Use of Publicity Stunts Undermines Real Dialogue

To the editors:



The use of offensive publicity stunts to express political opposition to affirmative action and similar policies (“Whites-Only Rule at B.U. Is Booed,” news, Nov. 22) is nothing new. In 2004, an “affirmative action bake sale” held at Columbia demonstrated a similarly disturbing trend of parody and ignorance, rather than informed debate, about important issues related to race relations in higher education. While events such as these do, of course, provoke dialogue (at Columbia, it contributed to the founding of our Office of Multicultural Affairs), they also trivialize matters that are deserving of serious discussion. More recently, the Columbia University College Republicans held a “global warming party” (complete with snow cones, Frisbees, and beach umbrellas) to protest a campus screening of “An Inconvenient Truth.” I sincerely hope that, on all campuses, conservative political groups will return to respectable discourse rather than engaging in these ridiculous antics.



JEREMY SCHWARTZ

New York City

November 25, 2006

The writer is a sophomore at Columbia University.