During my time on Dickinson’s campus, what I remember most besides those iconic red chairs and a certain bespectacled, bow-tie clad man was how socially aware the campus was. Whenever a story broke that challenged our ideals and values, everyone talked about it, inside the classroom and out. So what I don’t understand now is why I perceive this silence about the case that is unfolding involving Jonathan Martin and Richie Incognito.

To give you a brief synopsis just in case, Jonathan Martin, Offensive Tackle for the Miami Dolphins, abruptly left the team the week of October 30th, later citing harassment and bullying as the reason. As investigations into the allegations began, Richie Incognito, Offensive Guard, was suspended indefinitely a week later pending further findings. As of this point, all statements are only “alleged” and nothing is conclusive. Since then, there has been a lot of criticism coming from many sides and directed in a myriad of ways.

Notable to mention is that Incognito, in his third season with the Dolphins, has a history of aggressive behavior, starting as early as his college football career, on and off the field, and personally had 38 penalties in the four seasons he played with the St. Louis Rams. Also worth saying is that Jonathan Martin comes from an unusual background for a NFL player. Bi-racial, his parents are both lawyers and has a long line of relatives who graduated from Harvard.

The catalyst and the reasoning for Incognito’s suspension centers around a now infamous voicemail he left Martin, using racial slurs, threats against Martin and his family and other vulgar language. This voicemail serves as the only solid piece of evidence against Incognito, the rest being merely conflicting accounts from fellow Dolphins, past and present.

The discussion from mainstream outlets centers on Martin and, what defies my personal sense of logic, the comments against Martin and his actions or lack thereof. The frequent comment is that Martin needed to “man up” and confront Incognito himself instead of “running away.” This is where I can feel my pulse quicken and my blood temperature spike. I understand that a certain level of aggression is cultivated in football. However, it is clear to me a line has been crossed. No matter who you are and what gender you identify with, not wanting to be harassed in your workplace (or anywhere for that matter) is a basic human right. Not wanting your family threatened shouldn’t cause you to be labeled as a “pussy.”

Wide Receiver for the Chicago Bears, Brandon Marshall superbly summed up that from a young age, boys are taught to mask their feelings and their pain, that to ask for help marks you as less of a man, something that is reinforced in the NFL culture and that something that needs to change.

It is impossible to dispute that the NFL in its entirety is not friendly to those supporting non-traditional gender roles. Realistically and unfortunately, it will be years before women are seen as something else beside male-gratifying side-line entertainment. There are some team games I honestly don’t feel comfortable going to no matter the accompaniment for fear of being sexual harassed or worse.

It comes as no surprise that, in the world of the NFL, the men are men and the women are women. This does not mean that now that these issues are being dragged from the shadows of the locker room that they do not warrant a true discussion. This is only the tip of the issues at hand. For example, when and if ever, is the n-word acceptable from the mouth of anyone? What about statements from Incognito’s black teammates calling him an “honorary black man,” who of course is white? Or what possible role Martin’s background may have had in his treatment? What is happening now in the NFL is more complicated and more multifaceted than traditional news sources are letting on. Dickinson needs to pick up where they have left off.

What has pressed me to write this is this perceived lack of conversation about this among us Dickinsonians. The problems involved in this matter include all of us, men, women and everyone in between and those of us who spend Sundays screaming at the tv or those who couldn’t tell a Linebacker from a Tight End. I know there are those people in my Facebook neighborhood that get into intense comment wars whenever injustices like these occur, so what I can’t understand is why this is any different. Do Dickinsonians perceive the culture of football as beneath us? That football is merely a barbarian past-time feigning another excuse to build alcohol sales? That somehow football players are exempt from our standards of normal human decency? Or am I tuning into the wrong wavelengths? Not to close with a quote blugeoned to death by countless yearbooks, but from Martin Luther King Jr. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” even in the NFL locker rooms.

Jennifer can be reached at [email protected].