Recently, an open letter was published on a WordPress blog which has gained a bit of traction online. The blog represents the thoughts of an individual writer, named Steve, who expresses his opinion regarding the Odyssey as a whole. For the full text of the open letter, click here, although I’m going to leave no sentence unturned in the following reply. These are my thoughts and my thoughts alone, based off my experiences as an Odyssey staff-writer since I joined my chapter in October 2015. Profanity from the source material has been censored to abide by the Odyssey standards.

Let’s start from the top: the open letter, entitled “An Open Letter to the Odyssey Online” and published on April 6, bears a huge picture of a stop sign as it’s header, and then proceeds to open with the line:

“Holy s**t, your site is bad. Please stop.”

I’m glad the articulation from the author of this letter is vastly superior to any Odyssey writer I know. Obviously, the tone which is taken in the first part of this piece is comedic, but there’s a difference between making people laugh and being laughable, and unfortunately for this blogger, the very serious and demeaning generalizations which he makes toward the Odyssey as a whole fall into the latter category.

After pretending to end the letter solely with his opening sentence, he then writes:

“Sometimes when I scroll through Facebook and see one of the articles from The Odyssey, I consider snapping my laptop in half, or finding the tallest building and jumping off. I mean, the site is really bad. I don’t know who decided that it would be a good idea to take a bunch of privileged white #MakeAmericaGreatAgain people and allow them to write about how much it sucks being white.”

I believe this paragraph to be an absolutely textbook example of overblown usage of humor to hide a baseless assertion. I get it, you think the Odyssey is bad. The step towards seriousness taken here is when he references “a bunch of privileged white … people” while throwing in a Donald Trump hashtag as the representative creator-base for the entire Odyssey site. Providing some of my words to even service such a shortsighted assertion is something I don’t like doing, and all I’ll say about it is that this claim is dead wrong – Odyssey chapters exist across the United States at higher-learning institutions which pride themselves on inclusion and diversity, with my chapter being a prime example. Remember: Odyssey chapters reflect the schools at which they exist.

The open letter then transitions to another attack on the Odyssey as a whole:

"For those who don’t know what The Odyssey Online is, I’m here to tell you. Although, I know you’ve heard of it. You’ve probably just scrolled through Facebook and saw an article that says something like An Open Letter to The First Guy Who Hurt Me or 50 Reasons why Being a Feminist is Wrong or 10 Reasons This Entire F**king Site Belongs in a Trash Can. (I made that last one up, but it’s probably worth the read.)"

Again, the surface-level comedy masks exactly how generalized and cherry-picked the nature of the argument. By including titles which are intentionally vapid, the author reveals his personal stance toward the Odyssey and expects us to take his opinion as fact without paying attention to context or correctly representing the myriad of perspectives which constitute the Odyssey as a publishing platform. Individual content does not constitute the spirit of an organization. For every potential article like “50 Reasons why Being a Feminist is Wrong” I believe there are a few which offer the other side of the debate which Steve intentionally ignored to make his position seem super strong.

By the way, if someone publishes an article and attempts to heal themselves through the experience of writing an open letter about someone who hurt them, what position is anyone else in to invalidate those experiences and that person’s right to cope? I don’t understand the vitriol, but don’t worry, the writer anticipated this. His next move, after making a claim about the redundancy of the Odyssey’s mission statement, is to try and explain his position.

In his words:

"So, why the criticism? I’ll explain.

The blogosphere has reached stratospheric levels over the last few years. Social media gives bloggers multiple platforms to share their work with virtually millions of people. That’s a good, and bad thing. I love that people of all backgrounds can share their opinions and experiences on subjects, The Odyssey does the exact opposite."

I believe, via the example I provided regarding the opinions on feminism, there is at least one example of the Odyssey aligning itself with the sharing of differing opinions. As a matter of fact, from a basic statistical level, since everyone who writes for the Odyssey is an individual, there’s bound to be disagreement between pundits, potentially even at the same chapter.

Regardless of the fact that the charge made here is presented with no real follow through past one man’s opinion, the example which follows next is a little weak in delivery:

"One contributor said:

The U.S. is now respected as a soccer country, that should never be the case.

No the f**k it is not.

The MLB generates more revenue than any other sports league in the WORLD besides the NFL. Soccer was supposed to be the sport of the future in the ’70s – soon to take over the United States, yet here we are, 40+ years later, not a soccer country. Major League Soccer generates a laughable $400 million a year in revenue compared to Major League Baseball’s almost $10 billion a year revenue."

What’s happened here is that, again, the writer of this open letter has cherry picked a single Odyssey article, reflective of a writer’s opinion, and had an argument with the physical title of said article – without any of the corresponding content – for apparently no reason other than to defend the MLB. While I’m sure the constituents of the MLB appreciate his efforts in this tangent, he hasn’t accomplished much of anything relating to his original point: that the entire Odyssey is mostly/all worthy of being dismissed. The space allotted to arguing against a detached headline with no source and the face-value of an Odyssey writer’s opinion, is, in my opinion, literally worthless.

Moving on:

"The biggest problem I have with the site, is that most, if not all of the writers come from the same background. The site’s writers are basically early 20s privileged white college students. Basically, if the cool kids in high school took to writing, about nothing. There is no culture."

The juncture presented here is where I, personally, begin to feel the article shift into an attack on those who write for the Odyssey which needs to be refuted.

I’m going to do two things: first, I’m going to address this point and why I feel it’s inaccurate, and then second, I want to challenge other Odyssey writers to reflect on this accusation and use that as ammunition to prove Steve wrong.

Opening the first section of this statement is the phrase “most, if not all,” meaning of the thousands of writers for the Odyssey, the vast majority are the slate-like, blank, white-bread caricatures being painted by the writer of that statement. I’m not sure exactly what he means by “if the cool kids in high school took to writing, about nothing” because I don’t know if I was a ‘cool kid’ in high school or not, and then also because I didn’t realize someone’s writing could be qualified as “nothing.” To dismiss someone’s creativity, someone’s personal output, as being “nothing” is one of the most soul-wrenching things which can happen to a writer.

And yes, the people who write for the Odyssey are writers, no matter how much one might disagree with someone’s opinion; nobody needs anyone else’s permission to be considered a writer. Historically speaking, the people who have tried to quantify and qualify what it means to be a writer without having 1) any background themselves or 2) would believe themselves to be so bold as to be able to say ‘this person’s feelings, emotions, opinions, are worth nothing and should be silenced because I don’t agree with them’ are often worse than the standard by which they judge.

Case in point, this open letter.

Continuing:

"This is a site that publishes articles titled “I Am a College Student Who is Against Free Tuition: Why Paying For College Isn’t a Burden.” In this article, the writer says she never asked her parents to pay for her college, and god da**it has the nerve to quote President Barack Obama, who by the way, advocates for free tuition at community colleges. She closed the article out with “A college degree is earned, not handed to you.” As if to say, actually …… I don’t know what that means. It’s one thing to be against free tuition, but what does that have to do with a earning a degree? Steve is confused."

Well Steve, if I may, let me try to deduce this for you: you have just finished dismissing an entire nation’s worth of work by University students as something which makes you want to jump off a bridge, and now you’re doing your readers the service of being selective with your information once again while trying to bolster your coarse, ill-advised, and shortsighted argument. In the technical sense, you are doing everything which you accuse the Odyssey of doing, and I think the irony of that statement was intended with the title of your letter, but I think the extent to which you emulate that which you try to decry in the Odyssey was the only benefit of this piece, and yes, I find it hysterical.

You:

• Again, pulled out a title of an article and used it as a way to generalize the entire site.
• Bashed the opinion of a student at a higher learning institution for having an opinion you disagree with.
• Attempt to call the student out via her use of a quote from President Obama while lifting it out of context without whatever else she said in the article.
• Attempt to paint her opinion as confusing via the last two sentences, when I’m more confused by how the inclusion of this section accomplishes anything but showcasing how much you misrepresent the Odyssey.

Frankly, I don’t agree with her opinion regarding tuition, either, but I respect her ability to have her work published so that intellectual conversation can be sparked around the issue. That’s exactly what you said you supported earlier in your own letter, and guess what: that’s exactly what’s happened.

The second example Steve incorporates is as follows:

"Here’s one that has drawn the ire of a ton of social media users: “Why White Privilege is As Racist As it Sounds: Heads Up I’m White and Do Not Consider Myself Privileged.” For starters, saying “Hardships and struggles do not care what color we are,” may not necessarily be true. I’m not here to start throwing stats out, but there is a real fundamental misinterpretation of ‘privilege’ in this article. But this is something that really shouldn’t even be written, this is your way of telling people, you’re privileged. Privilege doesn’t always mean you’re rich and have a ton of opportunities; it means you’re awarded opportunities OVER people of color just for being white. That’s the crux of the disconnect for most readers and writers."

Damn Steve, back at it again with the selective quoting!

Since you claim articles like the ones you’re discussing constitute the entire Odyssey canvas – again dismissing someone else’s opinion because you don’t agree with it – let me show you some examples. Here’s a bunch of Odyssey articles where people express their opinions, and believe it or not, the fact you say “this [meaning the opinion of the writer of the article you included] is something that really shouldn’t even be written” is your opinion. The Odyssey is a content medium which follows standards which disallow blatant personal attacks (like your blog post) but which promotes a diverse spectrum of opinions. You have no right to say that something should or should not be published, especially when the content you’re creating doesn’t hold a candle to the Odyssey content you conveniently didn’t include in your portrait

It’s worth noting, again, that the articles I linked provide a wide range of perspectives on the complex topic of privilege.

Now that we’ve gone over Steve’s two examples, the move towards a conclusion is evident:

"These two articles basically sum The Odyssey up. It’s not enough to be privileged, but to complain about privilege is a whole new level of stupidity, and ignorance. It’s not about empowerment, it’s about primacy. What does empowerment mean to them? This is a site you can find writers promoting Feminism, while other writers on the same site trash it. They want you to see how much better they are than you. But they also want you to know that, you’re wrong because you’re not them."

Okay. Let’s look at this for a moment. According to Steve, these two articles (of the tens of thousands which exist) are the summation of the Odyssey. He dismisses articles written reflecting empowerment, claiming they instead appeal to primacy, which is a false parallel based on a sample which is extremely biased and chock full of logical holes – i.e., since the Odyssey published these two articles, they must endorse their values as the core of their media platform and be a bunch of narcissistic, privileged idiots! However, Steve undoes himself in the next sentence, which is his only accurate representation of the spirit of the Odyssey in the entire piece:

“This is a site you can find writers promoting Feminism, while other writers on the same site trash it.”

Sorry, Steve, what did you say you “loved” before?

"I love that people of all backgrounds can share their opinions and experiences on subjects."

I believe Steve’s drawn a brilliant example of how the Odyssey accomplishes just that.

I’m intentionally disregarding the last two sentences of Steve’s corresponding paragraph, because they’re another empty personal attack on how he believes Odyssey writers are contrived narcissists. People are people, and you know, some may very well be, but to throw out an entire population of United States college students does nothing but demonstrate shortsightedness and an inability to understand diversity.

Steve ends his open letter with a half-baked attempt to incorporate the counterpoint he’s intentionally omitted up to here:

"I know there are writers for the site who work very hard, and I’m sure some can write, but a few voices don’t speak for an entire site. One article from the site explains what it’s like to be rich in college, as if anyone really cares. This is not journalism, these are not writers, or authors, they are merely cogs in a machine – a machine that I hope breaks, very soon."

“A few voices don’t speak for an entire site.”

Really, Steve? Up to here, the four voices you’ve incorporated, I thought, were supposed to constitute an entire site … what changed?

You say that these people who you’re attacking aren’t writers, or authors, or whatever else you deem them not to be, but what you’re really saying is that you’re one of the people who they write to prove wrong. I’ve had my work detracted in the past. I know what it’s like to be invalidated due to some judgmental individual who generalizes, who belittles the work and opinions of others. I think that’s my motivation for writing this response. I write this response because I, too, am out to prove people like you wrong.

I’ve had success in my written pursuits outside the Odyssey, and, for your information, I am an author – but even if I wasn’t, I would be able to take pride in what I’ve done as a member of the Odyssey. You have absolutely no idea the nuances of the people who you attack, and to dismiss an entire staff of a website as worthless doesn’t take anything away from us – it takes everything away from you.

The conclusion of the open letter is a reference to a Twitter feed containing mentions about the Odyssey:

"And if you think it’s just me, these are tweets about the site. You’ll find I’m not the only one who has a problem. I’m not saying you should boycott. Don’t take it from me though, you be the judge. Click below."

Following the link which Steve provides, he’s not wrong. Other people are dismissive about the Odyssey as well, but the beautiful part showcased by that link is that for as many people who are bashing the Odyssey, there are other people proudly sharing their work and reveling in the chance to express themselves. That is what it means to be a writer.

Steve, I don’t know you, so I’m not going to make assumptions. I’m not going to judge you on anything besides this piece you wrote, and I’m not going to ask you to agree with me. All I ask is that you respect the work of others and that you not be so hasty to draw conclusions about people who you don’t know – and if you decide that attacking an institution is a just and worthy cause, at least make your arguments good enough to hold water, because you never know who might be reading.

Best regards,

Karl Dehmelt

Proud writer, the Odyssey at Loyola University Maryland.