Stand Up! for Abdi

This week's readings could not have coincided better with what has been happening on Mason's campus. I will spare reciting the entire account and get to the meat of it. A Mason student, Abdi, was arrest for abduction after an incident over a study room. The case has stirred a lot of attention because it appears the campus police were discriminating against the Abdi because of his race. While the charges of abduction have been dropped, Mason students rallied around Abdi, and went on a quest of justice. Facebook pages, Fairfax Underground articles, Washingtopost coverage, this story received a lot of attention. The whole situation sickened me. And unfortunately, this is not the first time Mason police have been accused of discrimination. I hope the administration realizes there is a broken link and work harder to ensure that all facets of our community are on the same page.

Toby Jenkin's article Patriotism: A Love Story kept bringing me back to my cluster's reading from Citizen's of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity by Robert Jensen. I have realized that my whole life, my upbringing especially, that I was taught to not question, to not be critical;  it was a sign of disrepect. No matter how much I disagreed with something I often kept my mouth shut--like Toby suggests, I was "groomed to play a very docile, silent, and inactive role." That's what I was taught to do. As I got older I started really realizing that it was hard to keep my mouth shut. But it wasn't until really delving into these readings that it wasn't enough to just open my mouth and speak up. You have to actively try to make things better. That's why I am so proud of Mason's students for standing up for Abdi. They got involved and made it known that discrimination will not be tolerated and will not go unnoticed. "Making an entity better...is not achieved through rhetoric that makes us feel good, but rather through action and calls to action that inspire us to do good," (Jenkins).

If I had read Harper and Huarto's The Nine Themes of Racial Climate article several years ago, I may have been shocked to see the themes that resonated with the five campuses in the study. Being on the academic side rather than admissions, and being in this program has really opened my eyes. My freshman year I lived in a quint (yes, five girls in one room). Four of us are white and one was black. The five us got along surprisingly well for being as cramped as we were. But every so often, our black roommate would tell us she needed some "black time". At first we were all offended, but then we realized that it wasn't anything against us. She just really wanted to be a part of that community in addition to us. But Harper and Huarto touched on something that I think is probably true at most institutions and that is that there is quite a bit of segregation. You see it at Mason, I saw it at UCI and at AU. There are certain quadrants of the JC that are claimed. And race being a four-letter word has never been more true. I cant remember a time when a class other than this one engaged in a meaningful dialogue on race. Mason has the Sojourner Truth Lecture Series, but what else is taking place to get our campus community to open their eyes? One student was quoted in the article as saying he had never interacted with anyone outside of his own race, and didn't know how. He felt the university had failed because they were not giving him the guidance to do so. University administrators need to be cognizant that while many are already coming from diverse areas, those who are not are coming because they want to experience this, so make it happen. Create forums, have student panels, engage the students to be part of a shift on the campus. This will help to eliminate the microagressions that Harper and Huarto said students reported.

Rhoades quotes Takaki's response about multiculturalism becoming the Balkanization of America by stating "responding to our diversity as an opportunity to open American minds" in his article Student protest and multicultural reform: Making sense of campus unrest in the 1990s. When talking about the student protests at Mills College, one administrator was quoting as saying that because the students got their way, they feel they can do it again and again. This goes back to Toby Jenkin's point that protesting, speaking out, criticizing, is a way of showing that the students are truly patriots of their university. In the case of Mills College, the women (current students and alumna's)  felt so strongly about men being admitted and their campus climate being changed that they were able to effectively shut down the campus for two weeks.

Protesting, if non-violent and non-destructive, can be a powerful thing. In class a few weeks ago Professor Jenkins made a profound statement that was something to effective of: Sometimes silence can be more powerful...We haven't heard much from Abdi, other than he was elated the charges were dropped. He hasn't been out publicly defaming the girl who accused him, he hasn't been calling in the masses, he has been silent, and as such, the students have really rallied around him showing their utmost support.

And in other news---GO MASON!