Princeton students in the search for meaning in our work — meaning that goes far beyond getting a profitable job or a stable position — need to see the faces of those who have found that meaning.
The Daily Princetonian states that I delivered “anti-Semitic remarks” at a panel on black and Palestinian solidarity. This is a most serious allegation. But is it true?
“Gentleman’s Agreement” (1947), directed by Elia Kazan, predated “To Kill a Mockingbird” by some 15 years, yet, provides a more comprehensive introduction to the concept of systemic racism than any other film — contemporary or otherwise.
A gap year is precisely the opportunity to gain a greater sense of purpose and to get to know yourself better. It’s not just introspection you could be doing with a whole year. You could perhaps travel to other locations, spend time with family, or complete a couple of internships in areas of work that you were interested in but never dared to explore during the summers — summers that were generally reserved for more prestigious tech/finance/consulting internships. One year of break will not only prepare you better for Princeton but also broadly for your career path and life.
Conversations about Palestinian rights far too often become centered on unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism. While this event was perverted by Finkelstein’s genuinely anti-Semitic and offensive remark, which we condemn without reservation, we are at the same time dismayed that his comments have made this necessary condemnation the focus of the event’s aftermath.
Decisions regarding the re-invitation of Wax are and have always been out of our hands. We condemn the idea that we owe professional courtesy to a white supremacist. However, given both the Trustees’ absolute control over Whig-Clio’s budget decisions and the ephemerality of student leadership relative to the Trustees’ long-lasting tenures, a disinvitation from us would be futile.
Forty-six years ago, students wrestled with a similar, though far more incendiary, quandary after Whig-Clio agreed to host a debate between Roy Innis, then-director of the national Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), and William Shockley, a eugenicist who believed that race determined intelligence and a 1956 Nobel laureate in physics.
Over the Classes of 2019–2023, more students came from Greater London than the rest of the United Kingdom, combined.
In many ways, it was a victory. A great moment of relief. At least for the time being, it seems that the accessibility of minority students to elite colleges has been protected. However, even as the case might possibly move up in the legal system, the discussion about admissions should not end at affirmative action.
Princeton is disproportionately pulling in students from the richest — mostly eastern — places in the country. Many small moneyed suburbs send more students to Princeton than entire regions with millions of people.
But as climate change becomes more and more of a reality, and the consequences ever more severe, people need to start thinking more as global citizens than members of individual nations. Climate change affects the whole world, regardless of borders, and it is time we combat it comprehensively.
For now, we must recognize that the system is the fairest unfair system currently possible. There will always be winners, and there will always be way more losers. Sometimes, luck works in our favor, while other times it does not. Rather than solely praise a system for its success, or condemn a system for its failures, we should work to try and improve the process no matter what side of the line we fall on.
The decision to invite Wax is as myopic as it is dangerous — and we will not stand for it. We urge the leaders of Whig-Clio to reconsider their invitation.
It all starts with “What do you want to be when you grow up?” A whole lifetime of ups and downs, twists and turns squeezed tightly into one narrow, simplified box.
If we do not denounce both white supremacy and white supremacists with clarity and conviction, the University can never hope to uproot and dismantle the racism nestling in its crevices.
Tomorrow the University will unveil a new marker on campus about Woodrow Wilson called “Double Sights.” In the meantime, inside the school that bears Wilson’s name, students are waiting for the administration to fulfill its commitment to diversity and inclusion. This is not a time to celebrate; when viewed in the proper context, the marker emerges as a monument to the University’s moral failure in dealing with Wilson’s legacy and should be seen accordingly.
At the very least, though, we should acknowledge that the continued practice Bicker and Greek life is a conscious choice we, as a student body, make. There’s nothing from stopping us from imagining, and eventually creating, a social scene without these exclusionary traditions — nothing except our own unwillingness to confront our collective complicity in an inequitable system.
It’s important, as you embark on your semester here, whether it be your first or last, to do those things that give you great joy, or rather, great tranquility.
