Unless you went straight to the Sports section, you will have already read, and unfortunately become familiar with, the terrifying events that have occurred on this campus in the past week.
Today’s News section is a veritable horror show, detailing obscure and frightening experiences that students living in Canada and in the University of Toronto community should never have to endure. And, traditionally, it is the editorial space’s function to comment on momentous events such as these. But it seems today that attempting to comment in a useful way on these hate crimes would be an exercise in futility.
It is difficult to discern whether these events should be disturbing because of the degree of premeditated hatred in general, or because they are specifically instances of Islamophobia. Does it matter that it is one particular group being terrorized this week? Or should this ring all the more hauntingly in light of the anti-Semitic pamphlets planted on this campus and others in November?
Either way, it appears that this page is not the place that these questions will be answered to the satisfaction of anyone involved. This is because these shocking actions come hot on the heels of a particularly positive time for U of T, the aftermath of which has only underscored the impotency of discussion.
In the past few months, the campus has been abuzz with reactions to various religious and cultural education initiatives. The diversity of various “weeks,” lectures, debates, and OpEds that have been coursing through the student body, to our mind, had succeeded in encouraging a dialogue. It was a time when the purpose of the university seemed to be realized: students were engaged and inspired, and Big Issues were really being wrestled with. While contributors to these dialogues have been informed and inflammatory to different degrees, it was still encouraging to see the diversity of viewpoints being raised and evaluated by the student body.
But now these idiotic, juvenile, thuggish incidents?
In light of these circumstances, it seems that today the editorial cannot properly function. Dialogue with current events is the editorial’s business. And, if it is not dialogue that will result in education, awareness, and empathy for the at-risk religious and cultural groups on campus, then it seems we all are doomed to isolation and distrust.
But if we are ever to break out of this cycle of fear and anger, we must keep trying. Perhaps this is the crucial moment for U of T, where acceptance and understanding for marginalized student groups are just around the corner. Maybe it is these events that will finally bring things to a head.
And so, with a heavy heart, but not without hope, we encourage our readers to take this palpable hate and chew it out for themselves.
Talk about these events with your classmates, your parents, and your co-workers. Question the facts, the spin, the context, and the subtext, and create something that has eluded the campus until this point: an organic dialogue. Let us try to create a debate not prompted by instituted weeks or awareness days, but a true discussion that shines a light into all aspects of our lives.
If we can reach a point where the real issues of hate and fear are not predominately dictated by the most recent postering campaign, then we will be in a moment where a poster is no longer a weapon.
