Protesters won a decisive victory against college students who sleep through injustice this past Wednesday, with a rousing demonstration at the Union. The event was organized by a coalition of activist groups called Students Transforming Oppression and Privilege, which justified the invasion as a reclamation of the Union for students. Apparently, the northerly ornament of the Quad is a bastion of power and privilege, dominated by an administration rife with institutional racism, sexism and homophobia. Thankfully, these brave coalition forces are working hard to liberate us from our own ignorance and to give us back the rights our overseers are constantly taking from us.

You may be wondering what makes the administration so evil. Unfortunately, in the past, employees of The Daily Illini have been asked to leave STOP’s meetings. However, I have been able to piece together an overview. From what I could gather through their chants: the administration has taken the Union away from us, they’ve eliminated justice which also eliminates peace, and they’re behind all the cutbacks. Those all sound awful!

The official Facebook event says apparently the administration is also behind “business as usual,” which includes starting an “Academy on Capitalism and Limited Government Fund,” not providing safe spaces for undocumented students and workers and not having transparency in its decision-making process. Oh! STOP is also protesting “Inclusive Illinois,” which is that new diversity program thing. Wait, what?

I’m lost. And, as far as I can tell, so is everyone else. If an organization that is built around eliminating broad overarching problems like oppression and privilege wants to accomplish anything, it really ought to let the rest of us know what it means. For instance, when it says privilege, I think STOP is referring to “white privilege,” which is a term that roughly means white people have it better than other races by the mere fact that they’re white. Although this concept is not without its critics, many reasonable people are willing to concede that white people, in many circumstances, have it easier than minorities. Racial profiling comes to mind. However, STOP is not in the business of convincing people of the merits of this theory, or even explaining it to them. Instead, it gathers its cabal of believers and attacks the perpetrators of an injustice that cannot and should not be questioned. Why is this, STOP?

It seems to me that including the larger student body in your deliberations and activities could only be beneficial to your cause. Many issues of social justice are self-evident to reasonable, ethical people. Therefore, it should be a pittance to take some time out to provide some justification for the policies you oppose or propose, so that you can heft the heavy axe of majority opinion at those that would do students wrong.

Are other students unworthy of your time? Are we too stupid to understand the nuances of your philosophy? And if our ignorance is created by the institutional and cultural racism you abhor, is it not your espoused purpose to enlighten us?

Or is it rather that we, and not the administration, are the enemy? There is no reason for a diversity program because the average student at the University of Illinois is a bigot, a worshiper of racial degradation. The only thing to be done now is to insulate the oppressed from our destructive hatred. To enact policies that protect minorities without the consent of the majority because the majority cannot be expected to see past its own self-interest.

Surely this cannot be what the members of STOP believe. This is, however, the message that comes across to those who are being ignored by your organization. Many students would be willing to support an overhaul of certain unjust University policies, but not if we are systematically excluded from the discussion.