I find no “ridiculous irony” in opposing the Oregon Commentator’s hate speech and supporting The Insurgent’s attack on Christianity (“University should keep protecting expression,” ODE, Apr. 28). The Commentator has repeatedly singled out local individuals with threats of physical, verbal and sexual violence. They printed ableist, racist and homophobic slurs on a campus that is so hostile to students with disabilities, students of color and queer students that even minimalist and inadequate administrative attention to campus climate requires massive protest.
The Insurgent attacked Christianity without singling out individual Christians or instigating violence. Christian ideologies dictate our calendars, are taken seriously as potential replacements for science in schools and infuse politics and culture. Many adherents have been attempting for thousands of years to spread this hegemony worldwide. If Christians feel that they are systemically oppressed in this situation such that expressions of anger present an actual threat to anyone’s safety or ability to interact on an equal basis with non-Christians, we can talk about that; but that’s not where the evidence is pointing. There is a difference between kicking someone when they’re down and kicking someone who’s beating up someone else.
I won’t say that we did it perfectly; we have been criticized for pretending that we were showing Christians what it felt like to be Muslim in today’s world, which would be ridiculous and disrespectful. We can’t recreate the experience of being murdered by U.S. soldiers, for example, or of being held indefinitely in prison, or of being harassed in school by white, Christian classmates. We printed some stuff that might shake Christian dominance a bit – in a way that had some poetic justice to it. If we gave the impression that we were trying to put Christians in the shoes of Muslims, then I am sorry.
The other main criticism I have heard is that we were mean and hurtful to Christians and thereby counter-productive in the struggle for a nonviolent world. I think that this argument comes from a place of caring that I respect. However, I also think that resistance to violence and injustice takes many forms – including lashing out at groups in positions of privilege and authority.
In a special note to Tyler Graf, editor emeritus of the Commentator: I’m not entirely sure what you’re trying to accomplish by defending our publication. Stock up points so that the next time you stomp on someone we’ll feel so indebted to you that we won’t call you out? How The Insurgent collective interacts with you and the Commentator is not my decision, but as an individual I am not ever going to allow injustice to happen because the perpetrators came to my defense with empty rhetoric when it was convenient for them.
Pira Kelly is a former contributor to The Insurgent