I wanna bite the hand that feeds me...

Yale Daily News column, 11/15/2007: My "Radio Radio" moment, or at least Sister Souljah.

(Helpful background: a couple of idiots chalk up some racist and homophobic graffiti; campus groups decide that this is just another example of how unbelievably intolerant Yale is, and hold rally and vigil; the Yale Daily News jumps on its white horse and declares that it will protect free speech by increasing op-ed content by 20%.)

So goes my attempt to surf the wave of controversy; the YDN opened up a whole new avenue of attack when it published an editorial yesterday saying that maybe, just maybe, a University-sponsored vigil of the kind that was held for the Virginia Tech massacre last spring or for 9/11 wasn't the appropriate response to a few incidents of "hate speech." When I went in last night to edit my column the editor-in-chief told me he'd received 30 letters calling him and his institution racist.

I missed yesterday's events, but I heard that Cross Campus was festooned with signs reproducing student quotes about racism and intolerance at Yale, including "the best thing about Yale is that I get to graduate." A freshman friend of mine says that he's heard people say "If I knew things like this would happen, I wouldn't have come here."

For pete's sake, people. There is legitimate injustice in this world. Get over yourselves.