Young white men in today's America have much to be angry about. DEI, coupled with the assault on the economy by a democrat president have significantly reduced their future opportunity for realization of the American Dream. Standing there in front of them was a perfect caricature of the threat to their futures. A morbidly obese black female that they can be sure took the place of someone more qualified but rejected by the university because they were white. I am a black male boomer from the south that never experienced racism that affected my upward mobility. In 1963 as a high school student working at a Kroger grocery I was promoted to stock clerk ahead of a contingent of white bag boys, truly based on performance and attitude. I never needed DEI programs then or my next 50 successful working years. DEI programs have stirred emotions among white Americans that all black Americans will pay for in the future.
Fortunately brother, most of us won’t let DEI turn us back into reactionary racists. Right wing college students are perfectly capable of being just as ignorant as left wing college students. Hopefully these students decide to become adults some day soon.
People are as white or black as they want to be. And it's something of a pathetic recreation of a specific past that enables this kind of cosplay. Yet fresh nobility is born every day - our very abilities to see and perceive love and hate, good and evil and all of the gradients between are only diminished by picking a color and a hill to die on. That drama is exciting to watch, even when nobody dies.
You are not ever going to reach the point where somebody, somewhere, isn't acting like an idiot. For that matter I have had a twenty-something barhopper chick mock the way I was walking (up the street and minding my own business) by doing a grotesque ape caricature at me, the hoots, the whole business, and i am an aging white guy. Her friends didn't join in but neither did they reprove her. But that's one person out of thousands who populate my bar-saturated neighborhood.
As a native of the Magnolia State, this episode does harken back to a time that most of us have placed in the rear view mirror. Growing up, I would hear the echos of the past from my mother and grandmother. Yet, the Mississippi I know is not reflected in the actions that took place at Ole Miss. While I chose to attend Bama, Ole Miss is our state school. Despite what those outside of the state may think, the Deep South is not a scary place for black people.
Well said. I, too, eschew the word and its connotations. And the notion that it's nationally systemic. I won't use "race" because there is only the human race, but egregious shite like this is jaw-dropping, and only emboldens the true haters and the true exploiters.
These are the ones who would take a just cause and make it the be-all and end-all of existence. They would shine a light on unjust people and events and then frighten the masses by making it appear that the unjust people with unjust beliefs are everywhere.
Ugliness like this needs to be called out and rooted out. And the temptation to reduce oneself to become a slogan or defined by others, in any manner, be rebuked.
It’s hard to remove tribal ugliness from the human condition, but we can try to strive toward that kind of unity. I have to believe that it should be the end game of all humanity. I grew up thinking we were finally getting past all this.
We are. There will always be some bad actors no matter how much progress society has made, but you cannot let that keep you from paying attention to the big picture.
Yes. So did I. And I have been shocked and saddened by the whole recent devolution into a retrograde tribalism. I suppose just like any adolescent culture, we have to traverse and survive these periods of growing pains. But, it is ugly and wasteful and I am unconvinced that it will lead to a wiser, fairer culture at the end of the day. I desperately want it to, but my faith in my fellow humans (in groups and institutions) is at a low ebb at present. I still have faith in individuals, however.
All of that said, the visual of a large black woman flipping the bird and cussing a blue streak at a bunch of ignorant white frat boys and getting away with it? The fact that they couldn't cow her with their monkey antics? Pure gold. Made me laugh a deep belly laugh of joy. Things have changed whether people want to admit it or not. Holding your own space in the world is the first step to healing wounds - no matter what your color.
I'm not clear what you mean by "this entire confrontation." Do you mean, "this entire essay," or do you mean "the entire protest / counter-protest collective," or do you mean, "the entire national media, who seem only to be concerned with the racial dynamics"? It's certainly true that, both on campus and in the national media, there's been very little interest in the details of what those in the pro-Palestinian protest here at Ole Miss were actually protesting, because the racial dynamics of the battle that emerged between protestors, counter-protestors, and journalist Jaylin R. Smith, have wholly dominated everybody's attention. I attended the first 45 minutes or so of a town hall sponsored by the UMNAACP, and during that time, very little was said about Palestine, much less Israel. Black students, understandably, were disturbed by the racial dynamics that they saw in play, and by what--in their view--it said about race relations on the campus. In the essay, I offered one faculty member's view of how the events in question were playing out, both on campus and in the national media. (By "playing out," I mean what people on campus and in the regional/national media were paying attention to and passing judgment on.) I believe it's an accurate representation. As a secular half-Jew, son of a Jewish father, I of course have my own thoughts about the pro-Palestinian, Israel-critical, and in some case disturbingly anti-semitic protests that have roiled American college campuses over the past month. On my own campus, however, the barest beginning of a pro-Palestinian protest was, as I've noted, utterly swamped by a cohort of counter-protestors, primarily frat guys, who seemed largely uninterested in Palestinian-Israeli relations and far more interested in manifesting a rowdy, Trump-loving "Americanism" that--well, that turned ugly ("Fuck you, bitch!," etc.), that upset a sizeable cohort of black students and others on campus, and that put Ole Miss in the national spotlight for the same old reasons we always end up there. That's what I wrote about. Have I adequately addressed your concern?
Yes. I just think that it's important to note that the particular confrontation you wrote about metastazed out of the roiling mess of an anti-Semitism many of us thought dormant (never extinct) that is again raising its head - quite disturbingly among the supposedly educated class. Your point that none of us are either our worst moments or our best moments was also spot-on.
It’s only ignored by those who are already wont to ignore it. It’s clear as day to most; polling bears that out. You’re not alone in your incredulity, you’re in the majority.
Thank you for this essay. The young man will learn actions have consequences. I think no more of him. My take away lesson is this aberrant behavior says nothing about the larger Ole Miss environment, let alone Jackson, Mississippi or the whole of the United States. We must not fall prey to catastrophic thinking and extrapolate the boorish behavior of one to the daily lives of over 300 million Americans. I too felt the unfair brush of public opinion when a bunch of knuckle heads marched through Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The actions of a few bigots tarnished the good reputation of the many at the University of Virginia. Once again, I applaud your sense of duty in recounting the richness of life beyond one black woman and one white man at Ole Miss.
Folksinger Phil Ochs took the state to task in the ironically titled "Here's To The State of Mississippi" regarding the government's behavior in the 1960s ("Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of/Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of.") I hope the state's not going back to then...
The campus counterprotests are just as performative and vacuous as the protests which is truly a shame. It's saying something that a modicum of disdain for Biden, albeit for differing reasons, can't serve as a point of solidarity between both camps here.
But to those who would use this incident to argue that "nothing's changed" in Mississippi, I say: give me a break. I have no ties to the state and have plenty of criticisms, but the few times I've visited never made me feel as though I had better get out before sundown or else. Granted I was visiting Jackson in particular, but the point remains. As it was noted, there were no threats, violence, or loss of life to report whatsoever. While very unfortunate and just plain terrible, it was one incident that shouldn't be blown out of proportion.
This micro incident that might reflect a speck of “right wing racism” or whatever you might want to call it, being news, shows how rare and inconsequential this type of event is VS the other 99.999% of left wing racism and antisemitism. White liberals are looking for ghosts that hardly exist any longer!
let’s remember that anti semitism and anti-white racism abounds on campuses throughout the country, and is being instigated (and funded by) dark forces that seek destruction of our rulew of law and freedoms. Five seconds of gesture by one frat boy pales in comparison and is hardly worth a long screed like this given these much more consequential circumstances.
I find the psychology of the human tribal mind amazing, in both a disturbing and fascinating way. In this country, we were split by skin color for so long that it lingers, but thankfully incidents like what happened here are rare. However, I've still seen these kinds of incidents even among sports fans. We find a tribe, and we decide we belong to it, and the outsider must be defended against. It takes our active understanding of this mindset to defend our psyche against it.
I guess if you only have one old pair of glasses to view the world through, it is better than nothing.
But the fact that you see the entire world through black and white lens does not make the world that way.
At no point in your thinking do you even consider the fact that perhaps this was more about American values vs. Marxist Hamas values.
And the fact that you never once mention October 7th Hamas murders and rapes, which quite well may have contributed to such bad blood on the part of some of the counter protesters, speaks volumes about how poor your eyesight is on this subject.
Young white men in today's America have much to be angry about. DEI, coupled with the assault on the economy by a democrat president have significantly reduced their future opportunity for realization of the American Dream. Standing there in front of them was a perfect caricature of the threat to their futures. A morbidly obese black female that they can be sure took the place of someone more qualified but rejected by the university because they were white. I am a black male boomer from the south that never experienced racism that affected my upward mobility. In 1963 as a high school student working at a Kroger grocery I was promoted to stock clerk ahead of a contingent of white bag boys, truly based on performance and attitude. I never needed DEI programs then or my next 50 successful working years. DEI programs have stirred emotions among white Americans that all black Americans will pay for in the future.
Fortunately brother, most of us won’t let DEI turn us back into reactionary racists. Right wing college students are perfectly capable of being just as ignorant as left wing college students. Hopefully these students decide to become adults some day soon.
So what exactly was it that Black Americans were paying for well before DEI was ever a thing?
People are as white or black as they want to be. And it's something of a pathetic recreation of a specific past that enables this kind of cosplay. Yet fresh nobility is born every day - our very abilities to see and perceive love and hate, good and evil and all of the gradients between are only diminished by picking a color and a hill to die on. That drama is exciting to watch, even when nobody dies.
Well said! Especially the cosplay observation.
"Fresh nobility is born every day."
How lovely! That might be my favorite thing you've written! 🙂
You are not ever going to reach the point where somebody, somewhere, isn't acting like an idiot. For that matter I have had a twenty-something barhopper chick mock the way I was walking (up the street and minding my own business) by doing a grotesque ape caricature at me, the hoots, the whole business, and i am an aging white guy. Her friends didn't join in but neither did they reprove her. But that's one person out of thousands who populate my bar-saturated neighborhood.
As a native of the Magnolia State, this episode does harken back to a time that most of us have placed in the rear view mirror. Growing up, I would hear the echos of the past from my mother and grandmother. Yet, the Mississippi I know is not reflected in the actions that took place at Ole Miss. While I chose to attend Bama, Ole Miss is our state school. Despite what those outside of the state may think, the Deep South is not a scary place for black people.
Glad you’re not letting one ignorant kid shake your perspective. I don’t know if I’d be as mature as you in this situation.
Well said. I, too, eschew the word and its connotations. And the notion that it's nationally systemic. I won't use "race" because there is only the human race, but egregious shite like this is jaw-dropping, and only emboldens the true haters and the true exploiters.
These are the ones who would take a just cause and make it the be-all and end-all of existence. They would shine a light on unjust people and events and then frighten the masses by making it appear that the unjust people with unjust beliefs are everywhere.
Ugliness like this needs to be called out and rooted out. And the temptation to reduce oneself to become a slogan or defined by others, in any manner, be rebuked.
It’s hard to remove tribal ugliness from the human condition, but we can try to strive toward that kind of unity. I have to believe that it should be the end game of all humanity. I grew up thinking we were finally getting past all this.
We are. There will always be some bad actors no matter how much progress society has made, but you cannot let that keep you from paying attention to the big picture.
Yes. So did I. And I have been shocked and saddened by the whole recent devolution into a retrograde tribalism. I suppose just like any adolescent culture, we have to traverse and survive these periods of growing pains. But, it is ugly and wasteful and I am unconvinced that it will lead to a wiser, fairer culture at the end of the day. I desperately want it to, but my faith in my fellow humans (in groups and institutions) is at a low ebb at present. I still have faith in individuals, however.
All of that said, the visual of a large black woman flipping the bird and cussing a blue streak at a bunch of ignorant white frat boys and getting away with it? The fact that they couldn't cow her with their monkey antics? Pure gold. Made me laugh a deep belly laugh of joy. Things have changed whether people want to admit it or not. Holding your own space in the world is the first step to healing wounds - no matter what your color.
Not sure how this entire confrontation can simply ignore the anti-Israel hatred at the geart of the protests.
I'm not clear what you mean by "this entire confrontation." Do you mean, "this entire essay," or do you mean "the entire protest / counter-protest collective," or do you mean, "the entire national media, who seem only to be concerned with the racial dynamics"? It's certainly true that, both on campus and in the national media, there's been very little interest in the details of what those in the pro-Palestinian protest here at Ole Miss were actually protesting, because the racial dynamics of the battle that emerged between protestors, counter-protestors, and journalist Jaylin R. Smith, have wholly dominated everybody's attention. I attended the first 45 minutes or so of a town hall sponsored by the UMNAACP, and during that time, very little was said about Palestine, much less Israel. Black students, understandably, were disturbed by the racial dynamics that they saw in play, and by what--in their view--it said about race relations on the campus. In the essay, I offered one faculty member's view of how the events in question were playing out, both on campus and in the national media. (By "playing out," I mean what people on campus and in the regional/national media were paying attention to and passing judgment on.) I believe it's an accurate representation. As a secular half-Jew, son of a Jewish father, I of course have my own thoughts about the pro-Palestinian, Israel-critical, and in some case disturbingly anti-semitic protests that have roiled American college campuses over the past month. On my own campus, however, the barest beginning of a pro-Palestinian protest was, as I've noted, utterly swamped by a cohort of counter-protestors, primarily frat guys, who seemed largely uninterested in Palestinian-Israeli relations and far more interested in manifesting a rowdy, Trump-loving "Americanism" that--well, that turned ugly ("Fuck you, bitch!," etc.), that upset a sizeable cohort of black students and others on campus, and that put Ole Miss in the national spotlight for the same old reasons we always end up there. That's what I wrote about. Have I adequately addressed your concern?
Yes. I just think that it's important to note that the particular confrontation you wrote about metastazed out of the roiling mess of an anti-Semitism many of us thought dormant (never extinct) that is again raising its head - quite disturbingly among the supposedly educated class. Your point that none of us are either our worst moments or our best moments was also spot-on.
It’s only ignored by those who are already wont to ignore it. It’s clear as day to most; polling bears that out. You’re not alone in your incredulity, you’re in the majority.
Thank you for this essay. The young man will learn actions have consequences. I think no more of him. My take away lesson is this aberrant behavior says nothing about the larger Ole Miss environment, let alone Jackson, Mississippi or the whole of the United States. We must not fall prey to catastrophic thinking and extrapolate the boorish behavior of one to the daily lives of over 300 million Americans. I too felt the unfair brush of public opinion when a bunch of knuckle heads marched through Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. The actions of a few bigots tarnished the good reputation of the many at the University of Virginia. Once again, I applaud your sense of duty in recounting the richness of life beyond one black woman and one white man at Ole Miss.
Thanks. You get where I'm coming from.
Folksinger Phil Ochs took the state to task in the ironically titled "Here's To The State of Mississippi" regarding the government's behavior in the 1960s ("Here's to the land you've torn out the heart of/Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of.") I hope the state's not going back to then...
In Alabama, people say "Thank God for Mississippi!"
(keeps Alabama from being dead last in many state listings of social dysfunction)
The campus counterprotests are just as performative and vacuous as the protests which is truly a shame. It's saying something that a modicum of disdain for Biden, albeit for differing reasons, can't serve as a point of solidarity between both camps here.
But to those who would use this incident to argue that "nothing's changed" in Mississippi, I say: give me a break. I have no ties to the state and have plenty of criticisms, but the few times I've visited never made me feel as though I had better get out before sundown or else. Granted I was visiting Jackson in particular, but the point remains. As it was noted, there were no threats, violence, or loss of life to report whatsoever. While very unfortunate and just plain terrible, it was one incident that shouldn't be blown out of proportion.
This micro incident that might reflect a speck of “right wing racism” or whatever you might want to call it, being news, shows how rare and inconsequential this type of event is VS the other 99.999% of left wing racism and antisemitism. White liberals are looking for ghosts that hardly exist any longer!
let’s remember that anti semitism and anti-white racism abounds on campuses throughout the country, and is being instigated (and funded by) dark forces that seek destruction of our rulew of law and freedoms. Five seconds of gesture by one frat boy pales in comparison and is hardly worth a long screed like this given these much more consequential circumstances.
Whom would Jesus bomb?
I find the psychology of the human tribal mind amazing, in both a disturbing and fascinating way. In this country, we were split by skin color for so long that it lingers, but thankfully incidents like what happened here are rare. However, I've still seen these kinds of incidents even among sports fans. We find a tribe, and we decide we belong to it, and the outsider must be defended against. It takes our active understanding of this mindset to defend our psyche against it.
I guess if you only have one old pair of glasses to view the world through, it is better than nothing.
But the fact that you see the entire world through black and white lens does not make the world that way.
At no point in your thinking do you even consider the fact that perhaps this was more about American values vs. Marxist Hamas values.
And the fact that you never once mention October 7th Hamas murders and rapes, which quite well may have contributed to such bad blood on the part of some of the counter protesters, speaks volumes about how poor your eyesight is on this subject.
This was an inspiring and heart-felt piece of writing. Thank you.