By Brad Matthews
I had the marked displeasure of reading about "The New Abolitionists" in a recent column in The Eagle (Become a change-maker, Feb. 28), the latest in a long line of social justice groups here at AU devoted to helping the local community.
They focus on perceived inequality in the legal and educational systems and want to help D.C. students "reclaim their identities" a proper, typical AU thing to do, I suppose.
Yet another group focusing on "self-authorship," social justice and 21st-century identity politics; their goals read like a well-written left-wing Tumblr.
My issue with them is not their endeavors. Let them do good deeds for what they believe in because that is the spirit of AU.
My issue is with the name "The New Abolitionists."
That is the most absurd and self-important title for a group I have ever seen. That name is an insult to the actual abolitionists, the people who fought against the despicable atrocity of human bondage that is a mark of shame on all peoples who have ever practiced it. The Europeans fought slavery in Africa (and replaced it with colonial administration, because no men are perfect) and Americans fought the Civil War to not only reunify the country but to also abolish the darkest and most terrible institution of human creation.
I write out of a sense of deep-seated outrage and out of a sense of history. I know I might be perceived as "self-important" for taking down this group from the comfort of a dorm room, but I do not care.
For these students, these mere students, to assume that name appropriates the history and spirit of a movement far greater and far more important than them. They are not fighting human bondage, whether it is slavery in Mauritania or sex slavery in Asia or the conditions of workers in Dubai. To call themselves "abolitionists" is an affront to all who actually deserved that honorable appellation.
How arrogant are these few to dare to call themselves "abolitionists," their beliefs in perceived injustice aside? The sheer presumption in this instance is unimaginable, to call themselves abolitionists! They have no right to that term!
This is a not a problem reserved to just this group, of course. Throughout my time here, I have seen the same kind of blind political arrogance repeated over and over again. I have seen people pretend that they are revolutionaries. I have seen the same kind of appropriation of history, theft of the actions and spirit of truly great men and women, in order to grasp some nonexistent higher legitimacy for their political actions.
The political students at AU are not original, nor are they great. They are shadows of the past, pretenders to mantles already assumed by better people and better causes.
What does it show the world? That we have unwarranted self-importance, trying to make our actions seem greater than we are and that we students are arrogant and presumptuous enough to appropriate history.
We need humility along with our good deeds.
Let your actions speak for yourselves, rather than wrongly self-appointed appellations like "new abolitionists," because the great deeds of humble people speak louder than the loud, unwarrantedly self-important presumptions of students.
Brad Matthews is a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs.
edpage@theeagleonline.com
