Spring Break
When the racial tension reaches a boiling point
by Dan Hirschhorn
Senior Editor
Features | 4/24/07
Posted online at 3:52 AM EST on 4/24/07
"The only thing Dusty Baker has a Ph.D. in is something that starts with N and rhymes with Tigger, the cheerful scamp who stole all our hearts in the Winnie the Pooh series," the quote read.
The uproar on campus was immediate and fierce. The columnist was immediately fired, and editors struggled to manage what had been unleashed. When the Justice hosted a forum to discuss the issue, a row of mostly black students sitting at the front walked out when the sports editor took the microphone.
Ultimately, several editors, including the editor in chief, resigned under pressure from the administration. On the night before the Justice's next publication, the Brandeis Black Students Organization organized a protest outside the Justice office. The students succeeded in forcing the newspaper to delay printing so that BBSO could submit an op-ed piece that ran on the front page.
"Many members of the community take note of diversity" only when racial tensions boil over, said Prof. Govind Sreenivasan (HIST), who has studied coexistence on campus. "Diversity challenges aren't confined to these spectacular events."
Such events inevitably lead to self-examination by the University. Committees are formed, recommendations are made, some are followed. Examining various coexistence-oriented reports over the years, the similarities in their observations are striking.
But the debate inevitably subsides, and the racial tension returns to its familiar place beneath the surface.
In an article published in the Justice during the Ford Hall occupation, this reporter's father foreshadowed the difficulty of handling such issues.
"The repressive institution invites conflict, but the liberal institution may seek to mask it," the article said. "Such an institution, with the best of intentions, seeks to avoid or ameliorate conflict, by eliminating its surface manifestations."
The uproar on campus was immediate and fierce. The columnist was immediately fired, and editors struggled to manage what had been unleashed. When the Justice hosted a forum to discuss the issue, a row of mostly black students sitting at the front walked out when the sports editor took the microphone.
Ultimately, several editors, including the editor in chief, resigned under pressure from the administration. On the night before the Justice's next publication, the Brandeis Black Students Organization organized a protest outside the Justice office. The students succeeded in forcing the newspaper to delay printing so that BBSO could submit an op-ed piece that ran on the front page.
"Many members of the community take note of diversity" only when racial tensions boil over, said Prof. Govind Sreenivasan (HIST), who has studied coexistence on campus. "Diversity challenges aren't confined to these spectacular events."
Such events inevitably lead to self-examination by the University. Committees are formed, recommendations are made, some are followed. Examining various coexistence-oriented reports over the years, the similarities in their observations are striking.
But the debate inevitably subsides, and the racial tension returns to its familiar place beneath the surface.
In an article published in the Justice during the Ford Hall occupation, this reporter's father foreshadowed the difficulty of handling such issues.
"The repressive institution invites conflict, but the liberal institution may seek to mask it," the article said. "Such an institution, with the best of intentions, seeks to avoid or ameliorate conflict, by eliminating its surface manifestations."
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