SYRACUSE, New York — I don’t get a chance very often to mix two passions that define my personal and professional lives — American college sports and the quest for justice and peace in the Middle East — but this week I have been able to savor that rare opportunity. This happened at Syracuse University in upstate New York, where in 1966-1973 I spent five years studying, and, cumulatively, probably another year attending or watching sports events, all of which, I am certain, contributed to my personal and professional development.
The linkage with the Middle East is not about place or foreign policy, but rather about the enduring, universal power of principles and human values — the personal values of individuals and the collective values of communities. This week, the university formally, publicly apologized to nine African-American football players who had boycotted the university team’s spring practice in May 1970 to protest racial discrimination and insensitivity on the part of the football program and its nationally respected head coach. Current Chancellor Nancy Cantor formally offered the players the public apology, the Chancellor’s Medal, and their official ‘letterman’ team jackets emblazoned with the ‘S’ for Syracuse. Hail, Syracuse!
Why is this relevant to the Middle East and other parts of the world? For three reasons. First, it reflects the important role that individuals play in a collective struggle for human dignity and rights, which are the bedrock of stable, satisfying societies. Those nine student athletes faced much hostility back then, but their courage proved prescient; they were elements of a wider civil rights movement that ultimately succeeded in changing discriminatory laws and sensitizing an entire society to the feelings and rights abuses that Black Americans suffered then, and many still suffer today. The lesson is that every individual — Arab, Israeli, Iranian, Turkish, American, Portuguese or of any other nationality — should stand up in principle and protest injustice, even at the risk of jeopardizing a professional career. Sometimes, an individual’s principled actions only bear fruit, or are recognized by one’s peers, decades later. The wait is worth it. Justice does not have a shelf life. Those letter jackets warm all of us today, just as much as they do the players who earned and wear them.
Second, it reveals the importance of collective, institutional action to acknowledge the mistakes and abuses of the past, and to make amends, even if only in symbolic ways. Those who degrade, dehumanize, terrorize or otherwise debase their fellow human beings live with a burden that gnaws away at their own integrity, and maintains a low simmer of stress and confrontation in society. An aggressor or predator society can only live a normal and secure life after it sincerely acknowledges its past wrongdoings and offers atonement or apology.
The third relevant aspect of Syracuse University’s honoring its African-American athletes who once boycotted it is the power of forgiveness that it reveals. Several of the players who were interviewed in the news media this week noted that the gesture had recreated a bond with their university that had been torn asunder by the deeds of the past. They seemed genuinely to forgive the university for its insensitivity and discrimination. They were part of a restorative and healing process that applies to individuals as it does to entire communities and sovereign countries that seek peace after years of conflict and tension.
I mention this episode because it reveals one of the best aspects of American culture: the determination to acknowledge the sins, crimes or just the transgressions of the past, as a means to fostering peace and stability in society. A similar process is underway this week at Brown University in Rhode Island, where a university committee called on the institution to make amends for its extensive ties to slavery in the 18th century by building a memorial, creating a center for the study of slavery and injustice and increasing efforts to recruit minority students.
The Committee on Slavery and Justice said that one cannot change the past, but “an institution can hold itself accountable for the past, accepting its burdens and responsibilities along with its benefits and privileges.” This means “acknowledging and taking responsibility for Brown’s part in grievous crimes,” it said. Bravo, Brown!
These are just two examples of similar endeavors to overcome the pain and distortions of the recent past that are underway throughout the United States. The relevance to the Middle East is that the acknowledgement of others’ past suffering and of one’s own insensitive, aggressive or even criminal behavior is crucial to any serious conflict resolution process. It unlocks doors that remain closed to would-be but failed mediators, and it opens pathways to reconciliation based on new opportunities for a normal life, because the agony of one’s own dehumanization has been removed.
Who says we in the Middle East don’t appreciate American values? College football, the compassionate honesty of a great university, and new doorways to racial and communal harmony are three of the best American values that I know of, and have happily experienced again this week.
Rami G. Khouri is an internationally syndicated columnist, the director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University of Beirut, and editor-at-large of the Beirut-based Daily Star.
Copyright ©2006 Rami G. Khouri / Agence Global
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Released: 24 October 2006
Word Count: 840
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