Recently, student activists at Swarthmore College held a pro-Hamas rally on its campus that included multiple sites of vandalism, including graffiti of  inverted red triangles. Unshockingly, like many other previous incidents on different campuses, the crux of the administration’s statement described the incident as “misplaced anger” that “does not advance any cause.” It seems that no further language or action from the school has been taken publicly. This language minimizes the problem: the inverted triangle sign was more than a symbol of anger; it is used to express solidarity with Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza War. Thus, it is extremely inappropriate to use this symbol on a campus with a 17% Jewish undergraduate population while categorizing such acts as misplaced anger. 

The issue is not simply that students expressed anger inappropriately. The issue is that symbols associated with violence against Jews and Israelis continue being normalized on campus under the banner of anti-Zionism. This reflects a broader problem in contemporary campus discourse:........

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