September
19, 2003
Former
Oberlin President to Address Abuse of Rank
| 
Robert
Fuller |
A restaurant patron
berates an overworked waitress. A researcher takes credit for
the work of a subordinate. A coach humiliates a player. These
episodes, argues Robert Fuller, author and former president of
Oberlin College, are examples of “rankism,” a pervasive
and insidious force in America that he says has gone unrecognized
and unnamed.
“All forms of abuse, prejudice, and discrimination are actually
predicated upon differences in social rank or upon our rank within
a hierarchy,” Fuller wrote. “Rank-based discrimination
deserves a name of its own to distinguish it from racism, sexism,
and bad manners. By analogy, we shall call it rankism. Once you
have a name for it you see it everywhere.”
Fuller, who focused national attention on the problem of rankism
with his 2003 book Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the
Abuse of Rank, will speak on Thursday, September 25, at 7:30
pm in Hooker Auditorium of Clapp Laboratory. Joining Fuller onstage
will be David Scott, former chancellor of the University of Massachusetts
at Amherst. Scott, who, like Fuller, led a prestigious institution
of higher education, will respond to Fuller’s comments before
the floor is opened for discussion.
Fuller maintains that rankism is not just another ism, but is
in reality “the mother of them all,” the root cause
of sexism, racism, ageism, and other forms of discrimination.
“Unlike race or gender, rank is mutable,” Fuller wrote.
“You can be taken for a nobody one day and for a somebody
the next. You can be a nobody at home and a somebody at work,
or vice versa. ‘Nobody’ is an epithet used to justify
further denigration and inequity. ‘Nobody’ is the
N-word of our time.” He argues not for an end to differences
in rank, which he sees as legitimate, but for an end to the abuse
of the power of rank.
“Rankism occurs when rank-holders use the power of their
position to secure unwarranted advantages or benefits for themselves,”
Fuller wrote in an August 3 commentary in Newsday. “It typically
takes the form of self-aggrandizement and exploitation of subordinates.
It is the opposite of service. Good leaders eschew rankism; bad
ones indulge in it. It can be found in governments, businesses,
families, workplaces, schools, and universities, as well as religious,
nonprofit, and health-care organizations. It distorts personal
relationships, erodes the will to learn, fosters disease, taxes
productivity, undermines public trust, stokes ethnic hatred and
incites revenge. Recent front-page examples of rankism include
corporate and philanthropic corruption, sexual abuse by clergy,
school hazing, and abuse of elders.”
“Bob Fuller is right on target with his analysis of rankism,”
said Andrea Ayvazian, the College’s dean of religious life.
“Having studied racism for many years, I can see the parallels
between racism and rankism, and Bob has articulated a form of
systematic oppression that previously went unnamed and, too often,
unchallenged. When I was a student at Oberlin College and Bob
was the president, he was stirring up the national scene with
his educational reforms and bold initiatives. Now he is causing
another stir by bringing something common in our everyday lives
to the fore with a name and a way to combat the problem. Rankism
has always been with us, but, until recently, it was an unquestioned
part of daily life. Those days are over.”
Fuller’s visit is sponsored by the Office of the Dean of
the College and the Office of Religious and Spiritual Life and
is open to the public. Hooker Auditorium is accessible by wheelchair.
The
counter is
1,590
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