Hughes Suffren from the Kerri Dunn Fiasco

For those of you who don't know what the Kerri Dunn fiasco was, have a look here:

Back in 2004, a few Mudders inadvertently burned an art sculpture that was in the form of a cross, to the outcry of groups like OBSA's own, Hughes Suffren. Mudders, as anyone will know, like to burn things and were totally ignorant of the symbolic meaning of a burned cross, but that didn't stop Suffren and others from making a big deal about it. From The St. Petersburg Times article on Kerri Dunn:

"Do you know what's scary?" Hughes Suffren, dean of the Office of Black Student Affairs, said in February, according to the Claremont Courier. "What's scary is that Claremont students are supposed to be the most intelligent young minds in the world. The global leaders of the future. You're telling me a future global leader doesn't know the symbolic significance of burning a cross?"

To Mr. Suffren: Are you telling me that one of OBSA's members doesn't know the "symbolic significance" of comparing another human being to a cockroach?

That incident, of course, was a bias-related one, despite the lack of well, bias, and eventually culminated in the Kerri Dunn fiacso. But when Ms. Ballard goes off on students and assumes that they have white privilge, mum's the word from the Scripps Dean of Students Office.

Is It Time For Drunk Studies?

I laughed so hard at this comment, which is pretty much the funniest parody of Ms. Ballard's first video.

OK everyone,

One of my friends threw a big party in the dorm lounge over the weekend. All of us were wasted and having a great time when four sober kids walked through. They had a drink, but they did not know my friend as well as I did, and they may not have even known that it was his birthday. But they just stared at us partying, then walked out.

This is not directed at everyone, but just the sober kids: Fuck you. Don’t think that I didn’t see you coming in to see what was going on and then trying sneak out. You don’t see me walking over to Stark like, “Oh, I wonder what Friday night is like for sober kids,” and knocking on your goddamn door and saying “you better have a seat at the poker table for me.” What makes you so entitled and privileged to think that you’re allowed to come and hang out in the dorm lounges while I’m getting intoxicated and having a good time?

I don’t care if you want to get to know me or get to see how we do things in North Quad, or even if the event was on Facebook and open to the public.

Guess We're All Racists Now, Except the Real Racists

In her latest Facebook video, Rachael Ballard SC '11 calls me out for calling her on her racism. She's been walking back from using the language "cockroaches" and for that, I say, good for her, but at no point does she apologize for comparing them cockroaches and even goes so far as to say made up things that I said about her in the comment section of Jeremy Merrill's Port Side post, a post which I think made the Port Side lose a lot of credibility, given its absolute dodge of Occam's Razor -- that the simplest explanation is always the most likely. (Contrary to what she has been suggesting, I never say that she names the students in question, but she certainly disparaged them.)

First rule of holes, though, Ms. Ballard is, when you're in one, stop digging. How easy it would be to say that you lost your cool and that you're sorry. So many of us would give you the benefit of the doubt.

But instead, her facebook profile pic is a reference to black power and she's been quick to point out all the black students that have been supporting her -- as if . Really, does Ms. Ballard really feel this put upon and what responsibility might OBSA's Hughes Suffren share in making her feel that way? He suggests, in his email, that we've been raised to have a lifetime of negative stereotypes of black people, as if he could know how we've all been raised in a community as, well, diverse as ours. Might, as I have been arguing since my very first Claremont Independent article, these racial groups makes students feel put upon?

And where's Dean Wood in all of this? According to an email she sent me, she says she's been in meetings all day and that we can expect a statement tomorrow on why Ms. Ballard's statements do not rise to the level of a bias-related incident. I'll be posting up Dean Wood's response as soon as I get it.

Ms. Ballard continues to play the part of an educator, trying to help us folk learn about racism. But racism, at least as far as this little episode is concerned, is like pornography: We know it when we see it and Ms. Ballard's statements fit the charge nicely.

And yet her Facebook status is as follows:

"I can only explain the difference between ascribing to critical race theory and being racist so many times."

So you either believe in critical race theory, or you don't, huh? Well, I guess that makes me a racist. And pretty much everyone else...

Of course, I suppose by that so-called academic definition of racism, we're only racist if there's a unhappy coincidence, in Ms. Ballard's words, of privilege and power. This is a laughable definition. No one says that a redneck off in the woods hating black people is any less of a racist merely because he lacks the inclination or the ability to act upon his racist thoughts. Forgive me, but I'll stick with the real definition of racism: harboring prejudice against others on the basis of racist. That would, of course, include assuming that white and Asian students have privilege merely because of their skin color.

No, we're all privileged to be at the Claremont Colleges, whether we're the children of billionaires or here on full scholarship, black as well as white. That would, include those white students here, who lack parents, and others, who have been ill with life stricken illnesses.

The question going forward is what we're going to do with that education and sadly, for many of the students, who have been indoctrinated in black studies and media studies classes, it doesn't look to have been much of an education at all. That this episode should occur at a time of year when all men feel good will towards their fellow man is saddening, indeed.

Another Comment From Ms. Ballard at the Portside

R.Ballard says:

December 15, 2009 at 4:29 pm

I had two issues with the presence of non-Black students. In my study of Kwanzaa, I have come to understand that it is a holiday created for the express purpose of giving Black Americans & those of the Pan-African community an alternative (& self-affirming) option outside the celebrations of hegemonic culture.

Furthermore, because the students themselves claim to have merely been curious about Kwanzaa & wanting to understand it, I found it off-putting that they (in my witnessing) did not engage with Black students nor did they stay for the substantive portion of the celebration. Even if I’m entirely off-base about Karenga’s intention for Kwanzaa & that these students are warranted to celebrate it–I do not think that’s what they were doing. They were observing and studying….and I’m not an exhibit. If, in fact, their behavior was appropriate, then I will most certainly be avoiding any institution-sponsored events where I may be put on display for the education of others.

You may not want to be an "exhibit," but those people, those "cockroaches," as you put it, had an invitation.

Here's what Hughes Suffren, dean of OBSA, has said [Emphasis and bolding mine]:

One would only hope that the purpose for any student attending an OBSA program is either to learn and/or affirm their own culture, as well as to be educated about a group that may be different from themselves, which is exactly the scenario which played out with the eight students from Harvey Mudd College who attended the Kwanzaa event. Several HMC student leaders consulted with staff from OBSA and the HMC Office of Institutional Diversity about participating in a Kwanzaa event and received invitations to attend the OBSA Kwanzaa event held at Scripps College.

What part of "exactly the scenario which played out" does Ms. Ballard not understand?

Hughes Suffren's Email To Me

Photo courtesy of Claremont University Consortium web page

I sent this email to Hughes Suffren last night:

Dear Mr. Suffren,

I was wondering if you might be able to provide some kind of statement regarding Ms. Rachael Ballard's videos. Do you agree with her that OBSA's Kwanzaa event is only for black people?

Thank you,

He has yet to respond to that email, but he did send me this email just a few minutes ago.

Hughes Suffren	Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 3:59 PM
To: CJohnson11@cmc.edu
Mr. Johnson, I’m not sure where you retrieved the photo of Rachael for your story, but it was not provided “courtesy of OBSA.” Please remove this. Thank you, Hughes Suffren, Dean/Director Office of Black Student Affairs Claremont University Consortium

---

Charles Johnson	Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 4:52 PM
To: Hughes Suffren
The photo is from the OBSA website. [Quoted text hidden] -- Charles Johnson Claremont McKenna Economics-Government Claremontconservative.com

---

Hughes Suffren	Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:02 PM
To: cjohnson11@students.claremontmckenna.edu
To say that the photo was provided courtesy of OBSA is dishonest. From: Charles Johnson <cjohnson11@students.claremontmckenna.edu> To: Hughes Suffren Sent: Tue Dec 15 16:52:49 2009 Subject: Re: Rachael's Photo [Quoted text hidden]

---

Charles Johnson	Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 5:07 PM
To: Hughes Suffren
I disagree, but I will say that the photo is provided courtesy of the OBSA website. I think, with all due respect, that you have much bigger fish to fry with respect to Ms. Ballard's comments, rather than how her photo was obtained. Instead of repudiating them, you've tried to create a false moral equivalence between frats, which we do not have, and OBSA. [Quoted text hidden]

Could it be that Suffren shares Ms. Ballard's views? I wrote about Mr. Suffren and the obligatory racial sensitivity training when I was editor of The Claremont Independent:

Claremont McKenna's Associate Dean of Students Jennifer Jimenez Maraña convened the new RAs for an obligatory, hour-long diversity training this past March in the lounge of Claremont Hall.

Most controversial were the remarks of Hughes Suffren, Associate Dean of Students and head of the Office of Black Student Affairs. According to Dean Suffren, the years since the 1960s have been framed by a constant struggle by its black students to achieve three goals at the Claremont Colleges: "more faces that look like theirs"; "more faculty that look like them" and a "curriculum that spoke to them." [Editor's note: Like Ms. Ballard's media studies courses for one?]

. . .

And so, even forty years after violence and intimidation were excused as a response to a "white culture" on campus, racialist ideology is still justified by the existence of a perceived exclusive majority culture. Returning to the RA meeting in Claremont Hall, Dean Suffren reportedly described CMC students as "culturally insensitive" and asserted that every single year there is a racial incident on Claremont McKenna's campus.

Suffren made much similiar arguments during the discussion about Ilan Wurman's CI piece on racial clubs and in the letter I have put up that he sent out earlier that suggested there was some kind of "white culture" on the campuses. Thankfully he affirmed that OBSA events are open to students, without regard to race.

Ballard Responds on Portside Blog: Response to Come?

R.Ballard says:

December 15, 2009 at 6:42 am

To Mr. Merrill:
I am nearly at a loss for words to express how impressed I am with your explication of Black Liberal/Radicalist thought, and with this piece overall. I have never in ALL my time here at Claremont seen such an attempt to understand the historical context and philosophical underpinnings of my positions as a black leftist (and it’s especially significant that this comes from an individual who doesn’t necessarily claim in invest in these positions himself). This is just good journalism/commentary, whatever position one takes.

To whomever it may concern:
I will be posting another video…or two…or three very soon. You cannot currently see the original videos because I’ve deactivated my facebook in order to focus on my finals. However, it will be back up in a matter of hours.

To Ashley:
Once my facebook is reactivated, I encourage you to read the comments on the video made by students–black students, students of color, white students, students who identify as queer–I think you’ll find that, among those students in attendance, MOST of them felt as I did and were very uncomfortable with being observed. And among those who are aware of the salience of marginalization, they agree with my position & that of other black students in attendance. So before you write off my feelings with “Well, she still had no reason to be upset.” please recognize that while you may not -agree- with my reason, there obviously was one…and I wasn’t the only person that felt that way.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

R.Ballard says:

December 15, 2009 at 3:44 pm

Obviously I didn’t FABRICATE that the students did not engage with Black students. I know that everyone genuinely wants to believe I hate white people… or Asian-Americans? or just non-Black people? (i.e. my adoptive parents, my biological mother, my siblings…) However, if I had seen the students engaging with Black students, I would have just focused on their attendance of a pan-African event.

Kassandra did YOU have a conversation with the RAs? When did you see them engaging with other?–While they were in line to eat?

I think that it’s notable that you (K.P.) felt the need to list your OBSA credentials, because it helps to further highlight the distinction between MY feelings, the feelings of other students and the policies/official stance of OBSA. OBSA is an institutional office beholden to the colleges–it does not represent a monolithic (or correct) Black stance.

To ‘Anon’ …I love how because Kassandra refutes me and her statements support your stance, she’s obviously the one who’s being truthful (but not necessarily critical). You’re already working from the opinion that I have deeply seeded prejudices, therefore I MUST have a motive for lying.

OBSA Director Hughes Suffren's Statement on the Kwanzaa Incident

From: obsa-bounces@lists.cuc.claremont.edu [mailto:obsa-bounces@lists.cuc.claremont.edu] On Behalf Of Hughes Suffren
Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 11:58 AM
To: obsa@lists.cuc.claremont.edu
Subject: [Obsa] A MESSAGE FROM OBSA
Importance: High

Dear Students, IDAS Faculty, Administrators and Staff,

OBSA Staff has met with many students (of all ethnicities) during the past few days regarding the recent OBSA Kwanzaa Celebration and ensuing controversy involving a group of non-Black students who attended the event. There is tension all around. Some Black students believe that programming from the OBSA is for Black students only, while other Black students think differently. On the other hand, at least one white student with whom I spoke questioned the need to have “an all Black group.” He said, “Why aren’t there any white groups or white student affairs’ offices.” I hope to provide clarification regarding “Black only” programs, the continued need for programs that serve specific populations and the use of Facebook.

Cultural programs sponsored by OBSA are seen as opportunities to tell the truth and veracity of the African American story versus the lifetime of negative stereotypes that may have been prevalent in academic form in K-12. To tell our story our way is part of what we have worked for and so many have died for. In this new era of leadership of an African American president, we should be moving forward promoting inclusivity, which is not a new direction, but the best of old directions: to be inclusive, never exclusive. Yes, it is true that 100% of OBSA programming maintains Black students as its target; however, this is different from Blacks only. Students of all races are welcome to attend any program that is sponsored by OBSA. One would only hope that the purpose for any student attending an OBSA program is either to learn and/or affirm their own culture, as well as to be educated about a group that may be different from themselves, which is exactly the scenario which played out with the eight students from Harvey Mudd College who attended the Kwanzaa event. Several HMC student leaders consulted with staff from OBSA and the HMC Office of Institutional Diversity about participating in a Kwanzaa event and received invitations to attend the OBSA Kwanzaa event held at Scripps College.

Conversely, a special program for white culture is unnecessary because the whole of American society serves as the white cultural center. The culture of whites (Europeans) is pervasive and predominant throughout all of our institutions: education, media, government, etc. Therefore, history that is taught in K-12 has come from the European perspective. For the sake of other groups of people who must, out of necessity, exist in this society, and for the sake of those Europeans who understand that all cultures are valuable, such centers as OBSA and The Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies must exist to make sure African American culture is known and appreciated. Through such study, we all learn from each other.

There are many organizations that specifically engage in the dissemination of information about white culture and other cultures: the Shriners; the Rotarians; the Promise Keepers; fraternities traditionally on Frat Row; and Cultural Centers such as, Asian American, Native American, Chicano/Latino, Black/African American, Queer Resource Centers, etc. Some of these groups have more perverse leanings than others; yet the result is the same: the groups exist to perpetuate culture in some form. When this approach works best in a society, and particularly on college campuses, all groups are recognized and valued for their contributions. None is held in greater esteem than the other. None is considered superior or inferior to the other.

There has been escalating tension on Facebook, a medium that Black students currently use to discuss their personal issues. Some issues, however, have been inappropriately discussed, offending students of all communities, and for this, OBSA must take partial responsibility. Therefore, when the Spring semester begins, OBSA and college staff will host 5-C community forums. There, we will reintroduce proper ways to communicate and interact, work toward resolving issues, and develop and embody a greater community standard.

We hope you all enjoy a well-deserved semester break.

Sincerely,

Hughes Suffren, Dean/Director

Office of Black Student Affairs

Claremont University Consortium

(909) 607-3669

hughess@cuc.claremont.edu

Careful With That Megaphone, Coop Manager...

Having now had six energy drinks in the last two days, I need hardly bear witness as to they rank so highly in my estimation. My caffeinated mind does it for me.

Some supposed managers of the Coop have taken umbrage at my reporting of their discrimination against Rockstar, and demanded, of all things, a retraction because I didn't -- and their manager/clerk behind the counter, who I asked about that, didn't know -- that Coca-Cola had dropped Rockstar and that therefore, the message from their message board saying that Rockstar doesn't support equal rights isn't the reason that they discontinued providing it. I didn't get it wrong, per se, the picture was just incomplete.

Incomplete because I did not know about a Facebook group from Pomona has sought to and incomplete because I, though I made a good faith effort, did not know that alleged reason that Pomona had dropped Rockstar was not that Michael Savage's son was behind its creation, but that Coca-Cola had dropped Rockstar from its offerings.

But ask yourself, gentle reader, was it really a bridge too far for me to think that the Coop had dropped it for political reasons? People at Pomona banned a song that had no racist origins and tried to ban "Killer Coke" itself. They even banned two CMC students.

Of course, this being Claremont, someone has to be blamed for me getting an incomplete picture as to the motivations surrounding the end of Rockstar at the Coop. Megaphone, a blogger who claims to be a manager of the Coop, has written a venomous attack on me on her/his own blog, which you might look at here in which s/he calls me fat, evil, and sloppy. Stay classy now, Megaphone. Here's what s/he said,

Last year, Coop Store clerk Teddy Bingham PO '11 started a facebook group concerning the beliefs of Michael Savage and the views he espoused. Teddy also brought his concerns to the Coop Store managers, making a very convincing case. Whether or not the Coop Store, its managers, its employees, or Pomona College saw these concerns as serious enough to "ban" RockStar, as the Claremont Conservative alleges, is irrelevant. If you look at the recent news for the Facebook group carefully, it points out that the reason the ASPC Coop Store stopped carrying the beverage is that Coca-Cola dropped RockStar. Our vendor stopped carrying it. That's why there is no RockStar at the Coop Store. And that is why the poor post author has to settle for Honest Tea, Red Bull, Coca-Cola products, coffee from the Coop Fountain, or even certain flavors of Vitamin Water or Naked Juice to get his caffeine jolt from the Smith Campus Center - since, you know, god forbid that someone who was once memorably described as "pudgy and questionably evil" (an attack he, for reasons unknown, reposted onto his own blog) would have to walk into the village and buy a RockStar from the Village Market over on 2nd and Indian Hill...or stop a couple blocks earlier and go to Starbucks.

Why is it irrelevant? Surely there might be other means to procure Rockstar if other students were, as I am, interested in purchasing it?

That'd be fine, if the attack stopped there, but Megaphone's a real luminary, citing the talk show The View of all sources and then turning around and criticizing me for citing from original source material that was up on Wikipedia which shows that Michael Savage had nothing to do with the management of his son's startup and that Mr. Weiner, the founder of Rockstar and denizen of a very .

(Of course I didn't know what The View was, so I had to Wikipedia that...) If Megaphone has such a problem with Wikipedia as a source when it links to the press releases and other commentary on the matter, I call on Megaphone to promise to never use Wikipedia ever again. One wonders if Megaphone would pass any of her/his classes, without it.)

I rightly condemn the attack on Rockstar as the kind of sins of the father visited upon the son kind of boycott. There's no indication that the son shares his father's views, nor that his mother, the erstwhile CFO of Rockstar, did as well. I wonder how Pomona students would like it if we just assumed that they had the same politics as their parents...

Finally, I'm not particularly fat or pudgy, but I do like to remind my readers that when various people have no argument against what you are arguing, they like to point to your weight. Note the election of that greatest of fat men, Chris Christie in New Jersey, as if girth might be a disqualifier for political breadth and wherewithal to get the job done. I am not a fat guy by any stretch, but I will vocerifously rush to their defense when the nannies come nannying. First they came for the fat man, and I did not speak up and all that jazz. Some of our fattest leaders -- Winston Churchill, anyone? -- have been our finest.

Pomona's Hack Professor On Climate Change

Yet more responsible rhetoric and non-partisanship from a Pomona College professor of politics:

President Barack Obama is not scheduled to attend the United Nations' conference on climate change in Copenhagen, Denmark until later in the week, but some lawmakers, environmental experts and citizens already know what actions they would like him to take.

"I would like to hear from him that he's ready to sign a treaty," said Richard Worthington, professor of politics at Pomona College, who is in Copenhagen with a group of students.

Representatives and leaders from all over the world are meeting in Copenhagen for a two-week conference seeking an agreement on how to cut carbon emissions to reduce global warming.

The conference began Dec. 7 and will end on Friday - the day Obama is expected to attend.

"I think it would be good if they actually agreed to some targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions because in my experience with environmental policy is that if something is being done that is harmful to the environment the most effective approach is to say `you need to stop doing that'," Worthington said.

"Of course a lot of things you can't stop completely and we're not going to stop completely emitting greenhouse gas emissions. It's something that's pretty clear as a target that countries are obligated."

Never you mind, of course, that none of the nations that agreed to Kyoto actually met their commitments and that carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant at all, but life itself.

Why Won't Dean Wood Send Out An Email Explaining Why Ms. Rachael Ballard Isn't Guilty of a Bias Related Incident?

As you know, I'm flat out opposed to bias related incidents, but if the law is to be the law, let it be enforced without arbitrariness. Surely Dean Deb Wood would be all over this Kwanzaa affair, given her past love affairs with calling anything and everything a bias related incident? I admit to being facetious, as we know Dean Wood only comments on those matters that warrant official business. Like that White Party.