Woke celebrity Lena Dunham’s alma mater, Oberlin College, ranks among the most liberal institutions in the county. Its students recently protested the serving of sushi in campus dining halls as an example of harmful “cultural appropriation.” Lena Dunham supported the effort.
But all is not totally woke on Oberlin’s Ohio campus these days, according to a recent op-ed published in the Washington Blade, in which Oberlin student Jesse Arnholz writes of her decision to attend “the gayest college in America.”
Arnholz writes that, after being seduced by Oberlin’s allegedly open-minded campus environment, she soon realized “it was not the utopia I envisioned.”
The reality was bleak: “Structural and institutional racism, transphobia, ignorance, apathy and white privilege still lingered.”
Arnholz realized about halfway through her freshman year that she “had no straight friends,” which was a refreshing change from her restrictive high school environment. Her overall experience has been positive, she writes, but Oberlin (where tuition, room and board costs about $66,000 a year) continues to be plagued by “problematic aspects.”
For example:
I’ve been disappointed by the complacency of the white queer community and the often toxic-masculinity that many queer women and trans-masculine individuals have adopted. Many of my trans and non-binary friends still struggle to feel comfortable on campus. Many of my friends who use they/them/theirs pronouns, are still misgendered by close friends even after they announce their preferred gender pronouns.
And the cafeterias, as far as we know, continue to serve sushi.