Dr. Timothy Lake, Director of the Malcolm X Institute of Black Studies delivered his Chapel Talk Thursday titled “Die Niggers: the High Price of a Wabash Education.” Click here to listen to the podcast.

In his talk he spoke of many men and women in Wabash College’s past who are continuing to “bear fruit even as we approach the end of the first decade of the 21st Century.”

Lake quoted a speech given by Dean Shearer to the graduating seniors in 1969 in which he said, “Wabash College must not take a position partisan at all when it comes to matters of social import. Instead it must seek to make room for the various and varying points of view. To pursue their dreams, those people from different backgrounds and those people with different aspirations should find home here at Wabash.”

Lake continued, “Non-conformity, in Shearer’s definition, meant having those people in your midst who you absolutely disagree with – that’s diversity – made real because it expand us, it† challenges us to push beyond the niceties of tolerance, forbearance, and exceptance.”

In reference to a recent racial incident on campus, Lake spoke to the two victims pledging his support for the men regardless of whether they choose to remain at Wabash. However, he encouraged them not to leave out of fear.

“The solution to fear, the solution to those who threaten you is resistance,” Lake said. “We must resist, Wabash.”