Keynote Address at the Writing on the Wall Project - January 27, 2006
Good afternoon, students, faculty and colleagues.
I am honored to join you here today, within these “ivy covered walls,” to reflect on this very different kind of wall.
Unlike our safe and comfortable campus, this wall offers us no shelter or solace. It is here before us today, but in real life it is sometimes hidden and sometimes apparent. It is a wall of words. At the practical level, this wall was formed by words that caused pain to someone. We know this because all the words were painted last week by people who encountered the “Writing on the Wall” table at the Reitz Union. The writers were asked to pen a hurtful word that somebody had said to them.
More fundamentally, these are words that build walls, walls that separate us from each other and ourselves.
Here on this wall, we see racial slurs, profanities, insults, smears and stereotypes. But we also see words that we would not have considered offensive. Sometimes, we hurt each other; we build barriers, without even knowing it.
Directed against us, many of these words could bring tears to our eyes. Voiced in public, they may prompt us to cover our children’s ears. And if we use these words ourselves, and no one here is immune, we may feel shame and regret.
We are here to face these words. Which is the same as saying, we’re here to face our inner walls of hate and discrimination, hurt and malice, enmity, and fear.
And we’re here to tear this wall down.
One may ask, “Where do these words come from?” One could say they come from the walls of hatred or misunderstanding, which may threaten to imprison us.
So often, the root of this is fear – fear of the unknown, fear of “the other,” whatever is different from ourselves. In Western culture, we see this dating as far back as the ancient Greeks. They simultaneously feared and derided their northern neighbors, the ancestors of the people of present day Western Europe. In words we don’t even think of as offensive, we retain this animosity today. The English word “barbarian” stems from the Greek word for “non-Greek.”
On a second thought, the fraternity members in the audience may find that historical definition very appropriate.
But seriously, other words on this wall come from misunderstandings, ignorance, human misery and spite. The classic racial, gender and sexual smears are all here. So are their more modern permutations. For example, “Femi-Nazi,” that knock at the independent and strong-willed woman.
We see personal cuts, phrases that masquerade as innocent comments, phrases like “Are you on scholarship?” Phrases that reveal crusty stereotypes. “You wear lipstick. You can’t be a lesbian.” Phrases that assassinate personality. “Don’t be so emotional” and “I consider the ideals that you hold trivial.”
We are always inventing new ways to take digs at each other. Many of this year’s words are new, sure to be replaced by new ones after that.
One can ask, “What do we do about these words?” Indeed, that is a common complaint lodged against this project: That it does not do any good. That it airs our ugliness needlessly before the world.
I remember such complaints from my time as president of the University of Utah, home to an early Writing on the Wall Project. I understand that UF students and staff actually got the idea for this event, the fourth in as many years, from their counterparts at Utah.
But the point of this project is not to effect specific change or target certain words, certain agendas or certain organizations. It is to start a conversation and remind people to think about what they do to each other intentionally and unintentionally.
In that sense, the Writing on the Wall Project complements our many ongoing efforts to make the University of Florida a healthier place. A place that doesn’t so much reflect the world as it is but serves as a model of what it could become.
We’re striving to increase diversity among our students, staff and faculty members. If this project encourages someone to re-examine their stereotypes or prompts an honest discussion about racial issues, that can only help.
We want to reduce alcohol and other substance abuse on campus. Perhaps, by writing on the wall, someone has taken a first step to acknowledge or ease a pain they otherwise assuage in unhealthy ways. Or perhaps they will do so by reading these words today.
This project even resonates with our sustainability initiative, our effort to find ways to live in closer sync with our environment. Social harmony is very much a part of sustainability. Getting along with each other will help us be better caretakers of nature.
Fifteen students and numerous volunteers have been working on this project since October. They deserve our commendations and thanks. I’d also like to thank the UF Department of Housing and Residence Education for shepherding the effort, and Florida Rock and Porter Paint for donating the materials that made it possible.
This wall is made of 37-and-one-half pound blocks, but these blocks and the barrier they form are nothing against a unified effort to tear them down -- as we will see in a moment.
I’m honored to be here amongst you to confront and tear down this wall of hate and its damaging words.
Bernie Machen