You can't afford free speech
Crabby
Kanata 23 Posts
what the hell is happening at these elite north american universities. safe spaces? micro-aggression? can any one of our resident academics please explain what the fuck is going on here?
Comments
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/11/11/on-the-front-lines-of-the-fight-for-free-speech-at-yale/
U of Missouri this week:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2015/11/10/university-of-missouri-please-immediately-fire-employees-who-taunted-media/
Safe spaces? No.
What do you mean by micro-aggression?
I think all the academics have left this site. Perhaps they couldn't take the ignorance.
but i don't know why these students are applying those concepts in their activism.
Yes, people on campuses and in communities want safe places.
Why ask an academic on SoulStrut when you can read and hear first-person accounts of those on campus and on the receiving end of *microaggressions* like being threatened with death and cornered by trucks with the license plates removed? Something tells me it's not because you really actually care about what the hell is happening.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/15/political-correctness-free-speech-racism-misogyny-university-yale-missouri
CORE at University of Washington are doing some great work to help transform that school.
The second email in defence of young people's chance to be obnoxious and make mistakes is more problematic. These are young adults, right? Not 5 year olds.
However, going back to the issue of PC getting out of hand, I think in some instances it is. Blackface is obviously racist. Clothes are not. They are cultural, and I think it's just as racist to tell a white man from Norway that he can't wear a sombrero than it is to tell an ethnically Pakistani man born and bred in Birmingham that he isn't really "English".
Feathered head-dress worn as a costume causes offence to native Americans (or people of the first nation?)? I'm not buying that. There's a lot more for them to get annoyed about, but you can't put some kind of racial patent on clothing. You might as well tell white people that they're not allowed to be Muslim as they're the wrong colour.
The sombrero thing came to mind because I think I read a story about a US politician having to apologise for wearing one. WTF.
Hey,
I'd say the missing element here in the debate about political correctness and free speech is empathy. If we truly mean to encourage a civil society, then we as members of it need to exercise some empathy toward those who are disparaged. I'm often aghast by people who claim to be 'open-minded', yet they seem incapable of perspective taking when it comes to people who are mistreated. At a more basic level, to maintain healthy relationships, we need to be able to take the perspective of other individuals to show appropriate sensitivity to their concerns. It's not about being right or wrong, but it's about showing humanity toward our fellow human beings. Asking White college students, for instance, not to wear blackface is about showing empathy toward their Black classmates. I'm shocked that people wish to defend the right to offend their fellow human beings by celebrating the vestiges of our horrific and shameful racial past in the U.S. I'm equally shocked that individuals who are enrolled in institutions of higher learning, where I should (perhaps naively) expect some degree of greater 'enlightenment' than the general populace, can rationalize displaying such egregious behavior. It speaks to a greater ill that institutions of higher learning have devolved into these 'credential mills' of sorts, where getting a college degree trumps intellectual development, cultural discovery, evolution to a higher level of consciousness, and broadening of the mind to appreciate varying streams of thought. More importantly, the fact that political correctness and free speech are posed as a 'debate' is symptomatic of a society that devalues civility while celebrating hedonism and narcissism. A 'win-at-all-cost' mentality has taken hold that is systematically eroding the very foundations of a truly civil, progressive, creative, and innovative society. This mindset allows us to tolerate inequality, disparage the downtrodden, and justify our own advantages by blaming others who are less fortunate than we are. It becomes a self-perpetuating rationalization of our own privileged position, and lets us turn a blind eye to the anomie around us.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
http://www.mediaite.com/online/dartmouth-protesters-disrupt-students-in-library-fck-you-you-filthy-white-fcks/
Protesters at Dartmouth University disrupted students studying in the library, reportedly directing profanity towards white students and physically pushing others.
In a critical editorial, the conservative Dartmouth Review listed some of the epithets hurled by the protesters: “F*** you, you filthy white f***s!” “F*** you and your comfort!” “F*** you, you racist s***!”
In addition, the Review reports that some of protesters became physically violent: “Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. ‘If we can’t have it, shut it down!’ they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting ‘filthy white b****!’ in her face.”
Campus Reform managed to obtain video showing the protesters walking through the library shouting as others try to study. One of the protesters can be seen flipping off the cameraman. Another gets in the face of those who are studying demanding they say that black lives matter.
The above quote describes shameful behavior that violates the very tenets of civility I outlined earlier. I spoke directly to the incidents discussed in the earlier posts. Personally, I do not condone incivility irrespective of the perpetrator. Civility is the responsibility of ALL members of a productive society. Yet, the bad behavior DOES NOT absolve our society from its responsibility to ensure life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for ALL of its citizens. Inequality SHOULD be antithetical to a civilized and humane society.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
It's interesting that the story claims physical attacks, but then says the video only shows walking and shouting.
Why post this?
I posted it because it seems very hypocritical coming from the same group(s) that wants "safe places".
Maybe the "safe place" protects them from any truths or realities that don't fit their agenda or narrative.
Kinda like "Why post this"..
b/w
Maybe you can explain why a group that was formed to protest the numerous killings of black citizens by the Police are harassing people for simply "being white" in a college library?
The posted video shows something very different from what the printed story says.
Which is why I asked the question.
Clearly a library is an inappropriate place to march and shout.
The first thing to know about safe places is that they are meant to be places where minorities, who face constant stress in the world, can feel safe. Even while having discussions with people who have a different point of view.
This will sound terrible to you but, they are not meant to be sanctuaries for white males.
In the video I saw a loud protest in a library.
Part of the point of protesting is to gain attention. Perhaps that is why they went in the library, I have no idea why the library was chosen. We would need to hear from the protesters to know why the library was chosen.
The person who wrote the article seems to believe that the library was chosen specifically to harass people for simply "being white". You seem to agree.
I did not see people being harassed simply for being white in the video.
The reason I ask why post this? is because it is a poorly written story, with no context or first person reporting.
But it does have a point of view. That point of view is that the important thing about BLM is that they are violent and hypocritical.
At the very least there is sad irony involved.
https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=6990
Bonus story, apparently Universities are havens for the occasional fascist-level moron associate professor who has never put in an honest days work in his/her life.
Next week, we'll take a hard look at the growing opinion that everything on the internet isn't always accurate
...here's Tom with the weather"
The same ridiculous source.
The Dartmouth Review, of course, is basically one big right-wing uterus which pumps out more egregious racist assholes than I could shake a pointy stick at. Ann Coulter wet her Mein Kampf teeth there. So did Dinesh D'Sousa. Little goosestepping eggheads migrate to Dartmouth like Texas cops to a mixed-race pool party.
If you're looking for honest reporting about a Black Lives Matter protest going to the Dartmouth Review is like going to Stormfront for an Anne Frank remembrance.
Real issues and serious threats are being brought to the forefront and people are being held accountable THAT MATTERS
Students are getting too sensitive and crying wolf pre-emptively is a bit annoying (safespace is a running gag on campus)
The real danger is turning words like multicultural/politicallycorrect/safespace into BAD terms i saw dangerous talk from a preacher saying stuff like we are so open minded our brains are falling out of head as if being acceptant and open was a bad thing
People dilute the message by complaining about everything but then real issues like discrimination/blackface come up and the racist/rightwing can say stop being so sensitive when they are clearly wrong. And that type of public perception is very hard to reverse and takes us back a step
I thought putting asterisks around the word would help indicate sarcasm, clearly not!
Hey sergeboi,
Yes, I did hear about it and it was a deplorable thing to do. I don't condone such behavior irrespective of who perpetrates it. I don't have any respective persons in my social critiques. Bad is bad! Maybe one day, you'll realize how much I value equity, which in your parlance, makes me a 'liberal.'
Truth be told, I hate partisanship as it undermines thinking for oneself. I approach matters based upon my weighing of the facts.
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak