Letters to the Editor | Moderate posturing a threat

Moving from words to action requires energy and determination. When righteous indignation cannot be held inside, when inaction is unacceptable, you must organize, resist and dissent. This happened to many in the midst of the hostile environment created by The Imperialist’s decision to deform free speech into bigotry. But that is just symptomatic of a wider problem increasingly affecting Vassar’s campus and the world.

The problem is moderation in a racist patriarchal capitalist world. More pernicious than the apathetic, the moderate convinces himself of his moral authority to shoot at all sides. Ian Saxine, in “SAEJ tact’s questionable” [in the 12.2.05 edition of The Miscellany News], criticizes the perpetrator but does not hesitate in shooting at the victim if their tactics are radical. Submerged in moderation, we fail to see that taking a stand is not a right but a duty. This is not at all a crusade against evil like the president’s. We do not divide and label Vassar students as racists and non-racists, reactionary or progressive, patriots or terrorist; we acknowledge the oppressive framework that has enclosed all human relationships and that crudely appeared in what we think of as a safe and progressive community. Recognizing this framework we know the importance of taking the issue beyond righteous condemnation of The Imperialist to an active process of learning, discussing, questioning, and (to the dismay of moderates) protesting.

An oppressive structure has to be recognized as determining all aspects of our lives. The destruction of any oppressive structure is a process of resistance and dissent, but also construction and imagination. We are not crusaders against racism, we simply believe indignation can be the fuel igniting change in how we understand our community, thus reclaiming capacity to (re)construct it into the progressive cell of social change we hoped it was when we arrived.

Hours of work, discussion, and disagreements honed our tactics. You are entitled to disagree. But why not propose alternative strategies? You did not criticize our tactics. You showed how moderation becomes reactionary and dangerous, as it turns inexorably against the oppressed, while claiming a moral high ground “on the fence.”

Before the rally, I was at Poughkeepsie High School witnessing the school system of the richest country in human history segregating and excluding the majority of non-white American citizens. Walking there Thursday mornings, trying to smile and believe that my teaching will change the life of my students, I come out at the end of the day understanding that structural racism/exclusion has partially decided their fate, my fate, and yours, Mr. Saxine! None of these children are less intelligent than you or me, but the system of exclusion we live under has helped you and me, all Vassar students. Before, I felt disgusted because many of those students will never be able to enter Vassar. Now, I wonder if it is desirable for them to come here and deal with our campus apathy and liberal moderation or, worse, published bigotry or swastikas on Lathrop’s stairs.

The moderate disagrees with our tactics, but we need not to worry about his/her useless criticisms: when the moderate barks, it means we are advancing

—Ricardo Sánchez ’08