A blatantly racist opinion piece penned by a Pennsylvania college student says “white boys” should not “be allowed to talk.”
Leda Fisher, a senior and self-identified “black girl” at Dickinson College, whines about “white boys” in her higher education years “incessantly” speaking about issues and sharing their opinions, in a piece titled, “Should White Boys Still Be Allowed to Talk?”
The piece was published on Thursday in the student newspaper, The Dickinsonian. School administration addressed the severe backlash to the openly racist piece on Friday in an email underscoring their position to uphold free speech and condemned prejudice.
“American society tells men, but especially white men, that their opinions have merit and that their voice is valuable, but after four years of listening to white boys in college, I am not so convinced,” asserts Fisher in the piece.
“In my time at Dickinson I have listened to probably hundreds of white boys talk. It feels incessant. From classes and lectures, to the news and politics, there is an endless line of white boys waiting to share their opinions on the state of feminism in America, whether the LGBTQ+ population finally has enough rights, the merits of capitalism, etc. The list of what white boys think they are qualified to talk about is endless,” she continues.
Fisher then claims most white boys don’t “understand that their (ill-informed, uncritical) opinions do not constitute truth. In fact, most often their opinions aren’t even original,” she writes. “White boys spout the narrative of dominant ideologies and pretend they’re hot takes instead of the same misleading garbage shoved down our throats by American institutions from birth.”
“I am so g****mned tired of listening to white boys,” says the senior. “I cannot describe to you how frustrating it is to be forced to listen to a white boy explain his take on the Black experience in the Obama-era. Hey Brian, I’m an actual Black woman alive right now with a brain. In what world would your understanding of my life carry more weight than my understanding? Unfortunately, it is this world, where white men debate the pain of other people for fun and then take away their rights.”
