All College Day Mural: A sight for sore eyes?

Dustin Kight Guest Writer

You might say it speaks for itself. Scrawled about mid-center on the All College Day (ACD) mural is the phrase, "FACADES OF DIVERSITY." How true.

Let me start by saying that this is not an article about the state of diversity on campus; that issue is better left to people who know about it more concretely. I claim to be no such person.

This article concerns how truly noxious Vassar students can sometimes be, as exemplified by the ACD mural. Because even those of us who are somewhat aware of the problems Vassar has with diversity and other race and minority related issues, and who, though sympathetic, do not often put our hands in the fray, can be ashamed of the mural. I claim to be in this group. I am one of those people who came to Vassar and thought, "Gee, this place sure does have a lot of different kinds of people in it!" I am also one of those people who grew up in a conservative place where race is a hot topic--hot, as in, Do Not Touch. It has taken a few years and a couple of eye-opening classes for me to start wrapping my brain around how racism is systemic, and how white power is not just something a Klan member shouts from a horse. But enough about me; I just wanted to give you a sense of where I'm coming from.

The All College Day mural, for those who are not acquainted, is that looming tower of board and canvas near the ATM in the College Center. The intentions behind it are good: Let's have Vassar community members Listen, Feel, Talk, and Express about diversity issues on campus. Let's give them paint and markers and a surface on which to write. Maybe I'm wrong, but I see it as something serious. Here is my chance to really contribute to a discussion that matters. Frankly, I've always been too daunted to do it. What if it comes out all wrong, and then it's permanent? What would I do? White it out?

Still, others take it as an opportunity to say, "Penguins can fly!" and "Dicks are for dykes," the latter of which might be related to diversity--in a nightmare! And let’s not forget the rather large, "I'm post-post modern, deal with it!!!"

To be sure, there are also good--and by good, I mean obviously pertinent--things written on the mural. For instance, someone wrote, "Not everyone gets the bill sent home." There's an issue of economic diversity we don't often touch on at this college. There is also a long, thoughtful passage about systems of privilege that is too long to reproduce. I suggest to everyone: go read it.
I highlight the bad examples more because they far outnumber the good, at least on the side that is visible, which is where I'm going with this.

Forget for a moment that we are all relatively aware of how ridiculous Vassar students can be. Perhaps concerned students can look the other way when they pass the mural. Perhaps they can take heart that, though loathe to discuss it, Vassar students do care about issues of diversity and racism. But people who wander onto our campus--be they prospective students or visiting lecturers or people from Poughkeepsie--might not be so accustomed to our egotism and faux-nihilistic humor. Perhaps they see it as suggestive of our collective stupidity, immaturity, unconcern and lack of inspiration. Is that what we want?

I’m not saying I'm ready to dive in on race issues. Quite honestly, it's taken a lot to get me where I am today. It was a very uncomfortable process, and I know I need to come to terms with racism at a pace. I know a lot of people feel the same, and they are not the ones scribbling obscenities on the mural that was meant to facilitate "discussion." We are the people who want to talk, but are afraid of either being thrown in over our heads or trapped in a room full of mural kids.

What the mural asks us to talk about is serious. What we said is not. And as it represents, on some level, the entire Vassar community, whether or not it should stand in the open should be up for debate. In short, because of its net negativity and potential to confuse, the mural is a detriment, and should be taken away.
Unless, of course, we are meant to be ashamed of it, and that's why it stands. In that case, let there be a plaque: In Memory of What Could Have Been an Honest and Productive Endeavor.