Letter to the Editor: Graffiti
Dear Editors,
While I entirely agree with Eli Rall’s opinion on graffiti, I wanted to chip in with my two cents. I want to focus the discussion more specifically on racism at Reed, and make a call to action.
Before Rall’s article, I did not consider the fact that some or all of this hateful vandalism could be perpetrated by non community members. Regardless, Reed admin banning graffiti in the bathrooms is a non-solution for instances of racism at Reed College. It is a band-aid at best. On a more practical note, banning graffiti in the bathrooms doesn’t mean that there are still spaces where graffiti will be done. I know specifically that there have been instances of racist vandalism on posters which are outside around campus. Banning graffiti in bathrooms does not address this. My observation is that Reed admin banning graffiti is just another surface level, non-committal attempt to “address” racism at this institution without actually making systematic changes to Reed. Banning graffiti is not going to solve the underlying problem of racism and bigotry that’s fueling hateful vandalism. This banning is yet another attempt to maintain the facade of anti-racism and progressivism that the college preaches but doesn’t live up to. If Reed was actually committed to anti-racism, they would divest from Israel and reach out to more POC high school students and diversify the student body, just to name a few examples.
Graffiti has been a part of campus culture for ages, providing a non-traditional platform for discourse, creativity, and ultimately student autonomy. This banning is a direct attack on student autonomy, and a phony attempt to address racism. I beseech you, students, to do more graffiti. Stick a sharpie and some paint markers in your backpack. Don’t graffiti the bathrooms so that the cleaning burden doesn’t fall on janitorial staff, but graffiti all over the basement in the GCC, the pool hall, and that one stairway by the swap shop. Graffiti anywhere where it won’t be taken down, please! Graffiti the fuck out of this campus and reject Reed College’s progressive facade. Read Audre Lorde, Franz Fanon, Octavia Butler, Sara Ahmed, just to name a few. Radicalize yourself and others.
Best,
Haydyn Grace Davila (they/them)
Sociology senior, Paradox manager, and sociology department intern