Pro-Palestine Columbia students sprayed with chemicals
The university pretends to care
I’m back from my trip and I’m slowly catching up on the news. Today I’m sharing my feelings on Columbia students being sprayed by chemicals on campus during a protest. Onto the news…
News that made me say the purpose of education is not to give war criminals a good resume
Pro-Palestinian Columbia University students protesting the genocide in Gaza on campus were attacked with dangerous chemicals by former IOF soldiers. Instead of supporting the students who were attacked, the university’s initial act was to scold the students for holding an unsanctioned protest. After being shamed on social media, Columbia pretended to care about the safety of all its students.
No one is expecting the administrators of Columbia University to be like parents who will kiss your boo boo after you fall off the dining table. However, blaming students for being victims of an act of chemical warfare is something only a truly evil institution would do, which turns out Columbia is. Columbia likes to pretend like it’s this beacon of intelligence when in reality it’s just a beacon of colonialism.
Columbia has been and will always be a colonizer as long as the so-called United States of America exists. This is not the first time students have protested the school's support for apartheid. In 1985 students protested the school’s investment in “corporations operating in Apartheid South Africa”. The university did not throw these students a party for standing against apartheid, it “threatened to expel them”.
Let’s be honest. Any institution that is lauded by corporations and the government is usually a beacon of colonialism. Corporations and governments are run by colonizers so if they like you, it means you are a colonizer. Just ask the Black Panthers. Neither corporations nor the government will commend you for being a beacon of excellence if your goal is decolonization. However, they will use your idea and not give you credit because colonizers don’t have any good ideas. For example, the Black Panthers gave the US government the idea for free student lunches; the government went to war against them. Columbia and other ivy league schools educate future war criminals (presidents of the so-called United States); the government says they are great.
We should start calling these “esteemed” educational institutions out for what they are and stop supporting their existence. I’m not just saying this because I’m not a white man who plays lacrosse and is guaranteed admission to Columbia or other ivy league schools. I’m saying this because it’s so heartbreaking seeing colonizer institutions continue to be lauded as places where people should aspire to go. There is a student currently playing the oboe even though they hate the oboe because they want to get into Columbia or another school run by colonizers. No one should be playing the oboe to go to a school that supports genocide.
Maybe I’ve smoked so much weed that I’ve become delusional but what if we all decided that colonizers don’t deserve respect and started acting accordingly? What if no one applied to these fancy ivy league schools or any school that has decided protesting genocide violates school policy? No one would have to play the oboe if they don’t want to and maybe, just maybe, we can start having a conversation of what education should look like in our society. Maybe education shouldn’t be about giving aspiring war criminals a great resume so they can run for office.
That’s it for the news, but don’t go yet
If you want to learn more about the lives of Palestinians being displaced by the genocide in Gaza, head on over to We Are Not Numbers.
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Please keep going to protests for Palestine. Please keep talking about Congo, Sudan, and colonialism.
We have everything we need to free each other. Keep fighting for a better world. We can do it.
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