Earlier this month, Stephanie Carvin, a professor in the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs, tweeted pictures of cakes she decorated illustrating drone attacks in the Middle East. The tweets, which have since been deleted, garnered shock and outrage from many who came across them.
Amid the viral responses to Carvin’s tweet and subsequent backlash, Carleton has yet to release any statement addressing the situation—let alone condemning it. Even as a petition calling for the school to denounce Carvin’s actions approaches 1,000 signatures, Carleton remains silent.
While treading the often blurred line between free speech and hate speech is difficult, the university must speak out when a faculty’s views are deemed explicitly harmful to an entire community by those within it.
It’s one thing for a university to police the opinions and views of its staff and faculty. However, it is another situation entirely when a faculty member’s views—especially those shared online—contribute to racist, dehumanizing stereotypes of people of colour.
Despite the many statements put out by Carleton pledging its commitment to supporting Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) within the school, it is moments like these that drive students to question whether the university can be trusted to hold itself accountable for its promises.
Regardless of the intentions of Carvin’s posts, students of colour must know the school supports them and deems racism as truly unacceptable as it claims.
This is about more than just controversial cakes. For many—particularly those belonging to Carleton’s Middle Eastern community—the school’s silence is deafening.
Featured graphic from file.
