In Hegel’s thinking about the ‘Other’, identity never emerges in isolation but always in relation to someone else: we exist by virtue of a they. That mechanism also operates on our campus. When a student party presents itself as the self-evident representative of the student, a sideline is created automatically. That line is drawn along traits that deviate from the dominant norm, such as background or sexual orientation. Those who fall outside it risk marginalisation, exclusion, or even discrimination. I am not talking about my housemate who recently said someone looked like a frikandel speciaal (she was right). At the VU, the issue is prejudice that leads towards hatred or violence.
These dynamics are sustained by students unwilling to engage in genuine dialogue, who cultivate vices such as in-group thinking and normalise hostility. They praise free debate loudly, yet deliberately don’t show up when such debate presents itself. Their motives are not complex. Six syllables will do: media attention.
To be clear: should criticism of the university be possible? Absolutely. Are some activists also guilty of violating campus norms? Certainly. Is opportunism human, and hypocrisy as old as time? Yes (guilty). But this level of shamelessness is new. Those who only broadcast and never listen do not create academic freedom; they undermine it.
This raises the inevitable question: what do you do about it? Ignoring them is tempting. But this is not just your racist uncle. Violence cannot be ignored. And the university, it seems, has already mastered the art of silence—an approach that has served us poorly in recent years.
What about rebuttal? Denying an image only reinforces it: try not thinking of an elephant! As journalist Rob Wijnberg argues, what may save us instead is shifting the frame. What is needed is a different story—one in which minorities on campus are not portrayed as potential disruptors or ideological side issues, but as full and equal members of the academic community. As long as a frame of hostility dominates, minorities will remain on the margins.
It is time to leave the me-first mentality behind. As Dutch poet Toon Hermans once wrote, there must be people who keep shouting that there is love and wonder, even when others scream that everything is pointless; people who insist the world is not ending, who see a new beginning in every ending. Egoism may be contagious, but altruism is too. I choose the latter.