The break we need

Man, the Monday slot makes for excellent timing—FDOC, the day before Election Day and now just a couple days before Thanksgiving break. I could serve up the usual “here’s what I’m thankful for” article, but such an article wouldn’t fit my style and would be completely devoid of potshots. … So I came up with something else. I am writing about why this break always seems to roll around at just the right time.

For everyone on campus who isn’t a PoliSci major, a semester of classes really wears down on our bodies and minds. Idealized visions of promptly finishing assignments and never being forced to pull all-nighters (the real ones, not the ones where you prop a book open and proceed to “multitask” on Hulu) have devolved into wishing like hell that the assignments just stop coming, if only for a day, or two … or five. For those of us on our way out, the symptoms of the dreaded senioritis are steadily getting worse. Thanksgiving comes near the end, giving all of us a brief reprieve before the home stretch known as finals week.

Getting a break from the work is great, but I would argue that getting a break from Duke’s environment is far more important. Don’t get me wrong; my time here has actually been really rewarding. I have had my beliefs challenged and strengthened and I’ve learned a lot about engineering and about myself. Duke is one of many things I’m thankful for. (Okay, just imagine how sappy 800 words of the past two sentences would have been. You’re welcome.)

That being said, I definitely get tired and frustrated with Duke from time to time. The so-called “social activism” gets old after a while. Being told that you are subliminally racist and therefore should not be allowed to make your own hiring decisions someday is, well, insulting. Indeed, one of the few catches of carrying a White People Rewards MasterCard is that you are deemed ignorant unless you turn off your brain and agree with things like affirmative action. I imagine that accusations of racism and facing intimidation are especially taxing for folks new to the political correctness minefield. These sorts of debates put us on edge, and Thanksgiving is perfect for taking a much-needed step back.

The activism doesn’t always have to be aimed at folks like me to get annoying. Sometimes, you get to sit back and relax … and witness a violent Israel-Palestine conflict right on Duke’s campus. I don’t really have a personal investment in the conflict. I’ve been led in the pro-Israel direction, and I generally see Israel as the good guy. Candidly I don’t have full context and don’t have much to say on the conflict. When I see stuff like table-flipping, phrases like “Are you serious right now?” and “This is why we can’t have nice things” roughly reflect my sentiments.

Of course, it never ends with the incident: Everyone and their mothers promptly call for dialogue. The “dialogue” is rarely ever productive though, and usually goes like this: A student group representing the offended party calls for an event. If the party responsible for the offense is a student group, it becomes co-hosted. The offenders either give a non-apology (because they don’t think a wrong was committed but want the issue to go away) or they verbally surrender in so many words. Often the offenders cannot be tied to a particular student group. For example, sexual assault perps aren’t going to overtly co-host a discussion with the Women’s Center. Co-hosted or not, the audience plays the role of the choir and is preached to for the duration of the event. The phrase “Oh here we go again” feels appropriate for this process.

I am not saying that real dialogue doesn’t happen. I am saying that it only happens in an unscripted manner. It happens when rational people of different views who know and respect each other come together and talk. This happens more than we think because it happens in private. Public events at Duke aren’t so safe for people with dissenting views; we’ve seen the evidence. Interaction on an individual level is the only mechanism with any chance of meaningful success because it does not allow public shaming to be used as a tool of persuasion.

What I have said could easily be mistaken for a simple list of Duke’s more irritating aspects. It serves this purpose, but my point is that after months of campus culture, I could use a break and so could all of you. Let’s all take a breather, and try to be more civil next time.