The overall cost – room and board – to attend Smith College, an elite women’s college in Northampton, Massachusetts, is in the neighborhood of $78,000 per year. An allegation of racism, made by an African-American student against a school janitor in 2018, has prompted a complex cultural discussion there that is full of worldview implications. It also exposes the significant limitations of critical theory and intersectionality, the dominant lenses by which our culture discerns issues of race, privilege, poverty and discrimination.
The New York Times called the situation a collision of “race, class and power.” A Black female student was eating lunch in a dorm that was supposed to be closed for the summer. When a janitor called security, the student claimed that she was questioned for “eating while Black.” The janitor, whose entire annual salary would barely cover half a year’s room and board at Smith, was placed on leave. Another janitor quit after the student posted his picture online, calling him a racist coward.
Smith College responded by issuing a public apology to the student. Months later, an independent law firm released its report on the entire incident. They concluded that there was no evidence that anyone acted with racial bias.
One of the embedded myths of American culture is the goodhearted, perhaps unlucky, but ultimately victorious “little guy.” Almost every sports movie or war movie features an unlikely hero with a big heart but little chance of success, yet who nevertheless comes out on top: the Cinderella team in March Madness, “Rudy,” the nerd who gets the girl, the hockey team of misfits, the basketball team with the actual dog on it. Most of us cheer for the underdog.
The problem lies in assigning virtue to underdogs simply because they’re an underdog. The modern world, said G.K. Chesterton, has far too many virtues that are “wandering wildly” and doing “terrible damage.” In other words, our virtuous instincts can go awry when they’re not anchored to the Truth.