ASHLEY DAVIDSON
Opinion Columnist
Between the “It’s On Us” campaign and offensive Yik Yaks, opinions at UNI are at an all-time high. When things like this happen on a university campus, chatter becomes louder. People miraculously become advocates against such issues. The “It’s On Us “campaign consumes Facebook profile pictures and the campus. Some of the Northern Iowan staff wrote about Yik Yak and its dangers to UNI’s campus. As a biracial woman, I became frustrated with some of the black community complaining about the Yik Yak posts. Talking about these issues needs to be on the forefront for as long as they are a problem. Working to advance your race or any other part of your identity should be an everyday occurrence. We should be part of a solution way before an actual problem occurs. I hope this inspires people affected by Yik Yak to be an advocate from here on out for their identities.My fear is that these very important issues will once again be pushed under the rug as soon as they are irrelevant.Another problem with finding long-lasting solutions is that it relies on the leaders of the University. The faces of UNI need to be passionate about these matters for any change to occur. They cannot attend events promoting inclusiveness or the stance against sexual assault and just go through the motions. Are they attending these events because they care about the issue, or do they just care about the reputation of themselves and the University? I heard of one person who recently attended a diversity event because they were “trying to be inclusive.” No one is forcing you to care about these issues. To all students, faculty and staff who want to be a part of change at UNI: Do it with passion and do it long after it stops filling your news feeds and class discussions. Some of us can see through the publicity stunts and are not impressed with the lack of sincerity. However, there are very passionate people who continue to work on solutions to these issues. You are appreciated for being great leaders in promoting change and know your work is inspirational.
COREY COOLING
Opinion Columnist
If I didn’t know better, I would think the UNI community is on the verge of tearing itself apart. Beneath an apparently thin veneer of order and Midwestern politeness, this campus is crawling with bigots, rapists and people wearing ISU and Iowa gear. Lately, I’ve noticed that we’ve been stuck in a cycle of outrage and while eventually people figure out the “right” way to respond to an issue, very little changes. Let’s look at the stages of outrage.
Ignorance
First, of course, is ignorance. Every conversation on these topics begins with “Have you heard about the __________? Isn’t that outrageous?” followed by an explanation of the issue that wouldn’t break the 140 character limit. Something can’t become a hot topic until everybody knows about it, so we begin the cycle in ignorance that there is an additional thing to be outraged about. Depending on the type of issue and how it might or might not hit close to home, the outrage cannons start getting primed to fire as we start to look around at how everybody else is reacting. At this point in the cycle, details are hard to find, and everybody starts getting real sensitive, and triggers are set off.
Fury
The power stroke of the cycle is the second part, when those outrage cannons fire away and the remaining populace is caught in the line of fire. Now that we live in an age where we can communicate with a large number of people in a short amount of time, those caught up in the cycle are able to share raw feelings and opinions without the natural filter of time and physical space. The outrage becomes contagious as people are rightfully upset with whatever is going on, and this is where we see the wall-of-text impassioned Facebook posts. If you’re friends with certain types of people on Facebook, you know what I’m talking about.
Awareness
The third part of the cycle involves a call to action from the outragers. Details eventually roll in, and those who have been saving their rage join the party with their very edgy interpretation of what’s happening and how “us coming together to speak out and have constructive, respectful community dialogue” is going to resolve the issue somehow. By this point, some sort of responsible party is identified as bearing the guilt for this outrageous thing-or-whatever. This call to action typically is a combination of raising awareness of the issue and educating people to be better. Or something. But more often than not, we discover that the people who *really* need to take action are other people. There’s got to be somebody whose job is to take care of this stuff, right? The third part concludes with the Blame Train of Pain. This train is loaded with all the fury, ignorance, and now awareness of this issue. Leaving the station for the people-who-take-care-of-this-kind-of-stuff. I’m a tolerant, understanding young college student who cares about the world. Let’s send this train to where it can do some good. Rather than actually having any kind of dialogue with people we don’t know, we leave it up to others to do the advocacy for us and hey, are you going to the Halloween party this weekend? Cozy and smug with how much we’ve demonstrated that we aren’t bigots or Iowa State fans, this train takes off down the tracks, peace again reigns in our hearts and minds.
Forgetting
The last step of outrage is the forgetting. In washing our hearts and minds of the issue, we rid ourselves of the exhausting negative feelings and combative commenting. The cycle of outrage ends with a whisper, not a bang. Despite all the blood, guts, guns, cuts, knives, lives and battered wives, we find a way to go about our daily lives. We have to, because the world is moving around us faster and faster every day. This last step is critical and cleansing because it enables us to continue with our lives. We live in the first time in human history where we’re exposed to what bad stuff is happening all over the world, every day. In the face of such human suffering, what can one person do? We’re now equipped with more information than any person could be reasonably expected to handle, the only way we can cope is to forget and move on. The sad reality is even after all the fury and “dialogue,” there is still plenty work to do. We need to find a way to move beyond awareness to action, we need a happy medium between forgetting and fury. Many people with deep personal connections to issues don’t go through this process. They recognize that real change requires patience, pragmatism, priorities and optimism. With the torrent of issues around the world, what we really need dialogue about is how we should deal with outrage. In the meantime, (and since I’ve already voted) I’m taking a break from the news, social media and the outrage cycle.
