Musings on Greenwood

Hello all,

I’ve been sent the following links five times from five different people over the past two days. I feel the need to comment on it;

http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2740807

http://network.nationalpost.com/NP/blogs/posted/archive/2010/03/29/sumo-suit-apology-letter-the-full-text.aspx

The first link is to a story in the National Post about the Alma Mater Society (the student government) at Queen’s University declaring Sumo wrestling suits to be racist. You know the ones I mean; the fat suits two people squish into then bump into each other comically.

The second link is to the full letter of apology written by the AMS for sanctioning the fundraiser where these suits would be used.

You need to read both links or the rest of this won’t make sense.

Before I go any further, I need to state a few things up front.

First, I was the President of the AMS from 2005 to 2006. I was elected to this position by the students of Queen’s and it remains one of the greatest honours of my life.

Second, the AMS is indisputably one of the finest student governments in North America. Its size and level of autonomy are a testament to its dignified and honourable tradition.

Third, I know Michael Ceci. I actually met him while I was President and he was in his first year. He is the current President who has had to deal with this issue. He has about one month left in his term. Michael Ceci is a good man who has done an outstanding job this year. Each and every student owes him and every member of his Council a debt of gratitude for their service to the university.

I happen to disagree with the current executive’s view of Sumo wrestling suits but it does not alter my view of the AMS or of the executive. I feel they’ve made a mistake but I and every other President who has ever served in that capacity have made our share as well.

So, as these articles point out, the issue is that the AMS-run foodbank organized a fundraiser where people could come by and wrestle in the sumo suits … this ignited a controversy.

Only on a university campus!

When I read the first link, I actually had to triple check the sources and ensure this wasn’t a hoax. Queen’s has a campus newspaper called Golden Words which is the university’s gag paper. It runs satire and pranks constantly. I thought this may have been one of their brain farts.

The National Post article actually reads like an article from The Onion. I thought it was a clever piece of satire aimed at the forces of political correctness.

I was wrong. This actually happened.

I honestly don’t want to dwell on the issue to long. The whole thing is beyond silly. I think any reasonable person will agree that this is political correctness run amok and nothing more elegant than that.

Sadly, I think the current executive will realize this once their terms are over and they gain some perspective. People are frequently baffled by some of the stuff student governments come up with.

Carleton’s student union voted to remove Shinerama from its Frosh Week fundraising a few years ago because Cystic Fibrosis was, according to them, a white male’s disease. This earned them international mockery and condemnation.

The University of Victoria’s student union voted to bar the Canadian Forces from recruiting on campus because of its “war crimes” in Afghanistan and because they felt their students may be suckered into joining unless they protected them from recruiters. They got torn to pieces and had to back down completely from the original position.

The University of Ottawa’s current student union crew moved to prevent Ann Coulter from speaking earlier this month on the grounds that she promotes “hate speech” against various groups. This earned another round of ridicule and abuse.

The list goes on and on and on.

For people who didn’t go to university, they’re often left wondering how smart people could act so stupid. The answer is three pronged.

First, student government leadership at the bigger post-secondary institutions tends to be a full time job. It’s very easy for these young leaders to lose perspective of what is and is not a big issue because they get so fully immersed in the environment that they fail to see the bigger picture.

I’m not judging. It happened to me. One month after my term ended, I looked back on things that had stressed me out and realized how trivial they actually were. They sure seemed important at the time. That’s the nature of the beast that is student government.

Second, student leaders are young, green and idealistic. Their hearts tend to be bigger than their brains. Again, I make no exception for myself here. These are learning experiences for them and they often have to learn the hard way about how the world works.

Third and finally, universities incubate thinking that is, I’ll be charitable and say; off the beaten path. Extreme left wing views are not considered that extreme in a university environment. I would be shocked if Japanese students at Queen’s were actually distraught about the Sumo suits. I have never even heard of this being an issue for anyone, anywhere at any time. It’s so far off the radar that it shouldn’t even merit a second thought.

It was most likely a handful of self-righteous, self-appointed mouthpieces for the “oppressed” who tend to be white, wealthy and socialist that kicked up a fuss. These are the people who rail endlessly about every action or comment they deem inappropriate and call for a revolution each time it occurs.

I’m convinced these types don’t actually care about making a difference. They only want to make a point. I don’t think they even know what they want or how it should be achieved. Frankly, if what they claim they want were to ever be achieved it would be the worst day of their miserable, puny lives. They wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. Their badass, rebel identities would be jeopardized.

So, I suspect they complained about the sumo suits and every other ideologue jumped on the bandwagon. The student government panicked.

This whole debacle would be laughable except it carries a very negative consequence. For years, students at Queen’s who belong to visible minorities have said that there is a “culture of whiteness” at the university. It’s one that makes them feel unwelcome and can even be quite threatening.

These concerns are genuine and rooted in real experience. Unfortunately, the militant left on the campus seems to enjoy calling a Queen’s a racist institution more than actually doing anything tangible to improve the university. The extreme right, especially in the blogosphere, pooh-poohs any and all talk of a “culture of whiteness” as obnoxious political correctness.

It absolutely is not. I’ve spoken with members of the various minority groups. Their experiences were eye-opening for me. I’ve heard stories about Muslim women being harassed or heckled for wearing a headscarf. I’ve heard stories about black students facing threats and racial epithets as well. In my year as AMS President, I was told that black police officers patrolling the “student ghetto” endured racial taunts and insults during the infamous Homecoming that year. It was well documented that a Jewish student even had a swastika spray painted on her car a few years back.

I realize I’m committing a big journalistic sin and I’m relying on hearsay without ever actually having witnessed these acts. However, they are real and the university needs to do whatever it can to ensure these instances never happen again.

Here’s the problem: this mindblowingly bizarre controversy over sumo suits has turned any talk about a ‘culture of whiteness’ into a punch line. The people who didn’t believe there ever was a problem have just had their beliefs reinforced because of this ridiculous situation. It has made the task for those genuinely interested in making the university stronger that much harder.

This is the real tragedy.

I love my university. That word is thrown around too loosely in our society but I have a genuine affection for my alma mater. I know I’m not alone. Queen’s students have enormous pride in and devotion to our school. I think flows, in large part, from its well-preserved connection to the past.

I have no doubt whatsoever that Queen’s can adapt to the changing nature of society without sacrificing its roots. After World War II, Queen’s was the only university in Canada that allowed Jewish students. So prevalent was anti-Semitism in Canadian society at the time. Queen’s challenged it head on yet preserved its heritage and traditions. I have every confidence that it will do so again with these new challenges.

BUT!!! As my mother would always say; we must pick our fights.

The farce this past week over sumo suits only illustrates my mother’s flawless wisdom yet again. This was not only wasted energy but it actually set the cause back. Now, people will be less likely to take real instances of injustice seriously. If you don’t believe me, just read some of the comments on these articles or any others written about the sumo foodbank fundraiser.

Make no mistake; the Tricolour will endure forever. The challenge of ensuring that each and every student feels welcome and accepted regardless of their race, colour or creed will not be solved overnight. It’s also not a problem unique to Queen’s but Queen’s will get there with its soul intact.

The problems can be fixed so long as the university doesn’t waste time and energy on sumo suits and instead focuses on genuine examples of intolerance on campus or elsewhere.

Cha Gheill!!!

Ethan Rabidoux