apathy is the new activism

In the summer of 1969, political activism was alive and kicking in East Lansing. During that summer a group of students knocked on the door of Cowels House demanding that the president of MSU, Walter Adams, take a stance on the Vietnam War. With little hesitation Adams joined the 10,000 students and members of the community in a march to the Capitol. Singing songs and carrying a small American flag, Adams found himself at the front of the march (SN 7/12). I can't help but feel depressed. Where did that kind of student activism go? What happened to that kind of university leadership? It seems to me that young people today are becoming more obsessed with accumulating wealth and consuming the latest versions of everything from clothes to technology rather than fighting to bring awareness to political issues or social justice.

It is obvious to me that students can no longer rely on the leadership here at the University to progress us forward. For example- programs such as "I STOP HATE" have failed miserably on this campus. And so has the university leadership behind it. Lou Anna K. Simon brags that she was one of the first people to sigh the I STOP HATE banner after it was signed, but what has she done since then? This program is meant to promote "...a strong, vibrant learning community comes from the many perspectives we each offer. Our differing perspectives help to make MSU a great university. While we will at times disagree, our disagreements will not be used as a basis to do harm to one another. We commit ourselves to celebrating a community where mutual respect and intellectual discourse, shaped by our differing perspectives, guide how we deal with issues and with each other.” This sounds wonderful-- until one realizes that it's just another (white) liberal bit of symbolism to pacify people and keep them from reacting to the bigger, structural problems of racism, sexism, homophobia, discrimination based on political ideology, and countless other isms.

Lou Anna K. Simon and the administration won't even make a public stance TO THIS DAY on the outcome of Proposal 2. The university leaders won't take any stances on the Jena 6 case. They also refuse to move forward on cutting the Coca-Cola contract , and can I just mention that we still serve Chiquita bananas in every single cafeteria? There is literally little or no dialogue between administrators and students on these issues. Bureaucracy and apathy keep the students from having their voices heard on this campus, when it comes to real life, real world issues.

I'm sorry, but this does not sound like leadership that wants to "celebrate community," nor one that "promotes a free exchange of ideas." Let's talk all we want about raising money for MSU (so the BioMedPhySci Building can get more computers, but Morrill Hall, home to the African American and African Studies and English departments can sink more and more into the ground), or the Homecoming parade 2007, or some other frivolous bull crap, but PLEASE, let's stay away from vital current social issues. The silence from our institution is causing DEATH in Sudan. Refusing to divest from any stock that is funding terror in Sudan is practically murder on the part of MSU. But we can't talk about that.

I firmly believe that young people have the most responsibility in advocating for social justice today. It may sound cliché, but young people are the next generation to inherit the world-- why shouldn’t they be the ones to fight for it now? Why aren’t more students devoted to bringing awareness about US political prisoners such as the Jena 6, Assata Shakur, or Mumia Abu-Jamal? Why aren’t more students getting outraged at the fact that their tuition prices are going up, while the amount of loans they are receiving are going down? Why aren’t more students frustrated at the US’s lack of intervention of the genocide in Darfur? How many students know what Blackwater even IS?

While American youth finds itself obsessed with name brand labels, Facebook, and the latest celebrity break up, rights are being violated, freedoms are being taken away, and people are dying. It’s time for young people and people of authority in the university to stop ignoring critical issues and demand to know truth, to know justice. In the words of the great Malcolm X "If you don't stand for something you will fall for anything." I fear if this current trend continues, young people will find themselves in a sorry state of apathy and despair before too long. We need to start demanding that those in authority take responsibility for their actions. The perfect place to start is here at home with our current administration. Students don't realize how much power they have!

In the 1980s, MSU students convinced the University to divest stocks of companies doing business in apartheid-ridden South Africa from its endowment portfolio. This wasn't something the leaders of the university would have done on their own. They did it only because of PRESSURE FROM THE STUDENTS. We need to do what the students did back in the summer of 69. We need to bang down the doors of the administration, the president, the faculty, the police, anyone that will listen, and make them learn our names, tell them what we want, and find ways to get our voices heard and our social justice agendas followed. Students need to take back the power that is theirs. We need to fight, fight the power with everything we have.