I was one of the administrators who called and talked to Becky Merchant, advertising manager of the Emerald, about my disappointment and anger that the Emerald chose to run a Yahoo! ad campaign that was both offensive and sexist, as well as homophobic.
To my surprise, Ms. Merchant volunteered that she also found the ads to be sexist and offensive, that there was a review process she could have used to reconsider the ads and she had chosen not to use it. She told me that “the students here did not seem bothered by the ads.” And so she did not speak up. Perhaps one of the things she was worried about was that “the students” might think she was being “too PC.” Is there an atmosphere at the ODE that convinces staff they might be ostracized if they speak up?
Ms. Merchant’s behavior stands in contrast to the actions of Erica Fuller, director of the Multicultural Center, a person new to this campus who could have remained silent and yet chose respond to what she and others found to be demeaning and dangerous. Fuller wrote a guest commentary that helped readers think about the ads in terms of their effects on all members of the campus community.
To put this matter in a different context, I believe it is not appropriate for me, as a white person, to do or say whatever I want without thinking about how it might affect a person whose skin is not the color of mine; that is, if I hold to the principle that I do not want to contribute to racism and discrimination based on skin color. Nor is it sufficient for me to claim to have “a black friend,” for instance, who will tell me if I get out of line. For me, taking responsibility for the privilege I enjoy as a white person means to think about and realize how my actions affect others, particularly those who do not enjoy the presumptions of innocence, worthiness and competence I often get automatically just because of the way I look. I did not just land on the planet and I am capable of thinking about my actions in context.
When the editor of the Emerald says, in his written response, that he is “quite comfortable with the belief that no one at the Emerald, in any department, endorses rape or homophobia,” he implies that they have no responsibility for contributing to an atmosphere where those things are more likely to be condoned. And yet, in running this ad series the Emerald basically said to the campus community, “We don’t have to care about how this affects you, particularly if you are ‘too sensitive’ because you have been the victim of sexual violence. As long as the others are silent, then they must think these ads are OK. You don’t count because they are not complaining.”
We have many examples of genocide, racial profiling and other hate crimes continuing while the majority stayed safely silent. It is past time that we learned to think before we act and to consider how others besides ourselves are affected both by our actions and by our silence.