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Dear Editor,
My name is Vinny Menechino. I am a freshman at Bentley University. I feel that since I have been referenced four times in the past three issues of The Vanguard, it would be appropriate to submit a statement of my own.
I was the person who attended the Tim Wise forum and offered an opposing viewpoint. I will use this opportunity to state my personal views on both Mr. Wise’s statements and the forum which followed it, rather than condemn a fellow Bentley student.
I believe the administration exhibited very poor judgment in selecting Mr. Wise to give a speech on diversity. He is a very controversial figure, and it takes nothing more than a quick Google search of his name to discover his true nature. Character aside, I was in the auditorium during the mandatory lecture. I remained in my seat throughout the duration of the speech, and re-watched it over the Internet. I do feel he made a couple of valid points, however, these were overshadowed by very controversial and unacceptable statements, which offended many in the audience (and no, I am not referring to the infamous “Bush joke;” I will get to that later).
One example of such a statement was Mr. Wise’s claim that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (an extremely offensive, racist and unproven claim). Mr. Wise went on to claim that as such, Justice Thomas should not be opposed to affirmative action as he is now.
Mr. Wise also stated that American society promotes “institutionalized racism” and oppresses minorities. While no one can deny that the dark chapter of our nation’s history did once exist, it has been long since ended. There are countless stories of poverty stricken citizens and immigrants alike that have broken through these barriers using only their thirst for success. Mr. Wise’s statement on “institutionalized racism” cannot be objectively proven and thus cannot be presented as fact like Mr. Wise did in his speech.
As I previously stated, I was the only individual at the forum opposed to Mr. Wise’s view points. I must applaud the faculty moderators trying to keep the discussion as open and balanced as possible. However, they were largely unable to maintain evenhandedness. Upon discovering that I was the only opposition in the room, I was immediately questioned by several people as to my opinion on the “Bush joke.” It irritated me that this was one of the first topics brought up in the discussion, and that it was stressed as one of the more important issues. I replied that I feel he did make a fairly valid point with the joke, however, as a paid professional, he became overly carried away with the subject of the attempted humor. Only after a lengthy discussion of the Bush joke, was I finally asked why I opposed Tim Wise, and as I gave my answer, I was rudely interrupted by students who disagreed. After the incident, I felt there would be no use in speaking, as it was apparent that the vast majority of those present were not at all interested in listening. It was also apparent that many faculty and students showed up at the forum just to condemn a particular student for merely expressing his opinion and gloat over the closure of the Facebook group opposing Tim Wise.
In conclusion, I believe I speak for many students that the issue of Tim Wise needs to be dropped so that we can begin an open, free conversation about race at Bentley and in America. If Bentley faculty will organize a forum dealing with the issue, many of my peers and I will attend, but only on the condition that it be truly free and open. We will not tolerate baseless criticism of particular students and attempts to intimidate them for exercising their rights of free speech and expression.
Vinny Menechino
{ 1 comment }
Dude, you need to read a book before you make idiotic comments like that.
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