Columbia Political Review has an article by a young graduate Ayelet Pearl who was present during President Obama’s commencement address this weekend. While she described the speech as beautiful, motivating and meaningful, she also seemed to see beyond the curtain and didn’t appreciate the view:
President Obama asked whether we can “muster the will … to bring about the changes we need,” concluding that the Barnard graduates and this generation “will help lead the way.” But what if our way is not his way? More importantly, what if my way differs from the woman sitting next to me in my art history class or my English class or my computer science class? What if the change I think we need is a different brand of education reform and a more conservative economic plan?
I think you should be quiet, Ayelet, or President Obama might include you when he’s punishing his enemies.
But Ms Pearl continues:
The oppressive and suffocating categorization of women as this uniformly thinking block is even more rampant at a women’s liberal arts college in New York City, where many women do hold similar political viewpoints. Barnard President Debora Spar, in an interview on MSNBC, boldly told the show’s hostess that “they’re [Barnard students] all huge fans [of Obama].” Is that true? Can the president of Barnard College say, in good faith, that every single one of her students is a fan of President Barack Obama? Are we that unindividual? Or are we just a liberal student body, and, as women, a key component of the Democratic vote? Too often, the assumed answer is yes.
And she concludes with:
Today, as the president delivered the Barnard commencement speech under thick political circumstances, I was pleased and relieved that the speech itself was apolitical and inspiring. But its context in this increasing political conceptualization of “women’s issues” left me, as a Barnard student, feeling stereotyped, simplified, and used.
Obama’s key to victory is the hope that people will not notice the divisive rhetoric. Fortunately for us all, hundreds of thousands of Americans are waking up to their own Obama hangover.