Where are you and what does that mean?

Note: The following is a response to Sara Foss's "generalized rant." It is personalized because it is a direct response. Feel free, however, to see your own name (Rebecca, Julianne, Matthew "Doe") in any of the following "Sara/s".

Where are the students who are complaining Sara? Where are the students who want more environmental studies Profs. an Asian American studies department? Well some of them were on the EPPC (hmm, wonder why they aren't any more?), some were talking/pleading/arguing their case with Deans, The Presidents (of the last 25 years, oh wait we're on 26 now) some were at meetings and open forums were they were dismissed and their issues and concerns trivialized. And most were burning out, failing their classes, losing their financial aid because of probation and suspension, returning to their safer spaces because people like you were too caught up in your own analysis of the situation, placing blame on them, rather than holding the institution and the "nameless faceless administration" accountable for maintaining status quo, and perpetuating the racism and xenophobia with the academy.

But tell me where were all the good intentioned, well meaning perceptive and oh so aware students like yourself who had all the answers who understood all the rules and obviously could make them work for them, because they are white , or straight, or male, or economically privileged (since so many people here don't like the words, rich, wealthy, or upper class)? Where were all the concerned "allies" who could've also participated in the constant struggle to change the system? You know, the ones who because of their class, color, orientation, status, privlege could exist in those forums which really were only "open " to certain individuals, without being positioned as the token (fill in the blank: Black, Latino, Asian American, Native American, Queer, Lesbian, Bisexual , Gay, Low income, etc., etc., etc..) Where were you and your rules when search committees weren't listening to students with complaints, or students reps who brought forward the concerns of students with complaints were ignorned? Where you when coalitions were being formed across lines of race class gender and sexuality? Where are you when people hold teach- in's to educate others about issues that directly affect them? Where are you and your prophetic pen when people take up that challenge and continue to educate themselves?

Where were the students willing to put themselves on the line for Brinda Rao, for Linda Carty, Gloria Watkins? Where were the students willing to fight for Afrikan Heritage House, Third World Co-Op, the Low Income Student Alliance, The Bonner Scholars Program? Where were you Sara? Where will you be in the next year, or five when these issues come up again and again? Will you be in your office typing away about the evils of apathy? Contributing your two cents in trying to raise consciousness within the framework of a newspaper that is known to print faulty information, mangle people's quotes and make sweeping generalizations without ever holding themselves accountable?

You want to know where are the people who understand the rules, yet "hide" behind anonymity? You want to know why people "complain?" By the way, nice way to trivialize people's struggles on this campus. Have you ever had to fight for a course that reflected your life? Have you had an institution, or a professor with the power of the institution tell you that your life, your history, the experiences of your parents and their parents weren't worth academic attention?

You want to know and I haven't any or all of the answers but what i can tell you is this: while you "rant" about apathy, and how pathetic, and how obviously people are complaining for no reason, you perpetuate stereotypes you say in between your words, for words like "pathetic" and "complain" do have a history in the context of liberation struggle, that "you people need to learn the rules, you people need to understand, you people are lazy and need to be content with what you have, you people need to stop complaining and learn your place, you people need to learn how to live in our system with our rules, and never question, never argue, never complain because we will find a way to crush you. How dare you try to challenge our power."

Your forums, Sara, your rules have a history that are racist and elitist, sexist, homophobic, classist, and ableist. They discriminate and are maintained by the continual disempowerment of those differently abled, those who are people of color, those who are poor, those who queer, and those who are affected by the intersections of all of these. The students you rail have worked within a system and while some haven't, many of those have interrogated the ways in which what they do has implications, has a history, and has consequences, have you done the same? They are challenging the rules that made Oberlin the "bastion of progressiveism," it claims to be. They are challenging the mainstream, the status quo. And maybe that scares people like you who benefit from the system of privlege that comes from participation in and unquestioning adherence to "the rules." But then one must also ask, what is your role then, your responsibility to and in the system? How you respond to that makes a difference has implications based on historical and contemporary constructions of "identity," and "personhood." So where are you Sara? Where are you and what does that mean?

Nicole Pierce is a College junior