It was an honor for the Boston College Republicans to host the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson March 21. Peterson reached out to us a few months ago to let us know that he would be available and willing to come and speak on the topic of affirmative action.
He also planned to address the Brown University Republicans in March, as well, which he did on the previous Tuesday. We made the right decision to offer him an invitation.
The BC College Republicans make up a small chapter of the national Republican Party. The GOP platform is opposed to race-based affirmative action. Likewise, we agree that affirmative action is the wrong answer to the serious problem of disproportionate poverty among people of AHANA descent.
Affirmative action perpetuates racial division and strife in society by creating an incorrect sense of inferiority among members of the AHANA community. It also fosters unfortunate resentment among those who feel discriminated against by the program.
Peterson, one of many leaders within the African-American community, shares in our opposition to affirmative action. He has articulated his message in a series of newspaper articles, books, and television appearances.
According to Peterson, affirmative action violates the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr., which he summarized as "the dream to be judged by the content of one's character, not on skin color." It was our desire to hear him elaborate on this issue that contributed to our decision to bring him to campus.
While here, it must be noted, he spoke about a host of items related and unrelated to that topic. He had a lot of interesting and thought-provoking things to say about race relations and family values in America.
We are not in any position as a club to endorse or condemn the views he offered on those other issues. We hope that students who were interested came to listen, thought about his arguments, and made up their own minds.
The greatness of academic freedom is the ability to bring speakers who differ from the consensus position. Academic freedom is only necessary for instances in which speakers desire to articulate ideas that run counter to the prevailing conventional wisdom.
Without a doubt, Peterson's views are controversial because they are not shared by everyone at BC, let alone by the majority. Some students, however, are offended when a speaker does not reiterate the ideas to which they are exposed.
They call those who sharply disagree with them "closed-minded," and they are angered when someone refuses to think like they do - in actuality, those students are the ones who have the real closed minds.
Unfortunately, many in the audience who disagreed with the speaker were unwilling to listen respectfully. Sincere questions were often asked, but Peterson was frequently shouted down before he had a chance to respond or even finish a sentence.
Such treatment of a guest speaker reflected poorly on BC, but we hope that the event is not remembered for this regrettable aspect only.
After the lecture concluded, dozens of students from the audience remained in the room to speak with each other and ask more questions of Peterson in person. This post-event conversation lasted for more than an hour. In our mind, the uncommon civility of this discussion was proof of the event's success.
Peterson presented many unconventional ideas about relevant topics that would have otherwise never been heard. He made students think outside of the box.
The result was spiked interest and enhanced dialogue, and we feel that the BC community benefited greatly from his presence.
Amanda Short, CSOM '07, is the President of the BC College Republicans. Brad Easterbrooks, A&S '07. is the Vice President of the BC College Republicans.
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