Author: Brett Fujioka
Professors and faculty members have often voiced the concern that Oxy students aren’t engaged in activism. At first glance, it does seem as if Occidental’s student body is relatively idle in its political life. From what I’ve seen, there are at least a few students scattered around campus dedicated to fighting the good fight. However, I think there are still some things that the faculty and school clubs could do to encourage more activism among the greater student body.Before I go any further, I would like to say that I’m in no way attacking any clubs out there. I’m merely trying to provide a form of constructive criticism for people on campus to improve from.
First off, let me make something clear: I don’t consider clubs such as the Oxy Democrats or Republicans to be activist groups. They’re both a part of an American partisan system that’s embedded in the existing political structure. Although I strongly support the lengths that both clubs go to in order to encourage lazy voters to fill out their ballots, neither group possesses an agenda to radically change the political climate and is merely going along with the prescriptions of the existing powers. I would consider an “authentic” activist group one that strives for specific interests and causes.
There seems to be a lack of activism at Occidental partly because of the self-absorbed apathy of the ME Generation. This generation’s consumerist culture cares very little about the external world around them. Sometime last semester, I encountered a student during lunch chortle over the tensions surrounding Pauley Hall. This year, when someone from BSU attempted to invite him to a discussion trying to resolve what had happened the previous year, he confided in me that he (the speaker) wasn’t racist, and just wanted to go to college to have a good time.
While I respected his candor and supposed lack of racism, I found it disturbing that his drink-fests took precedence over community affairs. The world could go to hell for all he cared as long as he got a buzz from it. His mentality represents a majority on this campus. Although there are still students out there who are ardently volunteering for some good cause or another, there is a miniscule amount of activism on this campus. This, I believe, isn’t the students’ fault, but the school’s.
Occidental College, in a way, has created an environment that provides everything for its students. From food to transportation, students can easily survive on campus. With this in mind, how can they expect to shake students loose from the nest to save the world without the means of doing so? The college has to figure out a way of making its student body more independent.
At the same time, the school has managed to generate an Us vs. Them mentality. The College often engrosses itself in critical theory, especially concerning the issue of “Whiteness.” It openly criticizes the “White Supremacist Infrastructure” and inadvertently lumps White students into the system who aren’t responsible for it. I don’t know about you, but I hate being accused and harangued about things that aren’t my fault. This creates a sort of smug hatred in those who disagree with this concept of Whiteness. There has to be a better way to recruit people to a cause than alienating them or invoking a form of self-hatred.
There’s also the notorious Oxy bubble to consider. Students complain about the isolation of Occidental College. Occasionally professors criticize their complaints, saying that if the isolation is so depressing, then they should attempt to reach outside of the community. That’s really difficult to do if you’re from outside of California and don’t know any other students from neighboring colleges. In this instance, clubs are the key factor to both breaking the Oxy bubble and encouraging further activism within Oxy.
One of the things that I’ve noticed about the cultural clubs on campus is that they focus primarily on educating the campus. Clubs also attempt to provide an encouraging environment to students of their same creed, but rarely is their attention ever turned outside of the College. They should attempt to reach out to similar cultural clubs at other colleges. Club leaders should e-mail other schools requesting a social or intercollegiate get-together.
From what I hear, cultural clubs at UCLA are much more into activism than those at our own small liberal arts college. UCLA possesses an adequate population to support a decently sized rally or charity fundraiser. Occidental, on the other hand, scarcely has the proportionate student body to so much as fuel a four-person rally, if it were so inclined. The combined amount of students at Oxy who are actually interested in activism is discouraging, and causes these students to retreat back into apathy. Were they to somehow get involved with other colleges through Occidental’s cultural clubs, this would provide the sizable support necessary to motivate activism on campus.
I have heard through the grapevine that Occidental has proposed making community service and work within activist groups mandatory for students. This is a bad idea because it will attract the wrong kind of people. During this year’s trip to New Orleans, there were some students who wouldn’t stop complaining about being in the 9th Ward. Most of the students who were complaining were a part of the Disaster Politics class and were admittedly only there for class credit. It’s a major pain in the rear for students who are solely interested in the cause to listen to the whining of others who are only doing it for credit. People should engage in activism and volunteer work because they have their hearts invested in it, not because of the rewards it reaps.
On a final note, students at Occidental constantly whine about how no one has ever heard of their college. It’s about time that they actually did something about that. By becoming more active within other communities outside of Eagle Rock and mingling with other colleges, Occidental might actually obtain its long sought reputation amongst the populace.
Brett Fujioka is a senior ECLS major. He can be reached at bfujioka@oxy.edu.
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