Darius Adel ‘24
Satire Editor
“Nobody’s Free Until Everybody's Free.” - Fannie Lou Hamer
After listening to Robert Kennedy Jr.’s fireside chat last week, I was left with a mix of emotions. The most surprising one was disappointment. As Kennedy used our school’s platform to spout hateful propaganda against Muslims and Arabs, what astounded me most was the silence in the room. No one wanted to speak up even though we had just listened to almost an hour of discussion on the importance of free speech. It made me angry to see people doing little more than snickering as the man on stage dehumanized an entire people. It would be easy to criticize others for their indifference, but the fact is I’m no better.
Last fall, shortly after the Homer statue had a noose placed on it on Main Grounds, I was contacted, through the National Lawyers Guild, by undergraduate members of UVA’s Black Student Alliance (BSA) to provide legal aid for their upcoming protest. I had been wanting to do something in response to the horrible hate crime. To me, this was the perfect opportunity to use my legal skills to actually make some sort of difference.
I won’t go into the details of what occurred at the protest, but it was physically and emotionally draining for both the protesters and members of the legal aid team. Even though I felt tired, the thanks I got from the undergraduate students made the hours out in the hot sun worth it. I felt that I had done what was expected of me as both a law student and an activist, I was giving back to the community and actually doing the work. But, I was wrong. At least in part.
Soon after the event, I attended a dinner with other student leaders led by Dean Goluboff. We discussed the work we did for the law community and the difficulties our respective communities faced. When the subject of the Homer noose hate crime came up, I stopped eating and got ready to talk about the aid work my organization and I had done for our fellow students. A friend of mine at the table spoke up and voiced his frustration with the UVA Law community. Not one student organization had reached out to him or the Black Law Students Association to check in and see what could be done to help our Black classmates.
I was initially confused by his comment. I had done my part, right? I spent the better part of a whole day helping undergraduate BSA students protesting for more information on the perpetrator of the hate crime. What I had actually done was less than the bare minimum. I had ignored the plight of the individual students in our own community. In a way, I had become desensitized to their pain. To me, this was a political issue, not a personally traumatic experience for my peers. I addressed it in a way I felt comfortable doing regardless of what was actually needed by the people I care about.
When the hate crime happened, I didn’t do the one thing I should have done which was reaching out to my classmates and finding out what they needed. How can I expect my peers to show solidarity in the face of hate when I myself failed to do so. Our gut reaction is to want to feel comfortable and safe, claiming we can do nothing of substance for others. But, it is not enough to retreat back into powerlessness. Trans people are being attacked, the right to get an abortion is being whittled away, and people of color continue to be seen as lesser than.
Intersectionality requires empathy. We have to be able to help others without getting anything in return. To view our respective communities transactionally is a tool of our oppressors. I share some of my experiences here so that you can hopefully learn from my mistakes. The vast majority of us will soon be in positions of immense power. It is up to us to do what we can for each other no matter where we come from.
While it may be uncomfortable or even scary to speak out against injustice, we owe it to others, past, present, and future. I implore you to start close to home. Check in with your friends, have those hard conversations. Not every action needs to be a heroic deed. Not every sacrifice needs to be martyrdom. To come out of your comfort zone for others is at the core of what's most needed. Intersectionality isn’t some sociological framework to toss into a law review article, it is a call to action.
---
dsa7st@virginia.edu