Op-Ed: A Letter to Kean University: I’m Disappointed (And That’s an Understatement)

By Zoe Strozewski, Editor-in-Chief | Published by June 5, 2020

Kean University frequently likes to tout its status as one of the most diverse schools in the country. In fact, that statistic is front and center on the Kean website’s home page. 

However, the Kean community only heard crickets from the school administration for days after George Floyd was murdered. It wasn’t until June 2, over a week later, that the entire school was emailed a letter from President Dawood Farahi.

In this letter, Farahi expressed his sadness for Floyd’s death and hope he felt in seeing people band together to demand change. Frustratingly, he also dedicated a significant portion of this letter to condemning unpeaceful protests.

“I am saddened and frustrated by the violence and looting that have engulfed so many of our cities and towns across the nation this past week,” Farahi said in the letter. “It has no place in this movement for justice.”

He also spoke at length about the Human Rights Institute he founded on campus back in 2010 and ended his letter with a plea for students to use “voices, not violence” to heal the nation.

Whatever his intentions were in writing this letter, to say I was disappointed with his message is an understatement.

People can have their own opinions on looting and riots, but Farahi’s message discredits the fact that all the peaceful protesting for racial equality in the entire history of the world did not stop George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and every other black person from being murdered by the people who were supposed to protect them. 

I’m continually hearing the message that what’s happening is terrible as if the protests are the root and not a symptom of this problematic America we repeatedly find ourselves facing. However, if supporters of the movement feel like the only way they can be heard is changing the format in which they speak out, then it is a reflection on the people who haven’t been listening.

Additionally, Farahi’s message ignores the fact that in many cases, the violence is not coming from the protesters themselves, but from the police. I have seen horrific videos of protesters subjected to tear gas and rubber bullets simply for exercising their rights to free speech and assembly.

To top it all off, Farahi’s letter was just that: a letter. It did not promise any action or offer any resources for the many students who are grieving, frustrated and looking for ways that they can support the movement. I’ve learned more about how to help the Black Lives Matter movement from Instagram stories posted by my peers than by my actual school, and that’s a problem.

It’s also a problem that the leader of my school can easily condemn looting and riots but doesn’t once condemn police brutality. He refers to Floyd’s “senseless death” but conveniently forgets to mention how he was murdered.

Police brutality is only one facet of persevering systemic racism, but it needs to be acknowledged, and not protected, by organizations such as Kean that have platforms large enough to inspire actual change.

We need to become comfortable with being uncomfortable and face the hard truth that some people are protected by our justice system while others are killed for the color of their skin. The fact that it causes discomfort for so many people is further evidence that we need to have these conversations more often. 

People cannot claim they want to stop the deaths of people like George Floyd if they continually refuse to name what caused those deaths. Because Floyd didn’t just die; he was violently murdered. 

It’s not enough to acknowledge the problem. If we want to see the problem solved, we must acknowledge the cause as well.

Ever since I heard of Floyd’s death, I’ve been racking my brain for the best way I could help (aside from continually educating myself, signing petitions, donating and sharing resources). I repeatedly came to the conclusion that I needed to do what I do best: write. But I was scared.

As an aspiring journalist, a lesson that’s been hammered into me is that I need to avoid bias at all costs. The rule of thumb in this industry is that a reader should never know how I feel about something when they read an article I’ve written. 

The reason for this is that in a world where accusations of fake news run rampant, credibility and trust are the most treasured possessions of someone in the media. I have a wealth of opinions, but if something I’ve written in an article hints at one of those opinions, critics can seize that and use it to discredit everything I say because I’m “biased.” 

After a lot of thought, I realized that if someone reads this and accuses me of being biased, I simply don’t care. Unlike many controversial topics, there should not be two sides to this issue. 

Wanting racial equality and justice for those stripped of a supposedly unalienable right should not be controversial now or ever. We either stop more atrocious violence and murders, or we don’t.

So Kean University, I am asking you to do better. Put aside everything else just for a moment and try to listen to what is being said. Support the people you like to use as a marketing tool and do so unconditionally. 

If what Farahi said in his letter is true, then this is what he wants too.

Kean is not the only entity guilty of this cowardice. Companies like Netflix and Amazon have released similar bland statements that are aesthetically pleasing at first glance but conveniently leave out any mention of police brutality.

“To be silent is to be complicit,” Netflix’s tweeted statement said. “We have a platform, and we have a duty to our Black members, employees, creators, and talent to speak up.”

I understand that companies and schools often have something to lose, such as customers or tuition-payers, when they speak out about politics. But what if all of them did speak out?

What if every company and school stopped hiding behind vaguely socially-conscious language and started using the rhetoric that racism and police brutality are not tolerated? What if we showed those who object that there is no school, store or company that will shelter bigotry?

Acknowledging the truth should not be controversial. Speaking out against racism and murder should not be controversial. 

The matter, quite literally, is life or death.

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