The Moral Status of Casualties

 When dealing with representing people as emblems of the college, the morality of the person you represent feels important. Whether or not someone is ‘good enough’ to be the face of Kenyon’s past and to represent its progress over the years typically comes down to positive impact and intention. In writing our bios this week, my group defined people into four sentences, meant to invoke the goodness of the person we’re representing. It boiled down to noting achievements – honorary degrees, Academy Awards, Nobel Peace Prize nominations, and charity proceeds. These are symbols of greatness for the college and its alumni, but after reading Yazdiha I felt these symbols brought to light the differences in moral perceptions people face based on their identities, and how it erodes the ability to gain honor, respect, or be seen as a representative force. 

In The Struggle for the People’s King, Hajar Yazdiha writes “Moral meanings – meanings that signify ‘right’ from ‘wrong,’ ‘good’ from ‘bad,’ ‘pure’ from ‘impure’ – are…embedded in the social identities ascribed to groups in a system of power” (75, 2023). She goes on to theorize that the morality of an action is perceived differently depending on who acts. For anyone who holds an ‘immoral’ identity, any action they perform is thus ‘immoral.’ She says this is true for “Black and Brown Americans, poor Americans,” and members of the LGBTQ+ community. This prescribed immorality has a tangible effect on the lives of those deemed impure. The chapter outlines the 2002 fight for quality in Miami, in which groups Take Back Miami-Dade and Say No to Discrimination–SAVE Dade fought over LGBTQ+ rights. The former group wanted to exclude sexual orientation from the Human Rights Ordinance, while the latter fought to keep it. One of the main strategies outlined by Take Back Miami-Dade was to “[discredit] the LGBTQ+ movement claims to civil rights on the basis of their perceived immorality” (83, 2023). Although SAVE Dade won the fight on the ballot, Take Back Miami-Dade set in motion new and impactful ways to immoralize the fight for gay rights, thus immoralizing the gay identity. 

Our work in the archives provides more evidence for Yazdiha’s theory on morality. Although we aren’t outlining fights for civil rights, our notable people are neither apolitical nor immune from ascribed morality. Yazdiha uses an Anna Skarpelis quote that reads, “Collective memory is built around moral judgment,” which makes it true that by engaging in molding Kenyon’s collective memory, we’re also engaging in molding the morals of those we represent. An example that comes to mind is Carl Djerassi, remembered as the “Father of the Pill” for discovering key chemical elements that contributed to the birth of contraception. In researching his legacy for his bio, I found that he’s the only chemist remembered who contributed to modern contraception, although he goes on record multiple times to say he worked with four other chemists. Djerassi is perceived as a high moral figure with high status in the fight for female liberation based on his contributions, but this is still a contrived version of the story. Our group’s description of Djerassi also doesn’t note the other chemists working on the project, and thus we’re upholding that memory narrative of Djerassi as an independent, highly moral figure. His chemical discoveries weren’t intended to grant women more freedom either – the chemists weren’t experimenting with inhibiting pregnancy in mind, but the memory narrative around it upholds Djerassi as a revolutionary figure. It turns Djerassi into a political figure of sorts, and he turned to scientific philosophy after observing the impact of contraceptives, but the way he’s represented in the media mirrors how people and identities become symbols of something larger than themselves – symbols of morality – when it’s useful to uphold narratives.