The Problem  with the Feminists of the 1%

Cloaked with the language of “DEI,” Beilock’s administration will inevitably return to co-opt the language of equity while being deeply entrenched in promoting inequality. Still, the commitment of student organizers to uncover these contradictions remains.​

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It is not shocking to reveal that Dartmouth’s 19th President is unpopular, and unnecessarily callous as her policies routinely jeopardize the wellbeing of students. These truths have worsened following Beilock warring upon her campus in response to the May 1st solidarity action coordinated among labor unions and students for Palestine (SWCD Statement). This piece investigates how "DEI" rhetoric is insufficient and weaponized by figures like Beilock, the feminists of the 1%, and is concealed by our administration’s theatrical pursuit of dialogue, debate, and discussion.

 

In my time at Dartmouth, I have had to sit through presentations on “restorative justice” led by former US military missile operators; I have had to negotiate for campus minimum wage increases with 6-figure earning administrators, and have had to reason with Dean Kotz about the racist origins of the SAT as SNS officers encircled Collis Common ground during Beilock’s notoriously inconsistent “coffee hour.” The level of administrative gaslighting I have experienced is not unique.

 

The excitement that grew on campus before Beilock’s first term resembles the hope for the current VP Kamala Harris. On a much smaller scale, many students were unaware of Beilock’s past union-busting history at Barnard. They were content being led by a woman on the basis of her identity. But, no matter how often we hear abstract calls for “Brave Spaces,” liberal college officials have no interest in combating inequality or racism on campus. Instead, college officials snatch language from a word pantry stocked with co-opted scholarship and experiences of Black & marginalized academics and social movement leaders. Now more than ever, students must recognize when these critical frameworks are flattened into buzzwords, and weaponized to justify our subordination.

 

As my close friend and co-founder of the Student Worker Collective, Sheen Kim ‘23, wrote, “Universities are not poor or lacking in resources; they choose to invest in more profitable ventures: New buildings over public housing, and real estate investment over worker pay.” If Dartmouth were interested in “building trust, community, and accountability,” the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center would not have spent over $2 million in union-busting to thwart the efforts of nurses organizing for livable pay, improved staffing, and equitable health care coverage. Dartmouth would not have nationally disparaged our unionized basketball players, blocking every attempt to their legally protected right to negotiate their working conditions. Most striking, our administration would not have arrested over 90 peaceful student protestors and community members- traumatizing our campus in the process.

 

When students confront our administration with these issues, we are shuffled around in circular meetings with the least offensive administrator of color (ie Dean Brown showing up to every Black-centric event). Or, Dartmouth Student Government opportunists feebly offer us stale “Mental Health” Lou’s doughnuts and we are forced to swallow the taste of their disinterest as we read emails brimming with “we’re listening, we’re here for you”.

 

Genuine student grievances are reduced to opportunities for empty dialogue. This is a direct tactic from “corporate counter-activism”- the marriage of military intelligence with American capitalist strategy. Insubordination tactics, designed to demobilize social movements, don’t emerge from nefarious, shadowy offices, but are as dynamic (and popular) as any other field of research. And our college officials are drawing straight from it. Take the mass pushback against the reinstatement of the SAT- the research and (albeit reactionary) resistance of students of color were largely ignored while Beilock boasted of having helped the most marginalized prospective applicants in national media.

 

This past summer, college administrators (including Beilock) across the country convened to create new rules restricting protests in an attempt to stifle student activism. In the latest example, these very same liberal institutions that herald themselves as champions of freedom of expression accelerate policing when students expose their complicity in genocide.

 

What can we learn from this? Nothing has ever changed by appealing to the morals of those in power, waiting patiently in Zoom rooms, or asking politely. True change is earned through struggle, and organizing with like-minded groups. At any level of political interest or experience, a community of budding organizers and friends awaits.

 

I invite you to read our past publications and connect with writers to learn about how you can get plugged in.