Cancel Culture Reflections: the Yale Halloween Controversy
As I was thinking about Cancel Culture, the example that I kept coming back to was actually the Halloween controversy at Yale from 2015 (pre-COVID, when dressing up for Halloween was still a thing.)
Quick summary of events for those of us who don’t follow Halloween-related controversies at Ivy League colleges (which hopefully is most of you): A few days before Halloween, Yale’s Intercultural Affairs Committee sent an email to the student body asking students to be “thoughtful” with their costume choices (i.e., don’t wear blackface). In response, Erika Christakis, a lecturer at Yale specializing in early childhood education and co-master of Silliman College, (equivalent to the head faculty of a large dorm community at Yale) sent an email to the several hundred student residents of Silliman College arguing that “free speech and the ability to tolerate offence are the hallmarks of a free and open society” and that the university should not “control the forms of costumes of young people.” Despite the “deferential” tone of her email that was the “model of relevant, thoughtful, civil engagement” according to The Atlantic, there was an outburst of protest from Yale students (see their open letter) and eventually, the Christakises resigned from their positions as resident masters. They were, in essence, “cancelled.”
There are several things I find fascinating about this case. One is the unique position of an American university. On the one hand, universities, especially elite universities like Yale, are supposed to be a beacon of scholarship and discovery of knowledge. On the other, ~85% of students live on campus at Yale, most of whom are between the ages of 18-22 and living away from home for the first time. So then, how do you find a balance between the need to create an environment that is conducive to an “open and civil discussions, without vilifying those who disagree with one’s own view point” (as argued by a faculty letter signed by almost 100 Yale faculty) but also to “create a place of comfort and home for the students who live [there],” and a place “where you can feel free to talk...about your pain without worrying that the conversation will turn into an argument every single time” as argued by a Yale Herald student op-ed and student protests?
The second is perhaps a bit more cynical. Even if we agree that systemic racism is a problem and that universities should support minority students to the best of their abilities, is ensuring that these students feel “valued” and to protect them from “[feeling] threatened” actually the best way to support them? Or, as some argue, is doing so “infantalizing” and “coddling” when we know the real world is full of injustices? Should universities instead make sure to “equip students to thrive in a world full of words and ideas that they cannot control?”
The last point I find fascinating is how this whole controversy seems to have accomplished virtually nothing. Unsurprisingly, being “cancelled” seems to have simply hardened the view of Erika Christakis and others. For all her posturing about the importance of “intellectual and moral growth” and how the “culture of listening needs repair,” it’s unclear from Erika Christakis’ op-ed a year later if she followed her own advice and spent the time to learn more about and from the personal experiences of students of color at Yale. Similarly, despite the widespread outcry in the mainstream media shaming the Yale students for shaming the Christaskises, university administrators seem to have continued to “censure” Halloween costumes.
So what would have been a better way?