Educating students about racial differences and ending discrimination on campus are noble goals. KA's sensitivity meter has certainly malfunctioned and its members' behavior and attitude are in need of serious reform. That being said, the recent actions taken by Jones and his supporters are misguided and antithetical to their purpose.
Harsh demands and unreasonable deadlines are not effective methods by which to further cultural understanding. Jones' behavior exemplifies how our society addresses racial issues; we tend to frame debates in absolute terms and promote an us vs. them mentality.
Rather than promoting awareness, demanding that action be taken before a proper investigation can be undertaken and insisting that they are exempt from traditional due process procedures, the 11 students protesting the KA photograph have only succeeded in polarizing the conflict, harming the possibility of positive change.
First, Jones' movement has stereotyped KA. While it is true that KA needs to clean up its act, in both the Confederate battle flag and blackface costume conflicts, Jones has blamed the entire fraternity for the acts of a few individuals. As a result, the fraternity has become unified by resentment towards its opponents, making the organization less likely to cooperate with the investigation and punishment of the guilty individuals.
Second, Jones and his supporters have alienated the Emory student body and faculty; Jones' insistence that investigative "processes aren't designed for black students" indirectly accuses Emory of fostering institutional racism. Additionally, by including the demand for an African American studies curriculum requirement in the context of the KA debate broadly paints the student body with the same paint that Jones has colored the fraternity. He is forcing students and faculty to choose between his movement and KA, thus alienating potential allies that would have been sympathetic to his cause.
It is evident that Jones has an agenda he wants passed and the KA controversy is the forum in which he chose to push it. Still, the revoking of KA's charter is a question of punishment and should not be grouped with the passage of programs to promote awareness on the campus at large. As Steve Sanderson, dean of Emory College, noted, it is not within his jurisdiction to change the curriculum or to institute changes in the Phi Beta Kappa honor society to include more minorities. These are programs that ought to be presented to the faculty and adopted based on their own merit, not forced on the student body in reaction to KA's behavior.
Society needs individuals to bring injustices to light and to point out practices and institutions that need reform. Jones has his heart in the right place, but he will never get there if he continues to resort to strong arm and adversarial tactics rather than persuasive skills.
Until he comes to this realization, Jones will continue to alienate Emory students, setting against him the very people that are crucial to the passage of his own agenda and potential programs that would benefit our university.
Stephanie Jenkins is a freshman from Bangor, Maine.
