Stop hating

Let me first get this out of the way: I’m a proud GW Colonial. I cheer for the basketball team. I talk up the school to friends and relatives. I’m even a GW STAR, walking backwards on Fridays as I show prospective students Thurston Hall in all its morning glory.

But one GW trait has crept up over the past few years that has me shaking my head in disgust: Georgetown bashing.

I’m sick of the Georgetown name-calling. It’s childish. It’s stupid. It makes the GW population look jealous and unconfident. I can’t walk to class anymore without seeing a “F*** Georgetown” t-shirt worn by some freshman, smirking with smugness and insecurity. And, to top it off, I flip open last Thursday’s Hatchet to a read a column proclaiming GW’s apparent greatness over our Ward 2 university neighbor (“Georgetown sucks. Let’s prove it,” Feb. 23, p. 4).

Here’s a fact: both universities have their pros and cons. Both universities excel where others fail. They offer different experiences, and I for one have enough logic to realize that some students mesh better with Georgetown’s environment (shocking, I know)!

The less GW tries to compare itself to Georgetown, the better off we will be. You want to beat Georgetown? Do it the old-fashioned way. Actions speak much louder than words. Excel academically. Relish in our own achievements. Most importantly, show some dignity and respect. Georgetown hatred is nothing more than masked insecurity over our own school’s flaws.

The last time I checked, I’ve never seen a Georgetown student wear a “F*** GW” t-shirt. Maybe they realize they have bigger fish to fry.

-Ivan Kander, junior

Contrived perceptions

As someone who has been at GW three years, it surprises me that there are students who feel there are token populations at GW and that any interactions between a “token black girl” and other students would be contrived. I am especially perturbed by this statement since I have been in an interracial relationship at GW for more than two years. I was under the impression it was because I loved my boyfriend as a person regardless of his pigment, but maybe Mr. Okolski (“Sterilizing GW’s campus,” Feb. 21, p. 4) knows something that I do not. Maybe I have been dating him this whole time to impress visitors on a STAR tour.

In fact, I am impressed that Mr. Okolski stopped at only a “token black girl.” In the photo there are students of Arab, Indian, African and European heritage. Why did they not get targeted by Mr. Okolski’s penetrating eye? Is there something particularly offensive about a black student being friends with a white student?

I would also be interested to know if Mr. Okolski made any effort to talk to those students in the Ivory Tower photo (who happen to be very close friends) and see if they feel their images are being misrepresented. I wonder if Mr. Okolski would mention that he thinks they represent a “token” population sterilized for advertising purposes. I may have an inkling of how those students would respond to that line of questioning.

And if we are going to continue to take the low road and comment on people’s skin color and facial features, including their “peculiar smiles,” maybe The Hatchet should reconsider placing photos of columnists next to their articles.

-Clare J. Lloyd Jones, senior