Too Many Rules, Too Many White Guys? Williams College Student Leaders Seek to Abolish College Council

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA - For most of the world, the bigoted hate speech directed against white male representatives at the April 9, 2019 Williams College Council meeting illustrated how identity politics has created an environment of open antagonism. For key student leaders, however, that tirade has provoked a sincere desire to scrap the College Council all together.

What would replace it would probably be a new student organization which would limit the influence of white students and allow the no-strings attached distribution of cash grants to black students.

This is, after all, the demand which apparently ignited the angry anti-white tirade in the first place. The complaint of the black students who viciously attacked white male representatives was that being forced to politely ask for money and justify its use was so unfair that it was the equivalent, as Isaiah Black '21, said of "sucking white dick." In this case, Isaiah Blake indicated “We want some money to fucking cook some fried fucking chicken and be niggers.”

In this case, Blake's request apparently violated at least two of the key rules supposed to be enforced by the College Council including stipulations that

1. All events funded by College Council must be free to attend and open to the entire campus.
2. College Council funds cannot be used for personal items, food for non-all-campus events, alcohol & other regulated substances, or direct donations to charity.

From the nature of Blake's comments it is perfectly clear that he was trying to establish a black only event and that the use of the money would be to purchase food for a black only event.

Instead of looking for ways to limit the verbal abuse of white students, a number of student leaders have turned instead to a new approach with would junk the existing bylaws along with the rules and procedures which are in place to avoid self-dealing, corruption, and the misuse of scarce College Council funds. In other words, these student leaders are looking to create a governing system which would resemble the corrupt big city systems which have enriched corrupt black leaders for years.

This development follows years of concern among student leaders over the abuse of CC funds by student groups including groups which stockpiled the money they received instead of spending it as they promised. See,

Transparency in College Council Funding (2011)

In 2018, good government activists on the College Council caught the group's treasurer violating at least three of their bylaws. In response, however, the members of the College Council ended up protecting the feckless treasurer and censuring the student leaders who led the effort to clean up his mess. See,

Following investigation, College Council votes to retain treasurer; censures co-presidents

Predictably, the anti-accountability, anti-rules, anti-CC activists are also worried that having bylaws, rules, expectations and accountability gives too much power the white guys on campus, the ones who - out of common sense not racism - are skeptical of the advisability of giving out large amounts of cash to their fellow students without much oversight. As two leftist student leaders noted earlier this year:

...College Council continues to reproduce the biases of the administration. For instance, last week, College Council engaged in blatant anti-Blackness disguised as strict adherence to constitutional rules and bylaws. When Black femme organizers requested funding for Previews programming aimed at creating space for Black pre-frosh, they were met with an onslaught of questions. This interrogation fixated on the presumed exclusivity of Black Previews and failed to reckon with the fact that Black Previews is not about exclusivity, but about inclusivity and belonging. Black students have taken on the extra labor to independently fill a gap in Previews programming that the administration and Office of Admission has overlooked. Notably, the barrage of questions came primarily from white men and non-Black members of color on College Council. 

As the school year progresses, readers of Williams Liberty are advised to look out for changes in student government which would increase the likelihood of corruption, that is practices which would make it easier for students to line their own pockets with money that is supposed to go for activities which benefit the entire campus. In particular, they should look out for practices which are disguised as beneficial to the community which, instead, provide opportunities for students to spend CC resources on themselves by prohibiting standard accountability measures including collecting receipts, sticking to request guidelines, and following the CC's bylaws and procedures.

Unfortunately, traditional anti-corruption measures are now seen as "anti-Blackness." This attitude is supplemented and encouraged by the post-modern view that corruption is perhaps just as good as clean government. Clean government is seen as a white cultural attitude which has no more authority or moral standing that the idea that it is okay to loot public or government resources to benefit one's own race or oneself.  In this context, the misappropriation of student funds may be interpreted as a means of creating equity, that is taking resources from whites and giving it to blacks as a matter of justice.

John C. Drew, Ph.D. is an award-winning political scientist and a former Williams College professor. He is an occasional contributor at American Thinker, Breitbart, Front Page, PJMedia and WND.