Culture Shock. That was my first reaction to Ann Arbor. It wasn’t just that there were more people than my small hometown, it was that there were so many different people. Kalkaska, Michigan (you’ve never heard of it) is tiny and its couple thousand residents belong to a homogenous cultural mass. I’m not bashing small towns, but when you grow up in a place with no diversity it affects how you see the world. Often times when I go home I am stunned by how bigoted some of the people I grew up around can be. But I always think to myself how much better people are down at school; Ann Arbor is my eden of understanding and social growth. Yet reality always has a way of reminding you that the world isn’t perfect.
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The University's decision to show American Sniper at Umix
last year lead to significant friction on campus |
A year ago the University of Michigan made the decision to show American Sniper at Umix, an inclusive social event held most weekends. This was met with immediate outrage from the Muslim community on campus. My reaction, however, was casual disinterest. I could see how Muslim and Middle Eastern students could be upset, but it’s just a movie. Maybe all people aren’t smart enough to draw distinctions between a clearly biased film and what the world is really like, but the people here at UofM, my eden of understanding, should be able to. Right? However, petitions were organized, and the movie was cancelled. And then we got this tweet from Harbaugh:
Harbaugh couldn’t be wrong about things because Harbaugh is Harbaugh. This tweet stated what many people were thinking: sometimes in life things are going to upset you, but there has to be a line drawn to protect free expression. People should be allowed to be patriotic, or even to just want to see a movie, because one of the core ideals of this country is freedom. So when the movie was cancelled there was a strong push back under the guise of this American freedom to express yourself. This counter protest ended up being successful, and American Sniper returned to the headlining position of Umix, against the wishes of hundreds of minority students on campus.
But this is just democracy at work, right? It was essentially a majority vote-the larger petition won the day. No system of governance can be perfect, but democracy gets almost religious public recognition as this ideal form of government. Let us the wise masses decide for ourselves and the outcome will be just. However, even the Founding Fathers saw that democracy had inherent problems that allowed for situations like this American Sniper event to happen the way it did. In the Federalist Papers Madison wrote, "A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole...and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party." Democracy allows for a tyranny of the majority over any minorities and that is exactly what happened here. In any majority decision, there are going to be self interested factions, because that’s how human nature works. People with like ideals are going to align together to accomplish their own goals at the expense of anyone who doesn’t feel the same way. However, a good democracy is supposed to protect the welfare of all, not simply the majority. Unfortunately, in Ann Arbor, democracy failed in just this regard.
But this is just democracy at work, right? It was essentially a majority vote-the larger petition won the day. No system of governance can be perfect, but democracy gets almost religious public recognition as this ideal form of government. Let us the wise masses decide for ourselves and the outcome will be just. However, even the Founding Fathers saw that democracy had inherent problems that allowed for situations like this American Sniper event to happen the way it did. In the Federalist Papers Madison wrote, "A common passion or interest will, in almost every case, be felt by a majority of the whole...and there is nothing to check the inducements to sacrifice the weaker party." Democracy allows for a tyranny of the majority over any minorities and that is exactly what happened here. In any majority decision, there are going to be self interested factions, because that’s how human nature works. People with like ideals are going to align together to accomplish their own goals at the expense of anyone who doesn’t feel the same way. However, a good democracy is supposed to protect the welfare of all, not simply the majority. Unfortunately, in Ann Arbor, democracy failed in just this regard.
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| Can democracy truly be inclusive? Or will some group always be left out? |
Edited 3/27/16 to fix formatting issues.
Gavin,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you one hundred percent that Umix was not the right venue for a film like this. It has no history of showing films that carry even half as much controversy as American Sniper and is meant to be an easy going environment. For many students on students on campus this film caused a great deal of hardship and their opinions were trampled by students who were unable to see the situation from their perspective. Despite these circumstances I do think cancelling the film showing all together was not the right move. I think the University could've easily provided a situation that was appropriate for the film and allowed other students groups to voice their opinions on the film regardless of what side of the argument they were on.