I read with interest the “Sex…or is it?” pamphlet STARSA (Students Together Against Rape and Sexual Assault) distributed recently to campus post offices. The first three “statistics” were especially intriguing.
*There were three reported accounts
of rape at Macalester in 2000.
*From 1997-1999 there were three
reported accounts of rape at
Macalester
*1 in 4 women will be sexually
assaulted during the four years she is
in college.
A reader’s initial reaction to these statistics might be, “Wow, Macalester must be doing something right.” After all, according to the third “fact,” Macalester should be averaging over 200 sexual assaults a year, yet there have only been six reported rapes in the past four years. Even using the “only 1/3 of rapes are actually reported” guideline means there have only been 18 rapes in the past four years, or 4.5 a year. Truly, our tolerance credo must be working.
Unfortunately, the “one in four women will be sexually assaulted during the four years she is in college” statement is an absolute myth. It was taken from a fallacious study by Ms. magazine (always remember to consider the source). The researcher, Mary Koss, acknowledges that “73 percent of the young women she counted as rape victims were not aware they had been raped. Forty-three percent of them were dating their ‘attacker’ again.” (Source: Independent Women’s Forum, www.iwf.org/news/010417.shtml)
The study was disproved years ago and that disturbs me. It signifies that students and professors at Macalester aren’t particularly interested in the facts if it isn’t conducive to their agenda. Over my four years at Macalester, numerous arguments and “truths” have been presented to me that have totally ignored or suppressed any counter-arguments or, even more disturbingly, accurate facts.
For example, last semester I took a Comparative North American Studies class, where we read Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan woman whose autobiography earned her the Nobel Peace Prize. It was a fascinating, horrific book that described the brutality and humiliation Menchu and her people suffered at the hands of Guatemala’s government. It wasn’t until after we’d finished discussing her book, however, that I learned parts of her story were embellished or outright false. Our professor seemed to want to gloss over this inconvenient fact. Instead, we had debates about the concept of “truth,” which is a valid debate but a lot more so in light of the facts that were suppressed.
My point is this. Most of the books you will be assigned will be written by “progressive liberals.” Your in-class discussions will often debate only the left and far-left. To me, this is not academic learning but propaganda. For other viewpoints and, unfortunately, facts, you will have to go outside the classroom.
Therefore, I want to present to this campus “Four Things your Macalester Professors will Never Tell you.”
1. Gender is not a social construction. Many feminists will try to jam this home. Don’t buy it without considering all evidence. There is significant data in the fields of neuroscience, endocrinology, and psychology that suggests a biological basis for many or most differences in the sexes. (Notice that many of the authors who espouse the “gender as social construct” theory have little or no connection to physical science.) This is not to say that environment and socialization play no part in life; obviously, it does. But so does biology.
2. Mumia Abu-Jamal might, in fact, be guilty of murder. In my freshman year, I took a social science class where our group was assigned to do a presentation on Abu-Jamal, the black activist who has written several books while on death row for the death of a police officer. We dug in with enthusiasm. We told the class about the racist judge, the criminal prosecutors, the social injustice, the whole nine yards. The possibility that Abu-Jamal might be guilty wasn’t even mentioned, not by our group, the professor, or any of the students. It was assumed by everyone present that he was innocent. It wasn’t until two years later that I came across an article in Readers’ Digest that presented a different story; namely, that Abu-Jamal just might be a cold-blooded killer who shot a police officer in the back.
3. Black-on-white crime accounts for 85 percent of interracial violence. Yet, somehow, it’s only a “hate crime” if the attacker is white. What is it, then, if the attacker is black-a rebellion against white tyranny? What bullshit. All crimes are hate crimes, and to value one less than another is a debasement of human life, something I thought liberals were fighting against.
4. Finally, contrary to extremely popular belief around here, the earth is not wheezing its last dying breath while oil companies gleefully rape and plunder it. In his book The Skeptical Environmentalist, Danish social scientist Bjorn Lomborg claims that the environment is actually in good shape and getting better. People in Third World countries are better nourished than ever thanks to improved agricultural technology. Species loss will not be 50 percent over the next generation, as some environmental groups claim, but 0.7 percent. The rain forest is not seriously threatened. And air pollution is an old problem getting better, not a new problem getting worse. Somehow I doubt Lomborg’s book will be assigned reading in any environmental studies classes.
I’m presenting these points of view, and will continue to offer these different (unpopular) ideas, in the hopes that Macalester students will seek out all sides of an issue or debate, and not just the left. If you disagree with my stances, that’s fine, but at least you have been exposed to the “other” side ... which, unfortunately, you will not be exposed to in your classes.
Brad Salmen is a senior.