Be Mindful of Why You Were Invited

Julian Crosetto | Kayla Shomar-Corbett

Last spring, students across the country occupied their college campus’ to protest their schools’ investment in companies that support the Israeli military. Oberlin students followed suit and set up an encampment in Wilder Bowl late last spring calling for the Board’s divestment from companies and institutions affiliated with the Israeli Defense Force. The encampment itself only lasted two days, afterwards transforming into “The People’s College” and shifting focus to community education. This shift occurred after leadership at various organizations decided it would be best to restructure the encampment. I sat down with Kayla SC, a Palestinian student at Oberlin who is currently involved with Students for a Free Palestine (SFP) and was instrumental in reshaping the encampment into The People’s College. In the following interview we attempt to address the state of student activism at Oberlin. We specifically address Kayla’s experience as a Palestinian student in a climate of impassioned student activists who often do not share her close personal connection with the war. This comes at a time of reflection, after the encampment and People’s College last spring, and the board’s recent rejection of students’ proposal for divestment. 

Kayla SC: I'm Kayla SC. I'm a senior at the conservatory, and I'm on SFP leadership this year.

Jules C: Could you elaborate on your involvement with SFP?

KSC: I joined the club in freshman year, and I attended a few logistics meetings. I hadn’t been involved in demonstrations until junior year, when there were vigils hosted in the fall semester. So, October, 2023. I've been pretty closely involved, mostly in the way where I'm just sharing my life and my experience as a Palestinian student, educating my peers.

JC: Do you feel any sort of pressure to educate people or, and how does that feel?

KSC: At first I didn't mind-- before the war intensified.

KSC: I mean, Palestine has always been a topic I’ve known a lot about because of my father’s lived experience. And I never had a problem sharing what I know, but over time it became emotionally draining because of the sheer amount of people who were coming up to me asking me questions I didn't have answers to.

JC: On that note, how have you felt supported slash unsupported as a Palestinian student at Oberlin, both by the college and then also by other students?

KSC: I'd like to emphasize my lack of involvement with SFP prior to what happened in 2023. Before October 2023, I felt completely supported by faculty peers, everyone in my community.

KSC: I think there was a shift in October among students and faculty, which divided the movement in some ways, strengthening it in others. My personal life became enmeshed with my political demonstrations… And also events that weren't political. Any vigil I went to became a politicized thing.

KSC: I felt supported though. I was not sure what that question meant, because I don't really know what support means. Sometimes, I felt celebrated for my Palestinian identity in a way that I hadn’t felt before. I also felt like I was sharing too much all the time. I felt pressured to involve myself in situations when I wasn't ready to outwardly… seemingly represent an entire people. I kind of felt like I was voted Oberlin's Palestinian representative, which was stressful.

KSC: Most people at Oberlin didn't know I was Palestinian until I spoke at the vigil. And after I spoke at the vigil, I made a lot of new friends. These friendships were conditional. As the year progressed, I felt like my story wasn't mine anymore. It was really difficult for me to go anywhere without having to talk about Palestine.

JC: When was that first vigil you spoke at?

KSC: October, I think October 9th.

JC: Okay. So that was right when it escalated. The question about support is supposed to just kind of gauge your general temperature towards feeling this pressure to be a spokesperson in a way, but then also balancing that with , protecting your own emotional well being.

KSC: It was very hard for me to speak about my family's situation, my extended family being in Gaza, even now.  It was super hard for me to talk about it without crying or sometimes even hyperventilating because I was so fearful. I felt that if I spoke about my family's whereabouts, somehow someone would get the information and I would be putting them in a dangerous situation, especially in October.

JC: Do you think people have been generally understanding about that and your boundaries?

KSC: Now more than ever. I think the encampment– The encampment’s failure and the birth of the People's College– changed a lot in the Oberlin community and worked to center Palestinian liberation efforts around education. Peer led education, which I think led many people to detach themselves a little bit from Palestine in a way that was actually helpful. But before that, it was a lot of rallying and crying and screaming and fighting– not a lot of conversation.

JC: At the encampment?

KSC: Before the encampment.

JC: Before the encampment. Before the encampment. What are your general reflections/ideas towards the encampment-- how it changed, how it started to how it ended, the situation afterwards, how it sort of shifted the Oberlin community response?

KSC: Yeah. I mean, the encampment started with a G-Cal invite, for a drink and a dream at The Feve. We had a few conversations about how it would go, and I made a lot of suggestions that were not honored at the time. It seemed that some of my peers felt like we needed to act fast– probably because of the traction that encampments were getting on social media.

KSC: I think the encampment was cute-- I think it was. But it only lasted two days. And I was integral to its shutdown at the time. I felt like I had to speak out. There was so much interpersonal strain between people at the encampment. I felt like a summer camp counselor. The thing that really got me was when I saw one person smoking a joint and three people with guitars playing different folk tunes while Zane Bawadi was on the mic speaking about the Nakba. He was speaking about important things, like Palestinian history and its continuous erasure. Normally, I wouldn't mind things like that. Wilder Bowl is the spot. I had no problem with people socializing, but I think what happened was messy. We needed to have more communication about putting it all together before we hosted something like that.

KSC: I am an activist, and I have administrative experience within political orgs. In highschool, I was involved with Montgomery County Students for Change, which was a student org created outside of DC, founded to promote gun control after the Marjorie Stoneman Douglas shooting. I was a co-director of that org, and I tried to transfer my previous experience in activism to Oberlin SFP. My ideas were mostly artistic. I'm a strong believer in art installations and musical showcases and poetry reading and poetry writing… especially at school. I think art is a super important part of not only Palestinian culture, but young activism. Artistic performance is a universal language. It's one of the least inflammatory ways to express emotional turmoil, which is fitting for a community this small. So I thought that that would be cool, but it was unpopular here for some reason… which I found frustrating because we go to a conservatory and liberal arts school. I think many people were concerned with clout and how their liberation efforts would look on social media or on their resume.

JC: Building off of that, how have you felt about Oberlin students' performative activism-- What is genuine? What is clout chasing?

KSC: I think performative activism is everywhere you look. We are in the age of the neo internet and anti intellectualism. So it's not uncommon that even with the best of intentions, we end up performing in our activism. I think it's important we're aware of that though. What I observed was people criticizing others for their liberation efforts and for their “artivism” in a space where people were just expressing themselves. The interpersonal issues amongst that big group got in the way of teach-ins and collaborative organization. I think what pushes activism forward isn't performance– it's translation, it's transcription, it's retelling things over and over again in a way that is palatable to an audience bigger than the original audience. I would like to shift focus to education in SFP, and I think it was difficult to do that toward the end of the year, especially during finals. I felt a little weird about some of the fundraising efforts. I think most people just feel super guilty, and it reads, and it clouds your judgment when you do things out of guilt. That's why people should be more informed when they make decisions.

JC: Do you think a lot of that guilt comes out of the--on average-- high level of privilege that Oberlin students come from?

KSC: Completely. Toward the end of the year, I felt that people kind of referred to me as their moral guide at times out of guilt-- that they needed the Palestinian stamp of approval before they did something. And that, to me, cheapened their action. But, I think performative activism looks different in a small, chronically online community. It's not infographics anymore, it's something else. I don't really know how to explain it and I don't really want to single anyone out because I do think that we're all learning. I don't think criticism is conducive to learning in this situation.

JC: Speaking on how students here sort of sought you out to validate their activism in a way: how would you sort of advise other Oberlin students to be better allies? For the cause, but then also for actual Palestinians within their community. Because at least I've seen a large disconnect with how people here treat what they see in the news versus the people that are actually standing right in front of them.

KSC: I think the biggest thing is not treating people like they're pieces in a museum. I don't speak for my Palestinian peers when I say this, but I'm uninterested in being a spectacle. I think, maybe subconsciously, people made me into one. And that goes into what I was saying about being a spokesperson at vigils and events and having to take on an administrative role… in a way that seemed almost parental.

KSC: The most frustrated I have felt here at Oberlin was last spring. I was constantly exposed to videos and audio and FaceTime calls with people on the ground in Gaza, which is super triggering. And I think my story and fundraising was so public at the time, that I didn't have an escape from what was going on… ever. I was constantly reminded. I think it's important to bear witness to what is happening, but when you're a Palestinian student and you're walking to class, you don't want to be stopped by a stranger who so outwordly feels incredibly sorry for you.

JC: Would you say that Oberlin students should be more cognizant of how they're tokenizing people in a way and be more conscious of how other people may have much more personal relationships to the things that they are getting so impassioned about?

KSC: I think curiosity is integral to the cause, as well as being vocal during liberation efforts. That is activism. But when you're in a room with a Palestinian, or in Wilder Bowl with a Palestinian, you shouldn't deliberately try to make them feel like they have to speak. I feel like I was put on a pedestal and I really didn't need to be. Because I was never a director of SFP. At that point, I was not in a leadership position and people were asking me questions about everything.

 JC: To clarify, are you on leadership now for SFP?

KSC: Yeah, but that's new, that's recent. That started at the beginning of this fall. I was closely involved with leadership last semester. But I was kind of just a representative of my people more than anything.

JC: Now that you're officially in a leadership role, how do you foresee that relationship changing where you feel like you have to be a spokesperson in a way?

KSC: I feel more comfortable. My role now is more behind the scenes stuff and things that I feel more comfortable doing, which is like the “artivism” stuff. I'm not speaking to a whole body of people. I'm not giving presentations. I do the behind the scenes stuff. I want to help more with graphic design, artivism, and social media. I'm okay to be a representative for some things, but behind closed doors,  in face to face conversations with people I choose to work with. I prefer this approach to what was happening before.

JC: Do you have any final words you want to get in there that you want to make sure make their way into the article?

KSC: We are still putting pressure on admin in our divestment efforts and the fight is far from over. This fight has been going on with admin for over 20 years, and patience is key. It reflects extremely poorly on the institution to ignore the voices of the majority of their student body, especially after the demonstrations that were held. But I do think people need to be patient and just keep showing up to meetings.