This whole controversy has needlessly centered whiteness and the most privileged individuals on this campus. However, this controversy is not about white people; it is about the rights of marginalized communities and their allies on Washington University’s campus.

Across the country at business schools like ours, college left-wingers say they face social isolation because of their beliefs.

I’ve made some people angry. Last week I wrote an article, which argued that we shouldn’t feel obligated to embrace certain ideas on campus, that has since been circulated through alumni networks, right-wing media outlets and the parts of the internet people are referring to when they say “the internet” derisively.

A week ago, in the opinion pages of Student Life, Daniel Fishman did what millions of Americans do every day: he completely misunderstood conservatism. I’d further postulate that he has an exceptionally dismal outlook on society as a whole. In his editorial, he put up the image of the isolationist “self-made man” as a conservative ideal that is inherently impossible.

A friend of my roommate’s, Sarah, came up to me and smiled. She said, “I didn’t know you were a Republican. That’s cool, I am too.” Unlike me, wearing a College Republican shirt and holding a McCain-Palin sign, she had nothing political on her. I asked her why she didn’t want to come help make a presence at the show, and she told me that she has two ultra-liberal suitemates who didn’t know she was a conservative.