From the WSJ Opinion Archives
REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Straight Talking
On campus these days, it's hard to be sensitive.
It's been a stressful week in academe. Monday we heard that Phi Beta Kappa had denied membership to George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., because the school disinvited filmmaker Michael Moore as a speaker last fall (saving taxpayers a fat $35,000 speaker's fee). On the flip side of the academic-freedom barricades, Harvard President Larry Summers remained in the hot seat for remarks he made in January about possible disparities in scientific aptitude between men and women. Hardly a day passed without a story, or two or three, in the student daily, the Harvard Crimson, about the "embattled" president, who, among other things, stands accused of sexism. On Wednesday, though, a new offense, by a new perpetrator, surfaced at Harvard: heterosexism.
In a Crimson article, writer Anna M. Friedman reported on negative reaction to a campus speech last Saturday by the actress-musician Jada Pinkett Smith. Ms. Pinkett Smith, who is married to the actor Will Smith, was in Cambridge to receive the "Artist of the Year" award from the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations. As part of the foundation's Cultural Rhythms show, Ms. Pinkett Smith performed with her band. She also talked to the audience about her life and career, and noted that her ability to overcome disadvantages--she said she was the child of teenage heroin addicts--was proof that if you follow your dream "and don't let anybody define who you are" you can succeed. Personal happiness is possible too, she added: "Women, you can have it all--a loving man, devoted husband, loving children, a fabulous career. . . . To my men, open your mind, open your eyes to new ideas, be open."
Nice, motivational stuff, it would seem, and many in the audience felt inspired. Not all, though. Among the campus groups affiliated with the foundation is the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters Alliance, or BGLTSA, and it didn't like some of what it heard. A co-chair of the group, Jordan B. Woods, told Ms. Friedman that part of Ms. Pinkett Smith's speech was "extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable." In other words, Mr. Woods and others in BGLTSA explained, by focusing on a heterosexual relationship, Ms. Pinkett Smith took such a narrow view that some in the audience felt left out. Nobody called her a homophobe. Through ignorance, she just came off as "insensitive."
Ms. Pinkett Smith's stumble is a reminder of how hard it can be to be sensitive. Who at Harvard would have thought, until BGLTSA brought it to their attention, that bathrooms labeled "men" and "women" can create an atmosphere of hostility and fear for some people?
The next speaker at the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Racial Relations may have a better chance of getting it right. On Tuesday, the BGLTSA issued a document saying that the foundation "will make a statement of apology about the incident." Acknowledging that the foundation "had not reviewed Pinkett Smith's speech in advance and was not responsible for her words," the BGLTSA said that the foundation "pledges to take responsibility to inform future speakers that they will be speaking to an audience diverse in race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender and class."
No word on whether people who bristle at the idea of having their comments vetted or effectively censored may be disinvited as speakers. But not to worry; Harvard is already a member of Phi Beta Kappa.
