Umoja week, dedicated to recognizing the natural dignity designated to all people reaffirmed through the struggle of African-Americans, concluded this year's celebration of the significance of our cultural and historical heritage on a sour note. On Easter Sunday, members of BLAC hoped to observe the past tradition of lowering the Pan-African flag at the closing of the week's activities. Imagine our hurt and dismay when we approached the flagpole only to find it bare. It had been stripped not only of the flags but reinforced our anger, hurt and sense of vulnerability with its stark nakedness. This blatant act of disrespect shocked us to our very core and reminded us that we, as a people, had only come so far. Our sense of violation was sharpened by the fact that this happened hereÉ at Earlham College. Not on a plantation a hundred years ago; not in the fields of Mississippi; not in Selma, or Birmingham fifty years ago. Today. Now. Here.
If you thought that this issue is somehow not your problem because you do not identify with any of the flags that hung on the pole Ð you are wrong. If not you, then your classmate, brother, sister, cousin, or partner. And if you are somehow delusional enough to believe that this is not true Ð that we are not all connected, then there is another way in which this situation should touch your heart and call you to action.
Those three flags flying there were symbolic of the aspirations of all of us here at the college. They spoke to our dreams for change and social justice. Those flags, individually, represented the ideas of our nation, a people, and a cause whether actualized or not. But more so,those three flags together, particularly in light of the past events of this semester, made real the possibility for progress and the true actualization of these ideals. Not the flags themselves, but what they symbolized acted as the impetus that filled our collective body with vitality. And with the loss of our flags, we were cut off from our connection with this life force. But even worse, our hearts were torn, stabbed, and manipulated by our brother/sister. This deliberate, defiant,and detrimental act of violence on the soul of our community must not go unnoticed.
The e-mail you received previously did not speak to the level of horror and disappointment that was felt and should be felt by all whom are involved.That includes you. Someone has infiltrated our safe haven and is destroying it from the inside out. Can you stand by and do nothing?
The e-mail, no matter how well intentioned, was more closely related to an act designed to pacify those most personally attacked by this action. We all know that "Good intentions are not enough" (Inaugural Speech, March 1998)."
Is it not true, that despite and because of our diverse opinions that "we aspire to become a crossroads community that extends an invitation and a welcome to the whole of the human family" (ibid). This act of violence is a commentary on the current state of our community. We are now in opposition with the values and axioms professed by the college and, more specifically, by those who are supposed to set the standard for excellence here. Indeed, by those whose function it is to guide and direct the community towards the fulfillment of its greater purpose.
"We must have confidence that each of us shares the goal wholeheartedly" (ibid).
We are all now in the position to question the mores of our neighbors. Do we truly know our fellow classmates? Staff? Teachers? Administration? The enemy is among us. It is our responsibility to bring him/her and their allies into the harsh light of our disapproval. Let your voice be heard. Do not stand silently while your home is rampaged. When our voices join together we have the power to shake the earth with our anger. But when we are silent there is no progress, there is no change and we become no more than sympathizers of those who would stomp on everything we believe in. Everything that makes us who we are. We ask you to prepare yourself to rise up. Rise up and speak. And know the significance of your word.
All those who would hold back, remain silent and/or in cahoots with
those that are against us Ð recognize that your silence acts as a force
that fosters,perpetuates, and celebrates a climate of violence on this
campus.
Members of BLAC
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