// essays //
Fall 2014
Conflating Causes:
Why No Red Tape's Partisanship is Stifling
Rikki Novetsky
Fall 2014
Conflating Causes:
Why No Red Tape's Partisanship is Stifling
Rikki Novetsky
On October 29, I felt proud to be a member of Columbia University. A wide variety of student groups, made up of students of all backgrounds, hauled mattresses around campus to protest sexual violence and rape culture on our campus. At four o’clock, I, along with two friends, carried a mattress to Low Steps that blared in red tape “CARRYING THE WEIGHT TOGETHER.” If only for one day, I felt like an activist, not just a supporter on the sidelines. I cheered, I chanted, I listened, I watched. As students gathered in large numbers and reporters swarmed the scene, I knew: this is history. And I am here.
At the October 29 rally, I felt pride in my peers and their bravery. But when a representative from Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine was invited to speak to the crowd, I found myself feeling extremely uncomfortable. Needless to say, I don’t mind the existence of C-SJP at Columbia. But the fact that Students for Justice in Palestine was provided a space to speak about a global political affair at a rally about sexual assault reform on my college campus makes me deeply uncomfortable. The conflict in Israel and Palestine is entirely unrelated to No Red Tape at Columbia, and the effort to connect the two groups through joint language of oppression is deeply disrespectful to many survivors of sexual violence that were standing in that very crowd.
No Red Tape and its admirable strides to improve sexual assault policies on our campus is an effort that every single member of Columbia University should be able to support. In a protest about female empowerment and the unspeakable harm of rape culture, particularly on our own campus, it is inexcusable to alienate any facet of the student population. Students for Justice in Palestine should have the opportunity to publicly express their beliefs on campus. But why at a protest against sexual assault, where Jewish students and Jewish groups participated and wholeheartedly supported the cause? If intelligent and liberal-minded students can’t unilaterally stand behind a protest for fewer rapists at Columbia, something is broken about activism on campus. Sexual assault reform should be a fundamentally non-partisan issue, and No Red Tape should be laser-focused on its own mission in order to ensure it expediently achieves its goals.
At Columbia, the radical political landscape is one of intertwined groups that have fundamental values in common but have entirely different agendas. At the beginning of the school year, this was prominently displayed in the 2014 Disorientation Guide—a pamphlet compiled by students to explain the radical activist scene to first-years. The introductory paragraph to the Disorientation Guide reads, “Many of the writers of this guide are organizers and activists who spend much of their time on this campus fighting the oppressions that this institution represents. We are, for the most part, members of campus political groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, Barnard-Columbia International Socialist Organization, Students Against Mass Incarceration, Barnard Columbia Divest for Climate Justice, Columbia Prison Divest, Coalition Against Gentrification, LUCHA, and more.”
Grouping these organization as a singular coalition of radical left-wing politics at Columbia begs the question of whether an individual student can be an authentic and legitimate advocate for one of the groups while being strongly and perhaps even viscerally opposed to another. The question may seem to be an absurdity. Of course one can advocate for climate justice and not be a socialist. Of course one can be in favor of sexual assault reform and also be a Zionist. Yes, intellectually this is possible. But answering the question through the scope of campus social norms tells another story.
Anti-Zionism is, in fact, a very regular part of mainstream radical left-wing activism on college campuses around the country. Disorientation Guides in 2014 from Wesleyan, UC Berkeley, UNC Chapel Hill, Oberlin, and Tufts all include sections about Israel/Palestine and strongly advocate divestment from Israeli companies. Oberlin’s guide avows to “expose the myth that one can simultaneously be truly committed to radical social transformation while also be a self-proclaimed liberal Zionist,” followed by an extensive explanation of why the term liberal Zionist is inherently oxymoronic. The introduction to Tuft’s Disorientation Guide reads, “Surprisingly enough, Tufts does have a pretty decent activist scene. Help Students for Justice in Palestine force Tufts to stop bankrolling the Israeli colonization of Palestine, help VOX fight sexism and rape culture. Just do SOMETHING other than get obnoxiously drunk and listen to shitty music.“ According to the Disorientation Guide at Tufts, the very notion of being a politically engaged student and fighting non-partisan issues such as rape culture comes hand- in-hand with joining or sympathizing with Students for Justice in Palestine.
Based on precedent from other colleges, an alliance between SJP and No Red Tape at Columbia is likely inevitable. That’s okay. But when such a grouping alienates students from a cause that is fundamentally non-partisan, and—more importantly—alienates survivors of sexual assault themselves, we as a community face a serious problem. I stood at that rally as a woman; rape culture and misogyny are something that I have experienced, and that’s why I feel connected to No Red Tape. Other women at the rally were survivors themselves. The fact that a man from Students for Justice in Palestine can marginalize a woman survivor of sexual assault at her own college campus at a protest to combat rape culture is completely illogical. Based on the values of No Red Tape itself, which on its Facebook page says it seeks to find “survivor-centered solutions” to end sexual violence at Columbia, it is deplorable to alienate a survivor from her own cause based on a geopolitical issue that is far beyond the scope of the conversation.
As New York City public advocate Letitia James said in her speech at the rally, Columbia’s physical campus is “sacred ground” for protest and social action. But if social justice efforts on campus seek to be accessible to a wide audience on campus, there needs to be a strong detachment between partisan and nonpartisan issues. I do not seek campus-wide harmony on many issues, but the fight against rape culture is a battle won in in numbers.
At the October 29 rally, I felt pride in my peers and their bravery. But when a representative from Columbia’s Students for Justice in Palestine was invited to speak to the crowd, I found myself feeling extremely uncomfortable. Needless to say, I don’t mind the existence of C-SJP at Columbia. But the fact that Students for Justice in Palestine was provided a space to speak about a global political affair at a rally about sexual assault reform on my college campus makes me deeply uncomfortable. The conflict in Israel and Palestine is entirely unrelated to No Red Tape at Columbia, and the effort to connect the two groups through joint language of oppression is deeply disrespectful to many survivors of sexual violence that were standing in that very crowd.
No Red Tape and its admirable strides to improve sexual assault policies on our campus is an effort that every single member of Columbia University should be able to support. In a protest about female empowerment and the unspeakable harm of rape culture, particularly on our own campus, it is inexcusable to alienate any facet of the student population. Students for Justice in Palestine should have the opportunity to publicly express their beliefs on campus. But why at a protest against sexual assault, where Jewish students and Jewish groups participated and wholeheartedly supported the cause? If intelligent and liberal-minded students can’t unilaterally stand behind a protest for fewer rapists at Columbia, something is broken about activism on campus. Sexual assault reform should be a fundamentally non-partisan issue, and No Red Tape should be laser-focused on its own mission in order to ensure it expediently achieves its goals.
At Columbia, the radical political landscape is one of intertwined groups that have fundamental values in common but have entirely different agendas. At the beginning of the school year, this was prominently displayed in the 2014 Disorientation Guide—a pamphlet compiled by students to explain the radical activist scene to first-years. The introductory paragraph to the Disorientation Guide reads, “Many of the writers of this guide are organizers and activists who spend much of their time on this campus fighting the oppressions that this institution represents. We are, for the most part, members of campus political groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, Barnard-Columbia International Socialist Organization, Students Against Mass Incarceration, Barnard Columbia Divest for Climate Justice, Columbia Prison Divest, Coalition Against Gentrification, LUCHA, and more.”
Grouping these organization as a singular coalition of radical left-wing politics at Columbia begs the question of whether an individual student can be an authentic and legitimate advocate for one of the groups while being strongly and perhaps even viscerally opposed to another. The question may seem to be an absurdity. Of course one can advocate for climate justice and not be a socialist. Of course one can be in favor of sexual assault reform and also be a Zionist. Yes, intellectually this is possible. But answering the question through the scope of campus social norms tells another story.
Anti-Zionism is, in fact, a very regular part of mainstream radical left-wing activism on college campuses around the country. Disorientation Guides in 2014 from Wesleyan, UC Berkeley, UNC Chapel Hill, Oberlin, and Tufts all include sections about Israel/Palestine and strongly advocate divestment from Israeli companies. Oberlin’s guide avows to “expose the myth that one can simultaneously be truly committed to radical social transformation while also be a self-proclaimed liberal Zionist,” followed by an extensive explanation of why the term liberal Zionist is inherently oxymoronic. The introduction to Tuft’s Disorientation Guide reads, “Surprisingly enough, Tufts does have a pretty decent activist scene. Help Students for Justice in Palestine force Tufts to stop bankrolling the Israeli colonization of Palestine, help VOX fight sexism and rape culture. Just do SOMETHING other than get obnoxiously drunk and listen to shitty music.“ According to the Disorientation Guide at Tufts, the very notion of being a politically engaged student and fighting non-partisan issues such as rape culture comes hand- in-hand with joining or sympathizing with Students for Justice in Palestine.
Based on precedent from other colleges, an alliance between SJP and No Red Tape at Columbia is likely inevitable. That’s okay. But when such a grouping alienates students from a cause that is fundamentally non-partisan, and—more importantly—alienates survivors of sexual assault themselves, we as a community face a serious problem. I stood at that rally as a woman; rape culture and misogyny are something that I have experienced, and that’s why I feel connected to No Red Tape. Other women at the rally were survivors themselves. The fact that a man from Students for Justice in Palestine can marginalize a woman survivor of sexual assault at her own college campus at a protest to combat rape culture is completely illogical. Based on the values of No Red Tape itself, which on its Facebook page says it seeks to find “survivor-centered solutions” to end sexual violence at Columbia, it is deplorable to alienate a survivor from her own cause based on a geopolitical issue that is far beyond the scope of the conversation.
As New York City public advocate Letitia James said in her speech at the rally, Columbia’s physical campus is “sacred ground” for protest and social action. But if social justice efforts on campus seek to be accessible to a wide audience on campus, there needs to be a strong detachment between partisan and nonpartisan issues. I do not seek campus-wide harmony on many issues, but the fight against rape culture is a battle won in in numbers.
// RIKKI NOVETSKY is a Senior in Barnard College. She can be reached at rn2268@barnard.edu. Photo courtesy of @ColumbiaSJP.