Before Cornel West concluded his remarks to a crowd of 2,000 people at Smith College during a lecture last week, he trained his critical eye on the very institution hosting him, and Amherst College, as places for “ruling class formation.” He challenged the schools to reevaluate assumptions that greater inclusion of the “black bourgeoisie” on an elite campus is a net gain for poor and working class people.
“Smith College is a great institution but it has a history and it’s been tilted to the well-to-do,” said West, a prominent social justice activist, author, and professor.
West’s words on the duality of elite campuses — aiming for diversity, but remaining too expensive and inaccessible for many poor and working families — resonated with events unfolding at Smith. Last semester, the college was the site of protests aimed at assumptions about the culture of equality among students, staff, and faculty. At the events, people in the Smith community said they feel out of place on campus because they are not white or come from low-income families.
And just last week, Bess Hepner wrote in the Daily Hampshire Gazette about the mismatch between Smith’s decision to recognize alumnae such as Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a documentary filmmaker, and Phebe Novakovic, a defense contractor.
“Why insult a documentary filmmaker like Obaid-Chinoy by honoring Novakovic, a woman who has done extremely well for herself (and her shareholders) by making it possible to drop bombs on the subjects of Obaid-Chinoy’s films?” Hepner asked.
The principled stance Hepner advocated captures not a single voice but a growing collective affirmation among many people at Smith to cut against the grain. Or as West put it to loud applause, “it’s better to be a misfit than fit into a status quo that will demean you, devalue you, demoralize you.”
The talk, organized by the Smith Association of Class Activists, a group that aims to help low- income, working class and first generation students engage in political activism, didn’t conform to the obligatory lectures given once a year during Black History month; it was meant to address inequality on the campus today.
“We hope people were able to take away some clarity. And for the people who are most marginalized our hope would be that they felt loved. I hope people can feel loved,” said Jocelyn Proietti, a board member of the students group and co-organizer of the event.
As for Proietti, what did she take away?
“Any elite institution,” she said, “what makes them elite, what makes them powerful, puts them on top of a hierarchy, is tied to this capitalist structure. And it is tied into histories of exclusion.
“When we close our eyes and picture a Smith College student, that person doesn’t have to be white or cis-gendered, middle class or higher economic class — that we can start to close our eyes and picture ourselves at this institution.”
In that regard, West’s visit couldn’t have come at a more pivotal moment.
“I’ve always felt that being a community college student I’ve never really fit in,” said Smith College junior Zoraida Colón. “When I heard about this event, I decided to come through to see if maybe I could feel more included in the Smith community. I think West definitely did a good job at allowing all of us to feel included. I felt chills run down my spine when he spoke because it was the first time that I felt like I belonged at Smith.”•
Contact Luis Feliz at lfeliz12@gmail.com.
