For over a month now, I've been working at a UN consultatory LGBTIQ human rights agency called OutRight Action International, and one thing is increasingly clear, social justice in formal government and NGO settings is nothing like it is amongst college students. Assessment and reaction to misconceptions, stereotypes, judgments, misinformation and ignorance are a key difference I’ve observed here. On campus, I’ve noticed reactions to perceived microaggressions are immediate, without contextualizing and assessing the situation.

For instance, a white passing, Indian American student wrote a post on social media using the term “Indian American,” to which there was an immediate comment correcting them to use “Native American,” or “indigenous” for non-US native persons. The student responded with the fact that they were actually Native Indian themselves and their people chose to identify by such terms. The commentator was then attacked by another individual for trying to correct the student on their own identity, while they had tried to simply stand up for the American Indian community, yet acted on misinformation and false assumption.

Another instance was during the drag show on campus, cis and trans persons alike were attacking trans students who did not support the cancellation, accusing them of transphobia under the assumption, which was voiced with great hostility, that they were not in fact trans and therefore had no voice in the matter. No one had bothered to hear the other party out, to contextualize the situation, and to properly assess the dynamics at play. In both of these instances, the situation had escalated because of hasty reaction and a lack of understanding of the situation, creating an uncomfortable environment in which individuals and communities were silenced, dismissed and mistreated. At OutRight, the opportunities for such situations are endless. We monitor LGBTQI human rights violations in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, so one can imagine the many conversations in which misconceptions, stereotypes, assumptions and judgments may arise in the daily conversations here; and indeed, they do.

For instance, after Orlando, our entire agency met in the conference room to discuss how we all felt and what we all thought. One of our interns, a French man, said that the liberal side’s reluctance to address Islam in this is irresponsible and foolish, and contrasts the reaction of France after the Paris attack. I was waiting for someone to get up, call him an Islamophobe and shut down that thread of inquiry. It’s happened during class in Warren Wilson plenty of times, and so it became my expectation.

Instead, it turned into a dialogue about legitimizing ISIS as an Islamic organization, American’s tendency to generalize a single interpretation of religious scripture unto an entire people, and the implications of not discussing the role of Islam. Our strategist on Iran said that he agrees that liberals in the US must acknowledge oppressive aspects of Islam and the Quran just as they do with Christians and the Bible and that it will allow for a less restricted response to Islamophobic generalizations. Specifically, he said that the longer the left refuses to talk about it, the more those frightened and looking for answers will turn to Donald Trump who continues to exploit the left’s silence.

No one won this, in the end, that’s the whole point of a dialogue. No one tried to flex their social justice muscles and berate the other from a podium of self-righteousness. We all contributed to the conversation, and we all came out of it with slightly different views of the situation. That’s what community dialogue should to look like in my opinion, and that’s what I find lacking in academia. Even more disappointing to me is how the social justice movement is silencing variations of voice within marginalized communities. People of color for trying to stand up for other people of color, trans individuals for not agreeing with an action that they saw as taking away an expression of freedom, heritage and empowerment.

Another colleague of mine spoke to this as well when I had a similar discussion with him. He is white passing, but he’s from Mexico City and his primary language is Spanish. He told me how often individuals assume he’s a white American and call him out for speaking Spanish to someone, telling him, essentially, that it’s racist to assume that Latinx people cannot speak English. He is Latinx. He’s speaking his language with his people. He told me how tired he was of his ethnicity and culture being dismissed by the social justice community and his own Latinx community.

There’s a degree of self-righteousness in call-out culture that is so utterly toxic to the social justice movement, it silences members of the very communities it claims to fight for. I see this too often at Warren Wilson. I see this too often in academia and Tumblr activism in general, and I’m beginning to realize this is not a movement I want to identify with, as much as I believe in its general mission. I understand that college is a place where people, many of whom are new to social justice and activism, explore various methods of organizing and advocacy. I understand that it is a place of a heightened sense of fervor and ideal, where students try to make sense of the world and their environment. I also understand, however, that it is paramount to call to attention the damaging aspects of these methods and share with others how I am making sense of social justice.