How to handle this difficult situation with a friend

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11/05/2023 19:59

Subject: How to handle this difficult situation with a friend

quote

Anonymous

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Other Columbia faculty wrote and signed a response letter to this one.

Also, it is amazing to me that people cannot see that the tone and perspective of the first letter has bias. Its main point isn’t about that, but its examples and support are presented as unbiased when they are, in fact, disputed by many.

I’m sorry so many are gaslighting OP and her husband. The signers of the letter have a particular view, which they take great pains not to say explicitly, but which they show through their sourcing.

As for how to proceed, I echo others and say pull back and do not engage right now.

Of course the letter has bias. So does the response you are describing. Bias existing is not in question. That is actually why campuses being places in which multiple, conflicting, and sometimes upsetting points of view can be explored is so important.

The question is: is this letter itself anti-Semitic or biased in a way that betrays anti-Semitism in all of its signers by definition?

To neither question is the answer “yes.”

I agree with you. I don’t think signers of the letter are all automatically anti-Semitic. I do think it’s possible some are, particularly with unconscious bias. And given the plausibility that the OP’s friend may or may not be in that category, it is reasonable that she and her husband now feel discomfort. At the very least, they feel that by signing this letter, the professor aligns with folks condoning the messages the students put out. Some of those messages were unquestionably anti-Semitic.

This may be. But as faculty, they have an obligation for the protection of robust exchange on controversial issues--an obligation that is uniquely theirs, and that obligation is the reason for this letter. Assuming that the friend is instead engaged in an attempt to communicate or endorse anti-Semitism suggests that the OP and husband might be well-advised to take a deep breath before attempting to further discuss this.

Taking nothing away from the great grief and stress the OP and husband are experiencing, not all discomfort is a sign that others need to explain themselves.

I agree 100 percent as faculty they have an obligation for the robust exchange on controversial issues. However, I feel they have an even greater obligation as faculty to ensure all students feel safe from from hate speech and danger. In their effort to protect the students who were getting doxxed as a result of their inflammatory statements, they made other students and members of the university community feel unsafe and in in danger.

They have as much obligation as anyone else does on that--but it doesn't belong uniquely to faculty; it is shared by all in the campus community. The faculty role with respect to the intellectual life of the university is unique, and when the threat to it is as obvious as students having their faces placed on billboards as an incitement to imminent violence, they don't have the option to be quiet about it.