a graduate student at the University of Amsterdam, and I frequently pass the Dutch Free University on my way to work, where apartheid was first imagined. Suffice it to say that the intellectual savvy required to defend these voices on the basis of distorted Western conceptions of freedom of speech has not always led to brighter futures.
I say distorted and I qualify with Western, because we all are well aware of the limits of our First Amendment rights. It is not difficult to agree that we do not in fact have the right to utter all words, particularly racist, oppressive, fatal, divisive ones that may cause harm to large sections of the population. It is not difficult to agree that those who speak with the accent of institutional power (the kind that can destroy homes and make violence state-sanctioned, and thus legal) bear a different sort of responsibility in the wielding of their voices.
Which brings me back to why I am proud: that some students who attend this prestigious university understand the debt they now owe to the world to be responsible speakers. I am proud that some of my fellow students used their free speech to ensure that Anthony’s legitimacy does not go unquestioned. Based on my reading of the organization of the event, it appears to have been arranged clandestinely — though surely Hillel welcomes all voices, including the loud ones that chose to sit outside the event in protest.
Once upon a time, people thought Jim Crow was a good idea, too. There are plenty of supporters of imperialism who believe they have good intentions, as Anthony must, since he paints himself as the victim each time he is protested on college campuses, as he was at Hampshire College and others. I am proud that some of my fellow students asserted the boundaries of free speech and held the IDF responsible for the power it has fatally used against the Palestinian people. History will surely frown upon the actions being taken by the Israeli government against Palestinians, immigrants, refugees and non-white Jews. Actions such as those taken by the protesters ensure that my university does not end up on the wrong side.
Samantha Carter ’12
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