Recession Issue

TDR Special: Book Review Pullout! Dartmouth’s Only Independent Newspaper Volume 28, Issue 11 January 23, 2009 The Hanover Review, Inc. P.O. Box 343 Hanover, NH 03755 RECESSION ISSUE WHAT’S INSIDE: —SPECIAL BOOK REVIEW ISSUE— —MLK JR DAY ABSURDITIES— —FOREVER POOR: WRIGHT’S TENURE— —THE SECOND GREAT DEPRESSION— — AND MUCH MORE— Page 2 The Dartmouth Review January 23, 2009 Alexie Keys Off MLK Day Celebrations By Charles S. Dameron resolution among family and intimates without including the be remembered as titans of our history for having finally powerful role of humor in resolving conflicts in our personal secured for a huge swath Americans the full rights that ac- What can a college campus expect from an MLK Day lives. As mentioned above, Alexie was beautifully elegant company the special title of citizen of the United States. keynote speaker? Should the audience expect to be enter- and honest in his recollection of his father’s ability to wash Not that MLK Day is just about them; after all, we are tained? Hopefully. Should they leave with a better under- away hurt with humor. still not at the mountaintop. It will always be possible for us standing of King’s message, and its continuing importance Despite this, the overall message came up desperately short to climb higher. And at the risk of seeming (gasp!) earnest today? Absolutely. King once said, “an individual has not because of its inherent limitedness. Alexie’s over-reliance or serious, our keynote speaker could have gotten around started living until he can rise above the narrow confines on his comedic talent, while it established a rapport with to surveying the mountainside, and taken note for us of of his individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of the audience, proved ultimately to be a handicap in a set- some of our less fortunate fellow human beings around the all humanity.” ting that demanded more gravitas than Alexie was willing world, and in our own country, who live lives so marred by to submit. injustice that the vast majority of us here at Dartmouth can et Alexie, for all his wit, was unable to deliver One might suspect that the bulk of the scarcely begin to imagine it. what one should expect from this type of speech: student audience, when asked to name some- Less than two weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times published Y thing specific about Alexie’s talk, would recall his an editorial about the persistent presence of international a motivating, central narrative that reminds us again declaration of sexual interest in various guys and slavery in the United States. Today, remarkably, in the of why we honor Dr. King’s life every January. girls seated in the front rows of the auditorium, twenty-first century, the Department of Justice estimates rather than what he had to say more broadly that slave trafficking is still flourishing to the tune of 14,000 about gay marriage. A mind as deft as Sherman to 17,000 people per year, who are forcibly brought into this On January 19, the Native American fiction writer and Alexie’s is certainly capable of finding a less ham-fisted and country as participants in the sex trade or just as ordinary, comic Sherman Alexie delivered the keynote address for more tactful way of making his point. old-fashioned manual laborers. this year’s MLK Day celebration at Dartmouth in Spauld- And what points could have been made! It’s rather Consider Shyima Hall, who was shipped to the United ing auditorium. Alexie was funny, certainly. He kept up a remarkable that in this world full of injustice, the injustices States at age ten to serve in the employ of a wealthy family fantastic patter, paced the Spaulding auditorium stage, and Alexie chose to highlight were often the most trivial, on a living in Irvine, California. Little Shyima slept in the garage engaged the crowd as well as any stand-up comic. day when we commemorate a most monumental judicial and stayed home scrubbing floors when she should have His talk even ascended into poignancy when he re- triumph. Carrying “the burdens of my people,” he seemed been at school. counted his father’s joking last words. There was Worldwide, the State Department esti- much to admire in his able description of the mates that something on the order of 800,000 bizarre contradictions and complexities of life on people are trafficked as slaves between interna- the reservation; it’s not for nothing that he has got tional borders each year, and this says nothing a National Book Award under his belt. Yet Alexie, of those many more who are trafficked within for all his wit, was unable to deliver what one should national borders. expect from this type of speech: a motivating, central That’s just one example. There are also the narrative that reminds us again of why we honor campaigns of government-organized violence Dr. King’s life every January. against groups of people whose only crime is The theme of this year’s celebration is “Get- their religious or ethnic identity. ting to the Mountaintop: Working through Conflict Darfur’s just the most recent and well-known toward Resolution,” an admirable message, to be iteration of this habit. Then there is the sys- sure. Since Alexie’s address was billed as the key- tematic oppression of women all across the note event of this celebration, one might reasonably Middle East and the practice of female genital expect that his speech would hew to that theme, mutilation throughout most parts of Africa. with variations for his well-reputed comic relief. And of course, there are the campaigns of Preceding remarks from President Wright violence which lack the imprimatur of govern- and Anna Bofa set the stage nicely by referencing ment backing, but which are no less harmful to the impending inauguration of Barack Obama as their victims, the most recent and spectacular president, and discussing at length the long distance example of which were the coordinated attacks toward resolution that America has traveled since in Bombay. King’s death in 1968. Although both took careful And this is merely a quick review of the best- note of the discrimination and inequality that still publicized instances of man-made injustice. exist both here and abroad, they also gave the audi- So, after considering just a few of the ence a chance to exult in the profound symbolism alternatives, the audience might ask how of an MLK celebration held on the eve of the first Alexie’s talk fits into the context of an unjust black president’s inauguration. world. One would be challenged to identify a Alexie would have none of it. Instead, he raised the definite message from Alexie other than the topic of Obama’s inauguration by promptly making following: keep your sense of humor sharp, fun of those who, like Wright and Bofa, could not and life’s conflicts will be eased. stop paying tribute to America’s big moment. He For an audience like Dartmouth’s, it’s quoted himself, drawing attention to a recent com- pretty good advice on a personal level. And for ment that appeared in the New York Times. Ezell Blair, David Richmond, Joseph McNeil “He’s [Obama] still a politician and I’m still and Franklin McCain, the four black North an Indian...they all look like treaty makers to me.” Carolinian college students who started the He jokingly elaborated on this comment, but the sit-in movement just forty eight years ago at underlying message was nevertheless deadly serious. a lunch counter in Greensboro, no doubt a Racial progress? What’s that? Obama’s still a part good dose of humor helped to alleviate their of the Establishment. Only The Man’s skin color —Sherman Alexie laughs at his own jokes— societal predicament. But it is hardly sufficient has changed. advice for those who are interested in engaging These first barbs should have been a giveaway of the world and righting its wrongs. what was to come: what Alexie ended up delivering A distinctly and earnestly directed moral to be most agitated by the clueless sympathy of WASPy was a cynical and often narcissistic message, punctuated by message is needed, and on that count, Alexie simply was types who apologize for their ancestors’ wrongs, or by the attempts at larger meanings that fell flat. What did Alexie get not up to the job. Indian logos of various teams at all levels of sport. most worked up about during our soiree in Spaulding? When we consider the foci of The audience learned how much Alexie hates it when Alexie’s lecture against the backdrop strangers try to talk to him on airplanes. Or, while enjoying of the Reverend Martin Luther King lexie simply was not up to the job. There are not hors d’oeuvres at parties, Alexie prefers not to talk about Jr’s accomplishments and the civil many opportunities for the Dartmouth community his Spokane heritage. What the audience ended up getting, A rights movement generally, we might in other words, was a full dose of trivia about Alexie and to come together as it does on MLK Day to celebrate discover that Alexie is focused on his family, strung together by the thesis that humor has the phantoms. What is the justification the potential of goodness on this earth. Perhaps in future power to heal our conflicts. for replacing our commemoration of To be fair, anyone who has ever read the Onion (Post- years, Dartmouth can find a keynote speaker capable of those who stood at Selma, of those Election Day headline: Black Man Given Nation’s Worst meeting the magnitude of that unique moment.

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