By Georgie Hicks
On April 27, a flier containing details for a Day of Absence / Day of Presence event at TESC was picked up by far-right news organization Breitbart. A community-run version of the event is being held in response to the official cancellation of the event by the school. Breitbart’s article opens with a quote by New York Times columnist Bari Weiss calling Day of Absence “a day of racial segregation” referencing controversy surrounding last years event where, unlike other years, white students and staff were invited to voluntarily leave campus to engage in anti-racist workshops, instead of students of color leaving campus as in previous years.
A screenshot of the flier that was found on Instagram appeared on Olympia local Benjamin Boyce’s twitter and spread from there. Boyce runs a YouTube channel featuring videos with titles such as “Is Academic Feminism Literally Cancer”, and “Is Evergreen a Cult” as well as hosting a section titled “#ExposéEvergreen”, a riff on a student activist hashtag started last year during the spring protests.
People involved in past Day of Absence events refute the idea of it being a “day of racial segregation” and assert that it is a long-held tradition focused on learning about race and anti-racist ideology. Recently George Bridges, President of The Evergreen State College, spoke to the Cooper Point Journal about the schools decision to not hold an institutional Day of Absence / Day of Presence saying last years event was, “taken hostage and held hostage by external groups misrepresenting it and then using, exploiting it, to advance their own causes” also saying that the choice to not hold DOA/DOP is not the fault of the event itself but that, “ it is the fault of extremist groups using us, and I put the burden on them.”
The community-made flier shows a pyramid with the words Day of Absence on it, below which is says “decolonize/deinstitutionalize” and “A day for us, by us”. The flier shows events planned for mid May around numerous topics and activities including, yoga, leadership skills, a movie screening, and an art show.
