Radical activist members of Dartmouth College’s Afro-American Society are calling for the college to ramp up efforts to eliminate two clearly related world evils: white supremacy and capitalism.
The student activists followed up their Martin Luther King Day protest earlier this week with a statement that attacked the college administration for repressing dissent and opposing schemes for “mass redistribution of wealth” that Martin Luther King Jr. supposedly supported, according to the protesters.
“At the College’s official Martin Luther King Jr. Day keynote address, students, faculty, staff, alums, and community members united to protest the hypocrisy of the college’s commitment to ‘vigorous and positive’ action,” according to Anna Winham, a spokesperson for the protesters.
The goals of her organization are broad indeed. (RELATED: Dartmouth professor: MLK Day is a far-right imperialist holiday)
“As a movement we wish to establish protest as a legitimate and necessary form of discourse, to push the College to uphold its promises to be an inclusive, supportive, critical institution, and to build a radically democratic, radically loving community,” said. “As well as end White Supremacy. And maybe capitalism.”
Capitalism–an economic system marked by voluntary exchange for mutual benefit–has played a large role in lifting all corners of the world out of poverty over the last two centuries.
Whether the student members of Dartmouth’s Afro-American Society are aware of this is unknown. Their faculty advisor, Russell Rickford, is a professor of history who espouses the view that MLK Day is a “far-right imperialist holiday.”
On Monday, the protesters engaged in a mass demonstration, delaying the planned remarks of ABC News correspondent John Quinones.
Last week, conservative and independent students were barred from attending a closed-doors meeting of Rickford’s organization.
In an interview with Campus Reform, Afro-American Society President Jalil Mustaffa Bishop said the college’s commitment to justice is uncertain and contradictory.
“It’s such a glaring contradiction,” he said.
The group also wants to pressure Dartmouth to join the academic boycott of Israel, denounce the Greek system and rid the Board of Regents of its Wall Street-connected members.