Discrimination Still Alive at Stanford
Forward Article to a Friend
Print Article
Early last Saturday morning, a residential assistant barged into my room, tore off my sheets, and then proceeded to reprimand me for my allegedly “wrong” and “unfair” behavior. Like a deer blinded by headlights, I stared at her vacantly wondering what terrible thing I had unwittingly done during my sober sleep. Had I vandalized a peer’s personal property? Had I disrupted others’ sleep with loud, grating music? Had I set off the fire alarm during a casual game of hallway soccer?
Though all of the aforementioned incidents occurred in my dorm hall, none of them were attributable to me. I was the target of a more serious charge: by consciously deciding not to attend the traditional freshman San Francisco scavenger hunt, I was being unfair to all those who had voluntarily woken up early to enjoy a full day of reckless revelry. Essentially, my deliberate decision not to partake in the “mandatory” event because of other responsibilities directly undermined the social tyranny that has come to govern campus life.
On a campus as supposedly open-minded as Stanford, it is surprising to find how little respect students show minorities and the socially marginalized. No, I am not referring to ethnic groups, sexual orientations, or non-Western religions, but rather the straitlaced proverbial nerds who prefer milk to vodka, flowers to weed, and bear hugs to French kisses, who would rather sleep than swap saliva at Full Moon on the Quad, and who would rather attend a performance by the Stanford Orchestra than the Stanford Band.
Considering how accepting and tolerant Stanford claims to be, I find it ironic how quickly many students isolate those who exhibit socially deviant behavior, how willing students seem to pin derogatory labels on others. Students who shudder at the terms “black” and “queer” have no qualms about pigeonholing their painstaking peers as “tools” and “freaks” or their conservative classmates as “bigots” and “rednecks.” While alienating feminists, homosexuals, Chicanos, and Muslims is anathema, harassing individuals who don’t fit the militant, multicultural, tree-hugging, beer chugging, Band-worshipping mold is perfectly acceptable.
Merely skim through the editorial section of the Stanford Daily and try to find an article that supports the policies and positions of the Stanford administration, let alone those of the Bush administration or Catholic Church. Don’t waste your precious time; there aren’t any. Ironically, Stanford students who agree with anything considered orthodox, conservative, or authoritative constitute a more subversive force on campus than those who attack the powers that be. In a strange perversion, concurrence and compliance have become deviant while dissidence and defiance have become standard. Students who don’t partake in risky and risqué activities feel more guilt and shame than those who do. We’re back to the nineties, when bad was considered good, only we’ve added the corollary that good is also bad.
Now, staying in and sleeping on a Saturday night requires more chutzpah than going out and partying. Flouting mass opinion requires more courage than defying campus rules. Opting out of a school tradition merits a harsher reproach than disturbing an entire dorm hall. The message is clear: as long as you conform to majority interests and opinions, then the majority will embrace, support, and protect you. Go ahead, get drunk, run around campus naked, haphazardly pull fire alarms, vomit on your roommate as you stumble back into your room at four in the morning…it’s all good…we all do it...we won’t judge you…we’ve got your back…just as long as you attend our protests, pickets, parties, rallies, orgies, sit-ins and beer fests.
