Princeton University's Wilson College in Princeton, N.J., Nov. 20, 2015.
Photo: dominick reuter/ReutersI will matriculate this fall at Princeton’s School of Public and International Affairs. I’m disappointed by the university’s decision to cast Woodrow Wilson as a racist and remove his name from the school.
I am a direct beneficiary of Wilson’s foreign policy, which advanced free trade, democracy, human rights and self-determination—not white supremacy. My native Egypt joined the League of Nations after gaining full independence from Britain in 1936. My mother, an Egyptian national, worked for the U.S. Embassy in Cairo promoting Egypt-U.S. trade, before my family immigrated to the U.S. when I was a teenager. Without the values Wilson fought for, and were it not for the leadership he exemplified, I wouldn’t be an American, much less a Princeton student.
Many students have celebrated Wilson’s erasure as a victory for “diversity and inclusion.” Yet it fits a pattern of college administrators acquiescing to noisy demands instead of urging us to do the difficult work of facing the complicated reality in both history and the present.
Growing up as a Coptic Christian in Cairo, I saw injustice. My aunt’s career in the Education Ministry was stymied because of her unmistakably Christian name. I learned as a child that Egypt could never have a Christian president because Christians couldn’t wield authority over the Muslim majority. I was harassed for eating in public during Ramadan. Two years ago, I visited a church I attended as a child and saw the shrapnel of terrorist bombs that pierced its columns, the vestige of an attack that killed and maimed dozens of worshipers.
I am therefore puzzled when some of my peers allege that the name of Woodrow Wilson, an avowed progressive, made them feel “unsafe” and “unwelcome.” It’s reductive to believe we can neatly categorize complex historical figures into two buckets, “racist” or “antiracist,” and that nothing else matters. Princeton had named its public policy school after Woodrow Wilson to honor his idealism, especially in foreign policy, not celebrate his racism. We should be able to hold tensions and think critically.
While I recognize the importance of challenging simple narratives of heroism, equally simplistic stories of villainy are no better. Erasing Wilson’s name and taking down his large photograph from Princeton’s dining hall evinces an unjustified sense of self-righteous certitude.
I will not be compelled by a vision that seeks to refocus the public eye only on the most damning aspects of a leader. If history judges me today, or sometime in the future, I certainly wouldn’t want to be reduced to one or two descriptors of my worst impulses or deeds.
Princeton should have set an example for students by restating its 2016 recommendations to maintain the Wilson name while also acknowledging his racist ideas and actions and formulating long-term policies that would improve circumstances for students of color in meaningful ways.
Mr. Iskander is an incoming master’s student in international relations at Princeton and a former Senate Armed Services Committee staffer.
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