Goofus and Gallant go to a party

I can still fondly remember the excitement of opening up a brand new Highlights Magazine as a child, flipping through the pages and finally landing upon the comic feature “Goofus and Gallant.” In the comic, Goofus and Gallant were a pair of boys that showcased proper behavior for children in certain situations with a caption explaining each boy’s actions. For instance if the scene was of a classroom cleaning up at the end of the day, we would see Goofus walking away from the group with the caption: “They can clean up, I’d rather go read.” Next to him we would see Gallant helping his peers tidy up with the caption: “Gallant pitches in.” If the discussion surrounding Pi Kappa Phi’s Thanksgiving party has made anything patently obvious, it’s that Duke students as a whole could use some basic advice, not so much about bathroom etiquette or respecting your teachers but more along the lines of how to discuss issues surrounding race, cultural appropriation and the pernicious effects of our “party culture.”

The brothers of Pi Kappa Phi have shown their maturity and commitment to bettering our University climate by taking responsibility for their actions and issuing a swift apology for the events. But for those individuals still out there who view a conversation on systems of oppression and privilege as uninteresting or self-righteous, maybe a conversation on basic respect could serve them well. First, let’s take a break from the infantile arguments. One need not take a course on logic or ethics to understand that arguments of the form “I didn’t mean to,” “But he did the bad thing first” and “I was just having fun” aren’t valid. Most of us learn that these excuses aren’t very effective sometime between stealing cookies from the cookie jar and playing with pointy sticks during recess. Second, save the pseudo-intellectual justifications for later as well. There’s nothing wrong with students engaging in intellectual conversations about the complex cultural and societal issues surrounding this topic—in fact I’d highly encourage it—but if you’re arguing the case that an email referencing “hot natives” and “pocahotness” is unproblematic, there are probably other, more fundamental conversations you should be having first.

By respect, I mean the ability to value and honor the feelings and rights of another human being. A respectful person will listen when someone expresses how upset a particular event made them feel and why they found that event offensive. A rude and selfish person will disregard those feelings as an overreaction or as an attack on their own ability to have a good time. A respectful person can admit their faults and takes the time to consider the consequences of the actions they are taking. An inconsiderate person has trouble imagining the possibility that their actions or words may actually be harmful to others.

It seems silly to reenact Goofus and Gallant on the backpages of The Chronicle. The only thing sillier is being on a campus where reiterating these basic values is still necessary—if only it weren’t so sad.

So does that mean I think everyone involved in hosting or attending this or any other culturally insensitive party is immature and disrespectful and deserving of the patronizing tone in the first half of my column? Not at all, actually. I have no interest in painting the members of any fraternity with that broad of a brush. One of the things I eventually realized from that children’s magazine was that none of us are always Goofus or always Gallant. We all make mistakes and ill-informed decisions that harm others, but we also hopefully take the opportunity to recognize our faults, make proper amends and discontinue the inappropriate behaviors as the brothers of Pi Kappa Phi have done.

But we’re not just talking about individuals or one particular group here. When things like this become a pattern as they have on this campus, we can no longer treat these as isolated incidents. There’s something institutionally that allows for the creation of so many environments and situations where people can continue to be Goofuses and not have to answer for it. Generating controversy like this is a way to begin to hold people and organizations accountable for what they do by bringing their actions to the scrutiny of the public eye. Recognizing that sexist and racist attitudes are rooted in our wider culture can also explain part of what we see on campus, but it by no means excuses it nor does it excuse us from making an effort to counteract them.

Antagonism isn’t the way to go; we all have a duty and responsibility to actively make Duke University a place where minorities, women, the LGBTQ community and others feel safe and accepted. Hopefully the lessons learned from this incident will be an opportunity to form long-standing alliances and commitments to improve the social environment on this campus and not sweep the root causes of our problems under the rug until the next controversy erupts.

Ahmad Jitan is a Trinity junior. This is his final column of the semester.