Real Learning
College.
A four-year blank check on life. A time when the overwhelming majority of students are on their own for the very first time. No parent or guardian is present to wake you, feed you, take you places, or hold you accountable. It's all on you. You are the one who selects your classes. You are the one who decides when or if you go to the school cafeteria. You are the one who decides whether you're spending Friday night at the local fraternity party or at the library. And you are the one who decides what causes and clubs to join on campus and how vocal and visible you want to be in these settings.
It's that last part that is most tricky.
Because for many, college is a search for identity. Some choose to remain true to themselves while others reinvent themselves entirely. Those of us who have attended college can all likely name a handful of friends we met early on who were completely different by the time they graduated. Perhaps they were influenced by their peers. Perhaps they wanted a fresh start. Perhaps it was simply a way to forget their past and forge an entirely new future. Whatever the reason, a large number of college students year after year prove themselves to be impressionable and willing to put themselves out there when doing so might not end up being their best course of action.
Case in point is the recent Israel protests that have engulfed college campuses. From Harvard to Columbia to Yale, student protestors have gone full-in on Palestine, going so far as to publicly justify Hamas' brutal use of force against Israeli civilians. While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been a hotbed of political discussion amongst institutions of higher learning, this is the first time that xennials have entered the chat and what we're seeing is simply the latest groupthink as a way to try and make a historical gray topic broken down into simple black and white.
The problem is that these xennials are giving into a gut reaction to what is a longstanding conflict in a region that has experienced upheaval for centuries. For them, it's much easier to chant "Free Palentine!" than "Let Us Revisit The Oslo Accords To Discuss Their Effectiveness 30 Years Later!" That second chant is much more pertinent and yet isn't the one we will hear simply because in-depth policy discussion is never what motivates students to march and protest. While liberal colleges and universities can challenge student thinking, they are also very much siloed. You can easily find a group on campus that shares your views on race or religion where you step into that very first meeting and feel like you've found "your people" right away. When you do, you are likely to get sucked into the group's ideology, and eventually, you are unable to take a step back and look at the broader, more nuanced parts of the issue at hand.
That is what we're seeing on college campuses today. Xennials are forgoing nuance and jumping right into the fracas. The problem is that when you pick sides, you must go all in on that side no matter what. For college students who became experts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict overnight, it was easy to see Palestinians as an oppressed people in a foreign land. When Hamas terrorists started targeting innocent Israeli civilians and committing unspeakable atrocities, all of a sudden it became clear that it wasn't as simple as "Palestinians are the good guys, Israelis are the bad guys" as many students had been led to believe. But they were pot-committed. They were in the crowd waving the Palestinian flags. They were part of student groups whose leaders were openly publishing anti-Israeli statements. In their rush to be part of the "it" movement on campus, xennial students never took time to realize that their actions would have consequences.
It is a tough lesson, to be sure. But it is one every generation must learn. History is not black and white. When it unfolds in real time, we don't get the whole story. It is not as simple as the good guys versus the bad guys. Instead, what we have seen during the first 10 days of this conflict is that terrorism is never acceptable. We've seen that not all Palestinians support Hamas. We've seen that not all Israelis support Benjamin Netanyahu. While history can sometimes be boiled down into a simple slogan, this is not one of those times. Xennial students on college campuses are seeing that getting caught up protesting something you don't fully understand can have real-world consequences. They are learning that their club presidents might not have their best interests at heart. And they are realizing that knowing the history of a topic before passing judgment on a whim is a critical part of being a global citizen.
That is what we're seeing on college campuses today. Xennials are forgoing nuance and jumping right into the fracas. The problem is that when you pick sides, you must go all in on that side no matter what. For college students who became experts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict overnight, it was easy to see Palestinians as an oppressed people in a foreign land. When Hamas terrorists started targeting innocent Israeli civilians and committing unspeakable atrocities, all of a sudden it became clear that it wasn't as simple as "Palestinians are the good guys, Israelis are the bad guys" as many students had been led to believe. But they were pot-committed. They were in the crowd waving the Palestinian flags. They were part of student groups whose leaders were openly publishing anti-Israeli statements. In their rush to be part of the "it" movement on campus, xennial students never took time to realize that their actions would have consequences.
It is a tough lesson, to be sure. But it is one every generation must learn. History is not black and white. When it unfolds in real time, we don't get the whole story. It is not as simple as the good guys versus the bad guys. Instead, what we have seen during the first 10 days of this conflict is that terrorism is never acceptable. We've seen that not all Palestinians support Hamas. We've seen that not all Israelis support Benjamin Netanyahu. While history can sometimes be boiled down into a simple slogan, this is not one of those times. Xennial students on college campuses are seeing that getting caught up protesting something you don't fully understand can have real-world consequences. They are learning that their club presidents might not have their best interests at heart. And they are realizing that knowing the history of a topic before passing judgment on a whim is a critical part of being a global citizen.
All critical lessons for a generation that will be voting for the first time in 2024.