Cootie Approach

[ A few weeks ago--November 23--we received this letter. There has been a flurry of conversation about the Pomona Alma Mater in recent days (see this link, especially Comment 1 by Professor Kim Bruce, and Comment 4, by Pomona alumna Rosemary Choate). Probably the renewed interest is because the committee referred to below has completed its report, will discuss it with President Oxtoby by Wednesday, and President Oxtoby will meet with the Trustees on Thursday. The emphases, links, and a few editorial style changes that in no way affect the content are ours]

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CARL OLSON ‘66
[address redacted]

October 17, 2008

Kim B. Bruce, Ph.D. and Jeanne Buckley ‘65
Co-Chairs, Committee on College Songs
Pomona College
Claremont, California 91711

Re: Pomona College: Thought Promoting Academy or Thought Police Academy

Dear Co-Chairs:

Your committee has been commissioned to look into the college’s songs, including the Alma Mater song “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” [Listen Here, Lyrics Here] and make recommendations.

In addition to being an alumnus, I am connected to this issue by being the General Editor for the 1968 edition of the school songbook “The Songs We Sing At Pomona”. It included background material on the 17 songs. For “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” I quoted the jacket notes from a 1958 record by the song’s composer Richard N. Loucks. He indicated the song was written for a blackface minstrel show at the school. In addition I wrote a letter to the Pomona College Magazine in 2002 about a photograph of a 1910 minstrel show at which the song purportedly debuted.

Apparently some anonymous advocates passed out flyers on campus last spring. It is truly a troubling indictment of persons at Pomona who are not willing to stand behind their own views. My name has been brought up in this issue with the implication that I somehow favor banning the song. This was done without my participation or consent. One purpose of this letter is to disown any support for or involvement in the ban advocacy.

In editing the songbook, I did not do any original research. Now some original source research has been done rather than secondary sources such as the record jacket. This is a hallmark of honest academic pursuits. The show in question was in fact a fundraiser for the baseball team. The Student Life of January 21, 1910, gave this account, “The Finale, ‘Blue and White’—the words and music of which were composed by Richard Loucks—sung by the whole troupe, was splendid.” No mention at all about “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” The Pomona College Handbook for 1910-1911 included “The Blue and White” but did not mention “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” The words for the two songs are not similar. In the next year The Pomona College Handbook for 1911-1912 included “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” along with “The Blue and White”. The conclusion is obvious that it was composed by Mr. Loucks sometime between the two handbooks. In 1958 Mr. Loucks’ recollection apparently confused his two fine songs as to their actual debuts within a year. That’s understandable after nearly half a century. We can thank Rosemary Choate ‘63 for this diligent research.

The ban advocates have the burden of proving their case, both for the facts involved and the proposed extreme punishment. They need to present evidence showing the song was ever used in the show. Right now the evidence shows it wasn’t.

It’s troubling that this original research was not conducted by the ban advocates months ago. I understand that thousands of dollars in grants were received for work over the summer on the issue. Why could not any of these faculty/students find these easily discovered facts? How about an audit by whoever made the grant?

Ban advocates contend that if “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” were contained in a blackface minstrel show, it should be shunned as being fatally tainted under a guilt-by-association process into an anti-Black/Negro/African-American song.

We should examine this assertion. As everyone knows from having sung the song many times, there is absolutely no connection to anything racial in the music or lyrics, let alone anything disparaging. This should be the end of the matter among responsible academics. What if the song had been written for a Plug Ugly show?

Ban advocates apparently have taken umbrage about the blackface minstrel tradition of the day a century ago. That’s their prerogative. But then they apply a “cootie” approach to the subject. This approach says that if something, in their opinion, is offensive in any way to them and is connected to any otherwise innocent bystander, then they can penalize or ban the bystander totally—and anything remotely connected to the bystander. Sort of a group punishment mentality. Sort of a modern “memory hole” from George Orwell‘s Nineteen Eighty-Four. Sort of “corruption of the blood” from the Middle Ages to go after relatives of criminals and so on. The ban advocates have appointed themselves to speak on behalf of some amorphous group which is “offended”. In this controversy, from what I can tell, none of the ban advocates has been elected by any such group to act as spokespersons.

Politically-correct fads and advocacy do not make good science, history, or college policy. Pomona has the important ideal as a thought promoting academy, not a thought police academy.

Actually, Pomona would do well to offer a freshmen course in Critical Thinking. Many colleges have this course on how honestly to pursue all lines of study. It deals with logic, fallacies, red herrings, false premises, group think, original source research, statistical measures, and valid scientific and historical evidence.

It has been put forth that some donors may refuse to donate to Pomona because it does not ban “Hail! Pomona, Hail!” as a patently racist song. This is truly a troubling assertion. Just how many closed-minded politically-correct donors are out there that we should fear? Remember, Pomona has a vast cash reserve in the billions of dollars in its renowned endowment fund. Even without any more donations from anybody—not just the alienated ones—the college could function just fine in its current mode for a half century. Actually, Pomona may gain from donors who favor academic honesty.

Even to outsiders the conflict seems like a petty cavil. Randy Cohen, "The Ethicist" of The New York Times Magazine in his column of August 10, 2008, concluded without much ado, “Sing out—full-throated, clear-conscienced.”

Finally, as to the remainder of your committee’s activities, you should hold open public hearings on this matter. You should publish your committee’s report in draft form on the college’s website, so that informed comments can be solicited before any action is taken. You should seek out free speech advocates for comment.

Frankly, I’m troubled by an Administration which has let this issue get this far and has imposed an interim ban. We should find out what written procedures the Administration followed in poisoning the well with such a preemptive prejudicial strike. The Trustees should weigh in. They have ultimate authority for the college. They should make the final decision.

Please let me know how you will proceed. I will be happy to contribute to your further deliberations in this important issue.

Sincerely,

Carl Olson ‘66

Cc: Committee Members
President David Oxtoby
Trustee Chair Stewart Smith and board members
Editor, The Student Life
Distribution

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Mailbag: Pilgrim Place

We received an email last week from a reader who also subscribes to the Claremont Courier. The reader expressed some shock at the Courier's coverage of the Pilgrim Place Festival.

The Festival included the annual Pilgrim Story play, and the Courier's coverage (not posted on the Courier's website) showed photos of some of the amateur actors in dress rehearsal. Our reader thought that the image of a young teenage boy dressed up as a Native American with a headband and feather was feeding a lot of dated stereotypes:

DATE: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 3:52 PM
SUBJECT: Pilgrim Place Festival
TO: Claremont Buzz

Dear Claremont Insider,

I am a Courier subscriber and was mortified, disappointed, and disgusted to see the front page of today's Courier and its coverage of the Pilgrim Place Festival. I wonder if Claremont would allow a racist masquerade starring African American slaves (in blackface, similar to the "Indians" of Pilgrim Place's "redface") and friendly masters; Jews in concentration camp uniforms and smiling Nazi guards; or another other racial minority?

Do you know of anyone out there who has expressed opposition to this festival in the past?

This all reminded us of the ongoing debate at Pomona College over the college's Alma Mater. We haven't heard of any discussion or debate about the Pilgrim Place event, but then Pilgrim Place, despite its progressive self-image, is really a pretty conservative institution, especially when it comes to traditions. So, no mention of untidy things like smallpox or Manifest Destiny in the Pilgrim Story. Realism hasn't quite made its way into Pilgrim Place's school of dramaturgy.

On the other hand, Pomona College alumni of a certain age might argue that tidiness has its place.

Pomona College News

The Student Life, the newspaper published by Associated Students of Pomona College, reports that Pomona College senior have received 16 Fulbright fellowships, tops among US liberal arts colleges. The article by news associate Sarah Higley says:

For the second year in a row, Pomona has topped the list of liberal arts colleges receiving the most Fulbright fellowships awarded to its seniors. The graduating Class of 2008 received 16 of the fellowships, not including a student who received an award but turned it down and [an] alumni who come [sic] back to use college resources in their application process.

Following Pomona [among liberal arts schools] were Smith College with 15 fellowships awarded, Swarthmore with 12, and Pitzer with 11. Scripps received five, and CMC, three.

According to Paula Goldsmid, Director of the Graduate Fellowships Office, the Pomona Fulbright program has used increased publicity to greatly expand the program over the past four or so years.

"More people succeed, and that encourages other people," she said.

Goldsmid added that she thought that many Pomona students are attracted to Fulbrights because of shared values of community service and the flexibility they offer.

TSL's Higley also has an article about the final Pomona Alma Mater forum. The Alma Mater has become controversial because it was allegedly written for a minstrel show in 1910. Higley's article says:

On Sunday, the Colleges Songs Committee hosted a student meeting, the last of three forums to gather community input before forming a recommendation on the future of the Alma Mater "Hail, Pomona! Hail" and "Torchbearers." The faculty and staff forum was held last Friday, Oct. 24, and alumni had a chance to give their opinions last spring. The student forum that took place on Sunday, Oct. 26, on the other hand, was closed to the public.

In a separate article, TSL reports that Pomona alumna Rosemary Choate has submitted a report to the college that says that there is a lack of documentation to show that the Alma Mater was written specifically for the minstrel show. You can read Choate's report here.

Free Speech Tuesday

The First Amendment has had a tough time at the Claremont Colleges (and Claremont in general). Just this past year, as the Claremont Conservative points out, several of the colleges have been accused of squashing free speech.

So it was great last night to see people exercising their right to speak inside and outside of Claremont McKenna College's Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Former presidential aide Karl Rove spoke at the Athenaeum and sparked a protest by hundreds of people opposed to the Bush Adminstration's policies. The Daily Bulletin's Wes Wood II reported on the goings on at CMC:

CLAREMONT - Karl Rove, the former Deputy Chief of Staff and senior advisor to President George W. Bush, discussed presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama and gave his take on the legacy of the current president.

But hundreds of protesters greeted Rove before, during and after his speech.

When Rove tried to leave the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, at least two people and possibly a third claimed they were pepper sprayed while campus officials said they were not.

A bomb threat was also determined to be unfounded, campus officials added.

Meanwhile, over at Pomona College, the debate goes on over Pomona's alma mater, "Hail, Pomona, Hail!" Depending on your point of view, the issue is either one of racial insensitivity or hyper-sensitivity. When this controversy first arose, Pomona did what academics do best: They created a committee to study the issue. The point of the committee will be to educate the community and, more importantly, wealthy alumni, to the point where they can accept the committee's recommendations.

Wes Woods II had an article on this a couple days ago:

CLAREMONT - About 250 people watched a performance outlining the history of blackface minstrel shows last week at Pomona College, designed to help students understand the issue of the college's alma mater.

"We're trying to get as much information as we can so the committee can make a decision," said Kim Bruce, co-chairman of the 11-member college songs committee, which includes students and alumni.

The song, which was composed for the finale of a blackface minstrel show nearly 100 years ago, became a controversial topic in February after fliers were posted during a "family weekend."

An anonymous photocopied flier of the back sleeve of a 10-inch record of Pomona College songs included "Hail, Pomona, Hail!"

. . . .

Eric Hurley, an assistant professor of psychology and black studies at Pomona College, said he found the issue "fascinating" because it's "subtle" and not something as overt as trying to change the racial makeup of the student government.

"I could say my generation wouldn't have gone after this," Hurley said.

Hurley said the college has made a "good public face of being sensitive" toward the issue. He said he heard that many of the older alumni have threatened to withhold donations if there is a song change.

"They're in a precarious position," Hurley said of the school.

One problem with the demographics is that the alumni with the most money to throw at the college are the ones most likely to be offended if the college drops the alma mater. That threat of a loss of income has to temper Pomona's moral righteousness. We'll have to wait to see how it plays out.

This is Pomona College the New York Times Magazine is Talking About

(click on image to enlarge)

Sunday's New York Times Magazine contained a column by Randy Cohen (The Ethicist) on the subject of the Pomona College Alma Mater, though Pomona was not named in the column:

Julia DeIuliis, of Philadelphia, writes: "A college with which I am affiliated discovered that its alma mater was written for a blackface minstrel show in the 1900s. Although the lyrics are innocuous, the school banned the song from this year's graduation and formed a group to discuss its future use, part of a campaign to make students aware of things they take for granted. Is this a good response, or should the school focus on more important issues? Is it unethical to sing the song?"

Cohen replies: "Sing out--full-throated, clear-conscienced..." He then goes on to give cover to Pomona College President David Oxtoby, who made the decision to ban the singing of the song: "The school's response is not only ethical but also admirable. It did what a college should... This particular project may be evaluated for its efficacy...but should still be praised for its intent. "

He does not address the very real collateral damage inflicted on alumni and the wider college community by the somewhat draconian measure of banning the song, perhaps because this was not raised in the question. As we are learning from the Los Angeles Times and the Inland Empire Weekly, you can't count on the print media for the full story.

42nd Street Bagel Incident Sparks Letters to Local Paper

Race is a touchy subject, more so in Claremont than in many places. Just ask Scripps College Dean of Students Debra Wood. Or former Claremont McKenna College visiting professor of psychology Kerri Dunn. And then there was the matter of Pomona College's decision to not have the school's Alma Mater sung at this year's commencement.

And then, too, Claremont has had some real incidents of people being the targets of violence because of their race.

So, we intentionally held off commenting immediately on the the recent incident at the 42nd Street Bagel restaurant on Yale Ave. in the Claremont Village until we had more information.

We first learned of it when a letter appeared in the Claremont Courier from a person who said that the were in shock after "witnessing a blatant racist attack" there on an elderly "woman of color" by a "large, older man wearing a 'David Duke for President' T-shirt. The letter writer felt that the restaurant's employees seemed to favor the man rather than the woman.

After that first letter, the elderly woman involved in the incident wrote in to the Courier asking for a public apology from the store's manager. In response, the management of the 42nd Street Bagel wrote in to apologize.

There were also a number of letters in support of the woman, as well as calls to have the matter referred to the city's Committee on Human Relations, and other calls to boycott the bagel place for its coddling of the alleged racist and its insensitivity to the elderly woman.

Now other letters have appeared in the Courier saying that there was more to the story than was originally reported. The letters included one from the co-founder of 42nd Street Bagel and another from the David Duke-shirt wearing man at the center of the controversy. There were also some from a witness or two who supported the man's account of the matter.

If we can dig up some video, we'll try an delve more deeply into this bagel business later. For now, a word to the wise: in matters of race, use some commonsense. Claremont is usually better off counting to ten and then looking into things. We don't need another witch-hunt in Claremont. The obvious racially-motivated crimes, such as the stabbing of the African-American man by four men on their way to a White Power rally in Los Angeles are a completely different category than the hyped up melodrama of these other incidents, and they deserve to be treated differently.

Pomona Song Police

The Claremont Conservative had a post last Friday about Pomona College's decision to not sing Pomona's Alma Mater at this year's commencement. The post included an image and the text of an email from Pomona College President David Oxtoby explaining the decision. The song, "Hail, Pomona, Hail," has is origins as part of a 1910 student minstrel show.

The Daily Bulletin's Will Bigham also wrote an article about the Alma Mater issue, and the Bulletin's website includes an excerpt of the song. Bigham's article said:

CLAREMONT - Responding to concerns about the potentially racist origins of its alma mater, Pomona College has suspended performance of the song for next month's graduation ceremony.

Information surfaced in February that "Hail, Pomona, Hail," was originally written nearly 100 years ago to be performed at the conclusion of a blackface minstrel show.

For some on campus, that revelation "generated great distress that the alma mater would be sung" at graduation, said Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum.

"(Administrators) had a choice between causing distress and performing a song that, certainly, gives great joy," Feldblum said. "They did not want to be in a position to cause distress."

We originally covered the issue in February after an email from Pomona Dean of Students Miriam Feldblum was circulated. Now comes another email from the Pomona College administration. As with so many things academic, Oxtoby's email concludes with the news that a committee is needed to study (or over-study) the "issue of college songs." (Is there such a thing?)

Oxtoby may need another committee to study the origins of neuroses in acadamia. We saw one familiar name on the committee list: Pomona alum and current Director of Alumni Relations Nancy Treser-Osgood who occasionally runs letters in the Claremont Courier.

Treser-Osgood certainly has no problems having her opinions imposed on the larger community as public policy, so she seems to have found a place on campus. Offensive Song Committee - is "song" a noun or an modifier here? - is a fitting assignment for Treser-Osgood and makes a lot of sense: Over-educated, under-thoughtful Caucasian woman deciding what is or isn't offensive to people of color.

It's tempting to poke fun at these sorts of things, and the best comedy has been done by the professionals.

From Song Nazis to Thought Police isn't too large a step. Is it really any wonder that the First Amendment is out the window at the 5-C's? Here's the Alma Mater:

Hail! Pomona, hail!
We, thy sons and daughters, sing
Praises of thy name,
Praises of thy fame.
Til the heav'ns above shall ring:
To the name of Pomona
Alma Mater hail to thee!
To the spirit true of the White and Blue.
All hail! Pomona hail!

We here at the Insider are always thinking ahead and have already made our proposal for a replacement Alma Mater.

Bright College Days

The possibilities for a new Alma Mater for Pomona College are endless. We find ourselves favoring one based on the current rap (or is it hip-hop?) idiom. We are sure all the college contituencies could get down with it. The tone might seem a little harsh at first with the references to "Niggaz", Hos, Mutha****a's, S**t, Phat--stuff like that. We admit we haven't thought through the "implications" (See this TSL article, quotation of Clio Beauvoir, third to last paragraph), and we further admit that we don't entirely comprehend the nuances of all of the lyrics, but perhaps "School Spirit" by Kanye West (lyrics linked here) (YouTube audio linked here)would provide a suitable beginning for the discussion.

Or perhaps in a somewhat subtler motif, Pomona could just adopt the lyrics of "Bright College Days" by satirist Tom Lehrer. While a few of the references could use updating, we think it possible these lines still capture the desired spirit,

Bright College Days, oh carefree days that fly
To thee we sing, with our glasses raised on high.
Let's drink a toast, as each of us recalls
Ivy-covered professors, in ivy-covered halls...

and ending,

...Soon we'll be out amid the cold world's strife.
Soon we'll be sliding down the razor blade of life.
But as we go our sordid separate ways
We shall ne'er forget thee, thou golden college days.

(spoken, with feeling)
Hearts full of youth.
Hearts full of truth.
Six parts gin to one part vermouth.

(This link to YouTube provides a rendition of the Lehrer song sung by Lehrer himself. Ignore the video and listen in.)