Without Dialogue, Misunderstanding Is Here to Stay
Last Tuesday, THE HOYA published its annual April Fools’ joke issue. Two days later, at least 40 students — including leaders of campus minority groups — participated in a sit-in protest in THE HOYA’s office to express their anger with the issue’s content. Sometime between Tuesday and Thursday night, the leadership of THE HOYA realized that the issue had gone too far.
In many ways, this year’s April Fools’ issue was no different than those that preceded it — it was uniformly tasteless, disrespectful and ruthlessly satirical. But this year’s iteration crossed the line. In more than one of the issue’s gags, THE HOYA traded witty satire for shock value and lighthearted observational comedy for brash insensitivity.
Now, we’re paying the price. Town hall meetings have been held, student government resolutions have been drafted and other media have begun to cover the matter. To the membership of THE HOYA, it’s clearer than ever that the issue offended a large, diverse portion of our community and that a number of the community’s concerns are valid.
For the second time in as many school years, Georgetown’s newspaper of record has alienated its readers. (In the fall of 2007, some questioned THE HOYA’s limited coverage of an on-campus protest related to the Jena Six.) Regardless of the specifics of these crises, it seems that THE HOYA and, by extension, Georgetown, have a problem.
Despite the years of hard work done by minority groups on campus, a fundamental lack of understanding of minority issues persists on the Hilltop. Only through the development of dialogue and the implementation of concrete remedial measures can this sort of incident be averted in the future.
THE HOYA must commit itself to becoming more aware of minority voices on campus, and — in one way or another — more representative of them. This will entail a continuation of THE HOYA’s ongoing re-evaluation of its organizational workings and its role in the community, as well as the introduction of specific initiatives to promote greater diversity and awareness on its staff. (Circulating ideas include proactive recruitment of staffers more representative of the community, diversity training and institutionalized feedback by representatives of minority groups on campus.)
No progress can be made, however, without the participation of the groups that were offended by the April Fools’ issue. The protesters should be commended for their thoughtful, effective expression of disapproval over the past several days; for real progress to be made, however, more overt communication must take place. The town hall meeting held last Thursday was closed to the press, the sit-in protest was largely silent and, at this writing, no viewpoints or letters have been submitted to THE HOYA by members of Georgetown’s minority communities since the protest. There is a time for silent objection — that time is past.
THE HOYA has specifically sought to recruit minority staff members in the past; these initiatives have been unsuccessful, thanks to a lack of commitment on the staff's part and a lack of interest among minority groups. THE HOYA is willing to work more actively to change the climate and culture of its newsroom, and to reach out to and attempt to better understand, represent and recruit members of our minority communities. The effort, however, must not be made to turned backs. If we truly want to effect change, the burden is too great for THE HOYA to shoulder alone. If the community wants a more representative newspaper of record, then its participation will be required in the dialogue and solutions that will hopefully result.
The first step is face-to-face dialogue. We encourage all who are interested to attend the forum that THE HOYA will lead Tuesday night at 9:30 p.m. in White-Gravenor 201A and share ideas of how to move forward.
THE HOYA is committed to reconciliation and long-term change; we understand that THE HOYA must never again alienate the Georgetown community in the way it did last week. Unfortunately, we cannot avoid another instance without the contributions of the community — the answer is to rely on you.
Editor’s note: This editorial was written by the editorial board, a group of three HOYA staff members and two at-large members of the community that write the editorials that appear on the left side of page A2 in each issue. It does not necessarily represent the views of THE HOYA's staff or board of directors.
To send a letter to the editor on a recent campus issue or Hoya story or a viewpoint on any topic, contact opinion@thehoya.com. Letters should not exceed 300 words, and viewpoints should be between 600 to 800 words.
Apr 07 2009 at 2:37 p.m.
To assume that the entire Georgetown community has a problem understanding minority issues just because you made an idiotic publication last week is a little bold, I'd say. While there are problems, and I applaud your effort to do something about them, it's not the entire student body's fault that you sacrificed journalistic integrity for a joke.
Apr 07 2009 at 2:55 p.m.
GC, you are right, but on the other hand, it seems like The Hoya is now being blamed for all race issues on campus, and those are not the paper's fault.
Apr 07 2009 at 3:45 p.m.
"The town hall meeting held last Thursday was closed to the press, the sit-in protest was largely silent and, at this writing, no viewpoints or letters have been submitted to THE HOYA by members of Georgetown’s minority communities since the protest. There is a time for silent objection — that time is past."
YOU STILL DON'T GET IT. Rule number one of crisis management is you do not blame the victims. People are pissed off at what you did -- give people time to engage in dialogue instead of trying to force the issue at your convenience. And then critize them as adding to the problem.
Unreal.
John Keenan COL 1998.
Apr 07 2009 at 3:56 p.m.
I mean, look at the headline!?!? "Without Dialogue Misunderstanding is here to Stay."
How about this for a better headline, "Without the Hoya Empathizing with the students we alienated with our hate speech, instead of blaming them for not wanting to talk to us, misunderstanding is here to stay."
and i realize the ed board is comprised of both hoya staff and non-hoya staff so it doesn't reflect the views of all the writers/editors/etc in the paper.
IF you want on OPED about how the Hoya messed up on this issue (and continues to do so), I'd be more than happy to write one.
John Keenan
Apr 07 2009 at 4:19 p.m.
John, I think you're taking this a bit too far. For someone who is not on campus, you pretend to understand the community reaction very well.
Over the last week, The Hoya has become the focal point for all diversity issues on campus. Even those who were involved in the sit-in admit that they are making an example out of The Hoya.
It appears as though most of the Georgetown community believes that The Hoya was wrong in how they went about writing the articles for the issue. But most of us take it as a bad, insensitive joke.
To put it in perspective for you, the majority of the community on-campus continues to think less and less of groups like the SCU and STAND because of the way they are handling the issues. It has been rumored that the offended groups are beginning to realize that this is not the way to promote diversity on campus, and I applaud them for taking a more rational stance on this matter.
The Hoya is having a forum tonight which I look forward to attending. I think that people are cooling off a bit which is actually leading to better discussion of these issues.
As a former EIC of The Hoya, we appreciate your input, but please do try to understand that you may be a bit disconnected from how most of the campus feels one week after the issue was published.
Apr 07 2009 at 4:23 p.m.
I too am shocked at the Hoya's brash editorial. How could they, a week later, make demands of the community they violated? i know they want to quench their conscience as soon as possible, but they really don't get it... this is an immature, selfish editorial that condescends to the community they continue to marginalize. And they expect to recruit students from the community they continue to insult? Quit feeling sorry for yourselves, you come off as spoiled, privileged children who just want to shorten the time you're grounded so you can go and get yourselves in trouble again.
unbelievable.
Apr 07 2009 at 4:50 p.m.
What's unbelievable is people like you who still think the Hoya insulted the campus community. Put down your torches and get behind real progress through discussion.
Unbelievable.
Apr 07 2009 at 5:17 p.m.
Um, it clearly insulted the campus community.
Apr 07 2009 at 5:42 p.m.
This is kind of misleading-
"no viewpoints or letters have been submitted to THE HOYA by members of Georgetown’s minority communities since the protest.
"
http://thehoya.com/node/18637
The operative part of your sentence is "since the protest" but I wanted to point out that minority groups have sent in viewpoints. Also, it is kind of obnoxious to blame a lack of dialogue for this terrible issue.
Apr 07 2009 at 6:29 p.m.
it's pretty arrogant of the hoya's ed board to say that there hasn't been dialogue, just because they haven't received letters. first of all, a viewpoint appeared in their friday paper, so to say they haven't received viewpoints is just factually inaccurate. as for dialogue, the 120 comments on their article about the protest at least shows that people care about this issue and are talking about it.
also, i find it ridiculous that you'd say that these kinds of incidents can't be avoided without the help of the community. are you saying that you're incapable of being racially sensitive without our help? or are you trying to cover your ass, so that when you do something else insensitive, you can just blame it on us?
Apr 07 2009 at 8:09 p.m.
"Unfortunately, we cannot avoid another instance without the contributions of the community — the answer is to rely on you."
I really don't think it takes a community to let the writers and editor of the Hoya know that a headline, "because she can't reject you when she's comatose" was inappropriate. There are some things that 19, 20 and 21 year olds should be able to figure out for themselves.
The bigger problem for me is why your writers thought those pieces were funny in the first place?
Apr 07 2009 at 8:54 p.m.
They're not very smart. They need people to tell them what is not appropriate, and they think all racial humor is LOL HILARRIROUS
Apr 07 2009 at 9:04 p.m.
The Editorial Board could learn a lot from John Keenan even though he is not a current member of the Georgetown community. How in 2009 could college students be so ignorant of what constitutes racial and sexist insults? How could the Editorial Board expect the maligned, insulted victims of their April Fool's edition to bother to talk to them much less try to educate them--the Editorial Board appears to be ignorant and insensitive beyond belief. If there is no resident "adult" on the Hoya staff, you should ask (beg) someone like John Keenan to try to "educate" you.
Apr 07 2009 at 9:51 p.m.
Wow writes: "as for dialogue, the 120 comments on their article about the protest at least shows that people care about this issue and are talking about it"
Yes, 120 mostly ANONYMOUS comments, many from the same partisans on both sides. Some dialogue! Outside of anonymous blog comments and silent sit-ins, there's little dialogue on this issue -- isn't that the point of the editorial? Students would rather rush off to the university president (to ask for what, university censors or some type of "diversity training"?) or draft some sort of pathetic GUSA resolution than sit down and talk with editors.
I don't read this editorial as suggesting that the community is to blame for the hoya's satire issue, but the community is responsible for joining the editors in a dialogue if they're upset with those editors. That would require more than having silent, headline-grabbing sit-ins in the hoya's office or posting snide comments about the intelligence of hoya editors on this forum.
Apr 07 2009 at 9:57 p.m.
You've tried to unsuccessfully 'recuit minority students' in the past, have you? Well, sorry if your faux-affirmative action programs didn't work, Hoya. Could it be that your entire attitude is so distasteful to most members of the Georgetown community that no one wants to be associated with you? It's no ones' fault but your own, looking to specifically hire us 'coloreds' to your staff so you might fulfill some quota in your head. THIS MINDSET is the problem. It's not the community. It isn't the minorities who are all of a sudden giving you a silent treatment. It's you. Get it straight.
Apr 07 2009 at 10:00 p.m.
"How could the Editorial Board expect the maligned, insulted victims of their April Fool's edition to bother to talk to them much less try to educate them."
The editorial board is making excuses for the newspaper's poorly received satire. And now parents are making excuses for their kids' stubbornness in refusing to talk to editors. Truly pathetic.
Apr 07 2009 at 10:40 p.m.
The ed board doesn't come close to 'blaming the victims' here--this editorial very politely says that dialogue is the only way. It's the truth, and it's humbly stated. The boldest this gets is when it points out the lack of communication that has gone on so far. (By the way, there is no fact error--if the ONE viewpoint that has been published was run on Friday, it was certainly submitted before the protest late Thursday night.)
A protest that started out reasonable and appropriate has devolved into a pathetic venting session--now, pretty much every conceivable group has jumped on the bandwagon, and pretty much every shred of content in the issue has been declared offensive.
And from one ex-Hoya staffer to another, John Keenan, I think it's time for you to quiet down. You were there 10 years ago, and as far as I can tell you don't know any current staffers or current students at all. Know your place.
Apr 07 2009 at 10:56 p.m.
Ten years after John Keenan was EIC--the editorial board of The Hoya seems to have devolved rather than evolved.
Apr 07 2009 at 11:19 p.m.
Why do people get so vitriolic just because they don't have to post their names and its on the internet? Beat up a pillow or something; just stop posting this personal attack garbage online.
Apr 08 2009 at 3:06 a.m.
This editorial makes a lot of sense.... if what happened was a misunderstanding. This wasn't a misunderstanding- it was a bunch of immature, unsophisticated, sheltered kids who knew they were "crossing the line" but thought they would get away with it. So, in that sense, we don't need to have "dialogue" about it. The Hoya screwed up and that's all there is to it. So really, The Hoya should just shut up and take the criticism. They have no business making demands of anyone at this point. Also, it's clear that they're really enjoying the drama and the opportunity to act very self-righteous about the whole thing... which is also very obnoxious. Way to go Hoya.
Apr 08 2009 at 5:00 a.m.
"They have no business making demands of anyone at this point."
amen
Apr 09 2009 at 2:17 a.m.
A lack of humor often betrays an immature intellect.
...just something to chew on.
Apr 09 2009 at 2:38 p.m.
A 'Minority' Students said: "You've tried to unsuccessfully 'recuit minority students' in the past, have you? Well, sorry if your faux-affirmative action programs didn't work, Hoya. Could it be that your entire attitude is so distasteful to most members of the Georgetown community that no one wants to be associated with you? It's no ones' fault but your own, looking to specifically hire us 'coloreds' to your staff so you might fulfill some quota in your head. THIS MINDSET is the problem. It's not the community. It isn't the minorities who are all of a sudden giving you a silent treatment. It's you. Get it straight."
So my post is to John Keenan. I'm the same person who was discussing the "recruitment" aspect over on the 126-post thread. What can the Hoya do when this is the reaction that outreach receives? How can the Hoya try to bring minority students' perspectives onto the paper when its attempts at outreach are responded to with this sort of anger?
And to the "Minority student" who posted this: You sure seem to care a lot about the Hoya when it "offends" you. But why not get involved, be a presence in the office, and prevent this sort of nonsense from happening in the first place? Or I guess you can just remain the victim all the time. That is probably the easier route to take.
Apr 09 2009 at 8:25 p.m.
THIS IS NOT THE FAULT OF MINORITY GROUPS. The Racism is the fault of THE HOYA WRITERS.
You can have a 100% white staff with NO MINORITY INVOLVEMENT that is in NO WAY RACIST.
Why do people keep insisting that the onus is on minorities to get involved and prevent this nonsense? The logic is strikingly bad.
Apr 09 2009 at 9:46 p.m.
Phil--
I'm not saying it's the "fault" of minorities. Yes, in an ideal world, white kids would never make a mistake and never offend minority classmates. This isn't an ideal world. So rather than constantly just doing the after-the-fact finger pointing, why don't we talk about how to prevent this beforehand? And I believe that the best way to PREVENT this stuff is to have more interaction b/t whites and blacks. That interaction is NOT achieved with meaningless "town halls" or stupid "diversity training." The interactions need to be natural. There need to be shared activities, or these groups will never understand what the other thinks/feels/wants.
The April Fools issue probably crossed a number of lines, and the white kids on the Hoya should have known that. But looking forward, the way to PREVENT these problems is through greater shared interests and interaction.
I'm not saying it's anyone's "fault." I'm trying to look forward.
Apr 09 2009 at 11:12 p.m.
the whole spanish/portuguese dept. got a photocopy of the original editorial in our mailboxes this week - we are about 85 people. i must say that i am impressed by the campaign to heighten awareness of this scandal within the georgetown community. faculty and graduate students are all too often out-of-the-loop when it comes to finding out about these things. adelante.
Apr 10 2009 at 6:05 a.m.
After looking over the April Fools' edition once more, it has struck me that perhaps the most troublesome pieces in it are the two “chill the fuck out” introductions (”In This Issue,” page 1 and “No Offense,” page 2). The tone of these is insulting and didactic - basically telling the reader that if they find anything in the paper offensive, they have a stick/rod/baton up their ass. The result is that anyone who was offended by the content is now doubly angry - for the original offense, and for the subsequent insult.
If the Hoya wants to publish satire - whether viciously racist (ie. “We Need More Interracial Loving”) or quite genuinely clever (ie. “Working for Corp Classified as Alternative Lifestyle) - they should at least have the guts to do so without preceding it with childish “disclaimers” that only serve to increase the divide between the paper and a large portion of its readership.
Apr 11 2009 at 5:47 p.m.
Wow people! Those are pretty tame jokes. You guys need to relax.
Apr 14 2009 at 4:00 a.m.
Quick disclaimer- I graduated in '06 and know maybe a dozen people on campus who are not graduating this year.
But, as many know, this kind of behavior from The Hoya is nothing new.
If The Hoya really wants to change things and get "minorities" more involved (Let's keep in mind this is more than a white/black issue. Surprise! There are many other colors in the Georgetown community.), then The Hoya should be the ones to reach out. Too often groups that are abused are then asked to step up and make the extra effort to make things better (example: whatever this meeting is that The Hoya is hosting on Tuesday). I'm sorry. That's not how it should work.
Is The Hoya attending events put on by various student of color and "minority" organizations and then writing about them? Has The Hoya asked to attend a SOCA meeting (do ya'll still exist?) or reached out to student of color organizations to even start a conversation?
If The Hoya really wants change, then The Hoya needs to be the one to reach out and make the effort.
Afterall, students of color are already on your turf (i.e. majority white Georgetown). It's time you come to ours.
Apr 14 2009 at 6:21 a.m.
"Has The Hoya asked to attend a SOCA meeting (do ya'll still exist?) or reached out to student of color organizations to even start a conversation?"
Yes, as was mentioned at last week's forum, The Hoya expressed interest at attending SOCA meetings and was originally rebuffed by at least one member of SOCA, but I believe later they were invited/allowed to attend SOCA meetings. I'm not sure on the details other than what was said at the forum. I know that The Hoya reached out to many organizations last year, especially in the wake of the Jena 6 controversy, although again I am not privy to all the details of what the results of all that was.
Apr 15 2009 at 1:26 a.m.
Sarah:
The fact that you see Georgetown as "white turf" is the problem. Too many minority students show up on campus just waiting to become victims of these sorts of things. But that's not how the white kids see it. We show up thinking that it's the "turf" of all Georgetown students. Period. And that's why we don't feel the need to go more out of our way for minority students than you feel the need to go out of your way to come to us. It's that sort of defensive mind-frame that causes a lot of these misunderstandings. How often do minority organizations invite the Hoya to events? I know from having been on the Hoya that most Hoya stories come from the groups themselves contacting the Hoya with information. So why should the Hoya take ten extra steps to get to you when you have the same access to the office and to the editors that every other group has?
And the Hoya hosted an open forum. How is that not good enough to count as extending itself to the minority community?
Apr 15 2009 at 9:08 p.m.
Sarah Audelo bashes the Hoya for not covering Asiafest:
http://www.thehoya.com/node/13386
Cover story/feature on Asiafest:
http://www.thehoya.com/node/1382
Apr 28 2009 at 5:33 a.m.
Speaking only for myself, when I came to Georgetown, I did not anticipate "white turf". But that's what I encountered when I arrived. The sad thing is that people like No. still think that doing "more" (whatever "more" is) with the community of color is a problem and an inconvenience.
And do all groups really need to reach out for every event to The Hoya? You all can get on the same list servs and walk by the same fliers in Red Square to find out when events are held. Or is that adding too much work? I mean, if you're already aware of problems with the community of color, more can be done besides hosting a forum. And many of the big events are hosted year after year. Besides, it's not like they are secret or bad events. In fact, I quite enjoyed them back when I was an undergrad.
To complete the laundry list of comments back to my post...
Brian said that The Hoya was later invited to a SOCA meeting, but didn't know what happened...exactly my point.
As for Read the Paper, apparently I missed it. One sentence wrong in my piece. But ignoring the bigger picture which involved no coverage of Urban Fare, Diaspora and the Commitment to Diversity Awards is not okay.
While I am happy to hear about some of the progress that Georgetown has made since I graduated, it greatly saddens me that The Hoya is still at odds with the community of color. I mean, how long is this going to last?