Reflections on – a privileged and entitled self-described victim of oppression. And my life-changing experience I think should be mandatory for all high school students.
An interesting feature of the protests roiling American campuses is that so many of the revolting students participating in the protests are from very privileged backgrounds. Even within that rarified population, though, one stands out above most of the rest for her sheer over-the-top sense of entitlement: congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s daughter, Isra Hirsi.
Ms. Hirsi is a student at Barnard College (Columbia University’s sister college, where the annual cost before financial aid is $85,000 per year), self-identifies as a communist, has been a leader of the pro-Hamas on-campus protests at Columbia, and was one of the students arrested last week (virtually all of whom, including Ms. Hirsi, were released fairly quickly with all charges dropped, and Ms. Hirsi is now back on the Columbia campus participating alongside her mother in the continuation of the Columbia-code-of-conduct-violating protest encampment).
In interviews with Teen Vogue and MSNBC (where else!) Ms. Hirsi complained about her treatment by law enforcement and by Barnard.
“I was a little bit frantic, like, where am I going to sleep? Where am I gonna go?”
“I sent them an email like, ‘Hey, I rely on campus for my meals, I rely on my dining plan,’ and they were like, ‘Oh, you can come pick up a prepackaged bag of food,’ a full 48 hours after I was suspended,” she said.
“There was no food support, no nothing.”
A few comments. But first, please note that although these comments focus on a specific individual, she really is just serving as a stand-in for all of the students like her — of whom there are many.
1. Ms. Hirsi would benefit from reading about the history of communism. Is it possible she knows nothing about Stalin’s communist regime in Russia – 6 million directly killed and another 3 million excess deaths due to his policies – or Mao – whose brutality and devastating economic polices are considered responsible for the deaths of between 35 and 45 million Chinese? Does Ms. Hirsi admire North Korea? Is she really that remarkably ignorant?
2. It is obvious that Ms. Hirsi has an intense need to characterize herself as an oppressed victim. She considers herself a champion of the oppressed, and a victim of oppression herself, while living a life of extraordinary privilege. Given that she has been living her life within contexts in which demanding that certain kinds of people “park their privilege so that the voices of the oppressed can be elevated”, there is a certain irony in the fact that SHE is amongst the most privileged of all. Are Ms. Hirsi, and the many others like her protesting on elite college campuses, totally unable to step back and see their own life privileges?
3. For Ms. Hirsi to claim the mantel of homelessness after being locked out of her dorm – and to claim that she was being deprived of food when briefly unable to utilize her on-campus food plan – is deeply insulting to people who are really struggling to have safe shelter and who struggle to have sufficient food. Didn’t she know that she could go to a hotel, or with friends, or go to Washington and stay with her mother? Has she never heard of grocery stores and restaurants? Again – how pathologically needy of painting oneself as an oppressed victim, and how pathologically entitled, does someone like her have to be to whine about not knowing where they will sleep and to complain about the university not immediately providing her with a prepackaged bag of food? The answer — pretty damn needy and pretty damn entitled. She needs to spend a bit of time with the less advantaged in life.
Might a mandatory gap-year year-of-service help with this pathology?
Clearly, something is missing in the life experiences of Ms. Hirsi and the many others like her. As I watch the scenes on TV of entitled over-privileged students like Ms. Hirsi chanting in support of a foreign terrorist group and calling for death to America, it has made me wonder if now might be the time to institute a mandatory year of community/country service for all students when they graduate from high school or turn 18. Needless to say – there would be a LOT of details to be ironed out, and much better minds than mine have given the idea a lot thought. I doubt it will ever be enacted, but if there was ever a living breathing argument supporting the need for one, it’s Ms. Hirsi.
Attending a citizenship naturalization ceremony should be mandatory for all high school students.
I’m a naturalized American. I received my citizenship about 20 years ago, and at the time I didn’t think it was much of a big deal. I had already been living and working and raising a family in the U.S. for quite a while, and although becoming a citizen would make life easier in a number of ways, I thought of it more as a formality and an expediency than something of particular significance. And when I was scheduled to go to the ceremony to be sworn in as a new citizen of the country, I initially thought about it the way I thought about going to the DMV for a new driver’s license. My wife offered to go with me, but I thought that was silly – it would take up her whole afternoon for no good reason. And my children were all in school, so we gave no thought to the possibility of taking them out of school for half a day to watch me being sworn in.
My wife and I now regret those decisions. It turns out – it was an experience I will never forget, and I’m very sorry my family wasn’t there with me. Although I went through the process by myself, most of the others being sworn in that day were accompanied by numerous family members, and what made a huge impression on me was how obviously significant that moment was for the others who were part of the ceremony with me. Most of the others spoke English with a distinct accent (if at all), and from the tears in the eyes of many in attendance, it was clear that this day represented the fulfillment of a dream for them – the dream of living in a country of freedom and economic opportunity.
I don’t know what the effect would be on Ms. Hirsi and those like her if they were to attend a ceremony like the one I experienced, but I do know that if I were a high school principal, I would make it mandatory for every student in my school to attend a citizenship naturalization ceremony as part of a course in civics and as a precondition for graduation; and perhaps especially for those like Ms. Hirsi, it just might help them better understand how fortunate they really are.