By Aisha H. Pew

I guess all I can do is laugh and attempt to give a polite history lesson, which will hopefully bring forth the disgraceful and saddening hypocrisy regarding the recent Queer Studies debate. We call ourselves liberals, march for labor unions, paste "Vote Nader" stickers to car bumpers and bathroom stalls, apply to veggie co-ops, sing along to Bob Marley, petition to free Mumia, and swear to join the Peace Corps or Teach America post graduation. Yet, somehow, as my friend declared over lunch, there are way too many of us on this campus who simply can’t, or refuse to "connect the dots," and draw the parallels between our separate struggles. 

Market exploitation, political corruption, animal cruelty, domestic and international racist discrimination — they don’t exist apart from one another. The structures that allow for one form of systematic domination directly help to perpetuate another. The continued dismissal and compartmentalization of sexual identity by so-called liberal and political activists reinforces and legitimizes all categories of social, cultural, and academic patriarchal repression and oppression. It amazes and disgusts me that we talk a game of passionate bullshit, but when it is time to step to the plate — meet the structure of normative constraints head on — we quickly retreat, whimpering that the few remaining protestors need to "calm down" and not be "so in your face."

Well, I’ve heard that before. Only a generation ago, good white Americans trembled at the thought of blackness – afraid of the noise and confused by the anger. Liberal whites just couldn’t understand why some "Negroes" had to be "so in your face" with their blackness — like those loud, angry Black Panthers. The most understanding whites begged for such audacious militants to just "calm down," act like good little nigg… Negroes, and follow the laws of a land that dismissed their rights and humanity. Now, Wesleyan students flock like a guilty herd to hear former members of the Black Panther Party rant about conspiracy theories, and the mass mental, physical, and spiritual annihilation of a race of people. Now, we raise our fists, and sing songs about a revolution that we swear we would have joined if we had only been born then. Now, we declare ourselves African-American Studies majors, argue about the necessity of underground hip-hop, and watch our tongues with an unnatural concentration — because we dare not tell a black man to tone down his blackness and relax a little. 

So how dare you become frustrated or uncomfortable with chalkings, or kiss-ins, or even the idea of Queer Studies. Spare me the liberal shit, intangible notions of acceptance, and your
crippled baby steps towards liberty. No one asked for you good-will mediation, Jesse. No one asked for your comfortable blessings, Adam. No one asked for your heart felt embrace, Ben.
The movement for Queer Studies is simply a call for consistency — of thought and action. Or, shall we robe ourselves in white sheets, carry enflamed torches, and call a nigger a nigger, a
faggot a faggot – and a hypocrite a hypocrite. 

Perhaps we should all just calm down for a minute — stop insulting each other with politically correct propaganda, pretentious flip-it comebacks, and songs of nostalgic redemption. Let us take a step back and re-evaluate our expensive, whitewashed, hetero-normative, liberal education — pick up a pencil, maybe even a ruler, and connect the fucking dots. This is not a "gay issue," isolated to same sex kiss-ins and fights with the administration. This is an issue of social structures, marginal populations, history and identity. This is an old fight with a new name. And if you still just don’t get it, call me: x7183.
 

Pew is a member of the class of 2002.