Have you seen the video from the Purdue commencement ceremony?
And watch my video response here.
Who is he looking back at when he turns around?
Is he expecting them to be laughing, too? Is that a common experience for him, that others laugh at his dehumanizing other people like this? Is he used to that?
The clip shows two people sitting behind him; one who is clearly not amused, another who joins in the crowd’s laughter. Which one do you relate with more?
He’s in a position of power. This is his platform. People on his left and on his right. Visibility. Credibility. This is how he chose to use it. Off the cuff? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. I’m in no position to judge a man’s heart. Who is? But my family and I must encounter and endure the culture that his outward expressions fuel and perpetuate.
The slant eyes hand motions. The random kid asking me if I have the virus. The white manager asking my wife if she eats dogs. I’m sure the thousands of people connected to this account could share their own testimonies.
“Off the cuff” is a well-known linguistic device used to coerce and manipulate listeners into a very specific mindset. We’ve all behaved in a manner that’s “off the cuff” – so it’s priming us to speak from the “let he who is without sin cast the first stone.” Basically, “let it go, I didn’t mean it, no one’s perfect, so my behaviors are acceptable and the pain inflicted is irrelevant.”
The problem here is that we’re not trying to implicate some poor marginalized person. Jesus wasn’t seeking to protect and advocate for someone who possessed authority and power. No. He was using his authority and power to defend the oppressed.
Quite an opposite of what this chancellor was doing.
Jesus used his power to serve.
The chancellor uses his power to serve himself.
His comedy. His status. His stage presence (if that’s what you call it when individuals and people groups are dehumanized because of your being there).
The chancellor’s behaviors were perpetuating racism and bigotry and all kinds of evil under the mask of hat and gown – in the midst of socially sanctioned and ceremonial tradition.
Part of reason our nation is in this place of overt hatred is because oppression from the white-led podium is considered sacred, infallible, untouchable, godlike, especially when it’s off the cuff.
I’d recommend not even entertaining such “off the cuff” words in private. But if you feel captive to dehumanizing others, if that’s your vice, at least keep it to yourself or work it out with an accountability partner. Don’t pull the world into it with you. We’re all out here trying to serve communities for the better. Not relegate them to the punchline of your joke. We’ve been indoctrinated enough without having to deal with yet another hackneyed white authority figure leading audiences to the slaughter.
What actions to take from here?
I’ll just share one for now. Remain open to and find ways to pursue a world in which a person would expect their leaders not to see them from a place of self-centered superiority but instead a place of humility, kindness, and willingness to listen to and protect those under their care; sunk into the heart so much that there’d be no need for lines written on cuffs but the substance of justice would flow from their heart and veins into the very lives they’ve committed to lead.
Is that too much to ask from a chancellor?
Thank you to Patrick Armstrong for bringing this story to our attention.
Cam Lee Small, MS, LPCC 