Activist Provokes Community Dialogue
Trans-activist and MLK Day keynote speaker Lourdes Ashley Hunter, co-founder of the Trans Women of Color Collective (TWOCC), delivered a controversial keynote address Friday centering around the struggles transgender women of color face. Despite her important message, some thought it was overshadowed by her style of delivery, profane language and public naming of a faculty member for posting statistics on his classroom door pertaining to information from the MLK Day Preview Assembly.
The response Hunter received from several Exeter students prompted her to make her public Instagram account private. “I have received many hate filled, transphobic and racist remarks and comments from PEA students,” Hunter told The Exonian. “Some are trolling me on social media using very disparaging and hurtful language. My pictures have been stolen and they are making fake accounts with them. I made my IG private to avoid any further violence from the students.”
Assistant Principal Karen Lassey agreed. “I was moved by the materials Ms. Hunter presented about the fear and violence she herself experienced, and by other transgender women of color simply because of who they are,” she said. However, Lassey found some of Hunter’s conduct troubling. “I was disappointed and disheartened when I felt the choices she [Hunter] made were contrary to our values of respectful exchange of ideas.”
The Dean of Students office sent out and email Tuesday stating that several students were communicating with Hunter “in a manner that is not consistent with our community’s standards and values” and reminded both students and adults of the school’s harassment policy.
The MLK Committee spent the past year finding and vetting a range of speakers with diverse voices and views about social justice and the legacy of MLK. Member of the MLK Committee and upper Rose Martin discovered Hunter via internet, notably Hunter’s TEDx Talk delivered at Middlebury College. Having delivered similar speeches before at a United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland and Harvard University, the faculty of the MLK Day Committee cooperated with students and “invited her to speak of the violence against and human rights for transwomen of color,” as they stated in an email sent to all Exeter students and faculty members.
Upper and MLK Committee member Lance* appreciated Hunter’s stories. “She present[ed] amazing points from her personhood, her pains and troubles expressed for being a trans woman of color: raped, homeless, and told that she wouldn’t make it past 35,” Lance said.
Assistant Principal Karen Lassey agreed. “I was moved by the materials Ms. Hunter presented about the fear and violence she herself experienced, and by other transgender women of color simply because of who they are,” she said. However, Lassey found some of Hunter’s conduct troubling. “I was disappointed and disheartened when I felt the choices she [Hunter] made were contrary to our values of respectful exchange of ideas.”
During her speech, Hunter also drew sharp reactions from her audience Assembly Hall when she identified a math instructor for statistics he had posted on his classroom door regarding police brutality.
Acknowledging that Hunter's public admonishment of the teacher was "risky," English Instructor Courtney Marshall understood her motivation, saying, "The fact that it made her angry enough to include it in her talk pointed back to a sense of urgency. She’s not someone who sits back and then doesn’t translate this into speech or action."
Others were indignant about her actions and words. “I definitely feel like it was not necessarily her place to do that by any means because she is not a part of our community, and she got a very limited perspective from a student who may not have had all the facts in the first place,” lower Janalie Cobb said.
After Hunter’s comments about the instructor, a handful of students and faculty were displeased with Hunter’s other statements. During a Q&A workshop after her Assembly, Hunter criticized and avoided two questions that students posed about white supremacy.
During the workshop, senior Ian Johnson recalled that Hunter cursed at him after he asked a question regarding white supremacy’s relation to other forms of structural oppression. When Johnson tried to apologize for the framing of his question, Hunter refused to engage with him and any other cis white males in the room.“And I began to try to explain myself, “I'm sorry I really am trying to hear what you have to say, that was what my question was about." And she [Hunter] said, "Nope, I don't want to hear it…”
Upper JP Guite chose to leave the workshop after Hunter’s response to Johnson because he disagreed with her remarks.“I didn’t like how she was addressing students before me, so I asked about her role as an educator and thought she shouldn’t remove students. It wasn’t meant to be disrespectful, but she took it as that,” he said.
MLK Committee members underlined that they did not condone nor share Hunter’s comments targeted at the math instructor and specific students. In response to Hunter’s actions, both the committee’s students and faculty also wrote emails addressed to the faculty, staff and students. “[Hunter] mistreated members of our community. She did so publicly and interpersonally,” Weatherspoon and Carbonell wrote. The students wrote, “Our intentions were never to cause hurt or confusion of any kind.”
The students also expressed their wish for continued discussion of the messages brought up during the workshops and performances they hosted. “Please keep talking about the experiences of trans women of color — don’t let today’s events undermine the critical importance of highlighting trans women’s voices,” the email read. “We believe that [Hunter’s] message of the struggles of trans women of color, and the other excellent workshops and guests, deserve not be overshadowed by her unprofessional comments.”
MacFarlane’s Jan. 15 email to the PEA community reiterated the faculty’s commitment to diversity of opinion and freedom of speech. “We do not condone attacks on anyone’s personhood. We do not condone disrespectful behavior towards anyone,” MacFarlane wrote. “We believe that every voice matters. We believe in dialogue, in empathy, in exploring unfamiliar or uncomfortable positions.”
MacFarlane also expressed her disappointment in both Hunter and the way that the faculty member’s opinions were displayed. “I was shocked by the keynote speaker’s tone and behavior, stunned by her explicit calling out of a member of the community, and distressed that students felt shut down and excluded from conversations that should have been rich,” she wrote. “I was also upset by the postings on a classroom door: every space in the school should actively invite dialogue and engagement.”
In spite of the wide range of opinions following MLK day, Marshall called for some measure of understanding. "I will not demonize [Hunter],” she said. “I will not turn her into a monster because she gets that everywhere she goes."
Lance, sharing Marshall’s request, acknowledged that although some of Hunter’s words were hurtful, the original messages about racism deserve to be discussed and merited. “Some of the points she wished to make weren't expressed thoroughly enough for it to be conveyed thoughtfully, such as her comments on white supremacy and her image of whiteness,” he said. “What strikes at the heart of her point is that the Exeter community's silence to issues of race is essentially complicit to how the problem of racism persists at Exeter, and that Exeter has to act more openly and honestly in order to address racism.”
“As painful as the past week has been for many, this is an important opportunity for us to address what it means for our campus to be truly inclusive and welcoming,” Principal Lisa MacFarlane said. “Our Harkness practices and the values of respect, integrity, and care for one another are central to that aspiration.”