Duke is a place for everyone

Duke has been passing through a period of controversy, and as President I want to say a few words about the issues involved.

First a positive note. I am grateful to the many individuals and groups who helped turn last week’s Palestine Solidarity Movement conference into a peaceful and constructive event. Though many members of this community found the presence of the conference disquieting or even offensive, people on every side of the issue recognized the importance of the principle of free expression. Instead of seeking to silence others, those who opposed the conference mounted arguments on the other side, enriching the debate and giving us all a chance for education.

I’m proud to be at a school where difficult matters are dealt with in such a mature and constructive way.

But my message has another side as well.

In the weeks before the conference, I received many reasoned expressions of concern, but also some attacks on Duke’s decisionthat were astonishing in their virulence. Among the things I found troubling in these messages was the tendency to think of the conference’s supporters in this way: You, Duke student, can be thought of as belonging to a group that contains terrorists and terrorist supporters. Therefore, you are indistinguishable from terrorists and deserve as little opportunity to exercise your rights as they do.

One can understand the passion that underlies such a thought, but that does not prevent it from being highly dangerous. This is the disindividuating, dehumanizing logic of prejudice. It says, I already know you because I know your type—more truthfully, your stereotype.

I was deeply troubled by Philip Kurian’s Oct. 18 column because it seemed to display the same habits of thought. The column was headed “The Jews,” as if Jews were susceptible to group definition, and though its author probably did not mean to, it revived stereotypical images that have played a long-running role in the history of anti-Semitism.

At this season, it’s important to remember that all prejudice is one and must be resisted as one. The habits of mind that allow people to stereotype Jews are the same ones that allow them to denigrate blacks, gays and other objects of prejudice. These have no place at a great university. Part of the education Duke affords should be an education in the danger of prejudice and in the full humanity of others. We all need this education, and we are all capable of learning.