Has Yale Become a PC Joke?
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
No response eh |
Anonymous
Suppose some student decided to dress up as corrupt dictator Robert Mugabe? (It's college, so kids have pretty far-ranging ideas.) Would some students find that offensive?! It would be hard for them to argue "cultural misappropriation" unless they wanted to embrace Mugabe's "culture". |
Anonymous
Mugabe supporters would certainly find it offensive. And they are black, so no kiddin' |
Anonymous
|
Perhaps one of the most disturbing aspects of these events is that is that some protestors seem to believe that base emotional reactions should be more valued than reason. If students at a college cannot engage on the basis of facts and reasoning -- rejecting ideas that disagree with as simply white male oppressive domination pretending to be objective reasoning -- there is no basis for moving forward other than placating the protestors or -- perhaps more productively -- changing admissions policies. In reading the Op Eds and letters to the editor throughout the year, I have observed a very common tactic of those feeling oppressed is to completely distort what someone who does not wholly embrace their view has said -- then take that sound bite distortion and attack it over and again. That is what happened with this email. Protestors insist that because the author dared to raise another perspective, she and her husband were encouraging or at least condoning racist behavior. This is absurd on its face, and it is dangerous if allowed to continue.
Our most prestigious schools should not be training grounds primarily for MSNBC or Fox news future commentators who are paid to scream over one another without responding to one another. I am hoping that last week we saw the height of emotional outbursts at Yale, but more must be done to teach these kids to think and engage. For all the coverage there has been, I have yet to read details of why some minority groups have really felt excluded at Yale (besides the email and the fraternity incident allegations which up to this point no one in attendance has publically said they witnessed as far as I can tell -- it all started with a hearsay post by someone who was not present) Another important point not yet raised is that some students of color may feel excluded for reasons unrelated to their color (note the word, "some.") White students from lower socio-economic backgrounds may also feel uncomfortable around students who can spend money they don't have on certain weekend activities, talk about vacations they have taken, go skiing, play golf, etc. background/experience. Socially conservative students may feel very uncomfortable when some students show a great deal of skin in their dress or with public displays of affection. Some may feel uncomfortable at parties with alcohol. In a diverse community, nearly everyone will feel uncomfortable at some point unless they only affiliate with their own clones. And even then, being 18, 19 or 20 -- who didn't feel out of place some times at a social event? Inclusiveness is an admirable goal, but just because a student does not feel like she belongs does not mean it is because of racism. |
Anonymous
|
To answer OP's question. Only to right-wing commentators and the sheeple who buy what they're selling?
What the incident really shows is that a significant number of students who came to Yale expecting a racially inclusive environment feel profoundly disappointed in what they found there. |
Anonymous
You are self-deluded. Signed, Independent who think the whole thing was a bad joke and reflected poorly on Yale |
Anonymous
I'm pretty much as classic, bleeding heart liberal, and a person of color. And a professor. I think you misread the situation here. Yale is racially inclusive, but students who cannot live with reasonable ambiguity and discomfort are wrongly pointing the finger at Yale's administration. I found the email about the questions of Halloween dress to be absolutely reasonable and considered. The response of the student, OTOH, was totally out of line. |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| I don't even know what to say anymore. If these kids feel that the conditions at Yale are intolerably racist and offensive, I seriously do not know where they will feel "safe" once they leave the cocooned environment of academia. I read the email and am appalled that the author's words are being twisted and mischaracterized the way they are, and that both she and her husband are so completely under fire. Of course Yale, as all universities it seems these days, are cowering and buckling under the emotion-based screaming and ranting and accusations of "RACISM!!!!" I am a liberal - never voted for a republican and never will (unless they miraculously turn around from the insane path they're currently on), but this trend in academia scares the crap out out of me. Maybe Univ of Chicago is the last bastion of sanity. We'll see how long they last tho. |
Anonymous
And I'm sure you feel that nooses hanging from college trees, nigger scrawled on college walls, swastikas drawn on dorm room doors at othet colleges is simply free expression. Though, I think much of the email was mischaracterized. And if you think UChicago would stand for one second for the aforementioned in the name of free expression, you haven't a clue what Chixago stands for. |
Anonymous
Your last bastion of sanity is dealing with issues too. Every campus has morons on both sides of the protests. http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/6199892 |
Anonymous
What are you even talking about? Who is defending that stuff? This is exactly the kind of emotion-based, fact-free race-baiting crap that people who can still reason and think are objecting to. I'm sorry you are incapable of rational discourse and can only respond with straw man arguments involving nooses and dog-whistling. As for UofC, read the administration's statement of freedom of expression from last year. It was specifically issued as a preemptive defense of debate, inquiry and exchange of ideas - the statement expressly noted the administration felt the need to emphasize these ideals in light of recent developments on campuses around the country and the shutting down of discourse in the name of comfort and not causing offense. |
Anonymous
Big differences between nooses and swasitkas, and a college kid wearing an Indian headdress on Halloween. If you can't see the nuance, I think that Chicago's education has failed you. -A UofC Alum |
Anonymous
There are obviously many different issues to take into account in voting by party. But I have to say, unless someone in the Democratic Party has the courage to stand up and say when so called "PC culture" has gone to far, they are going to lose some voters. Maybe not to a Donald Trump, but if more establishment moderate Republicans pick up on these issues, it can be a wedge with Democrats. These college students are handing voters to the very politicians that they likely find outrageous and bombastic -- and on that front need to spend some time looking in a mirror. More broadly, this trend of activist students twisting what anyone who disagrees with them says into the subject of their straw man sound bite racism attacks, is embarrassingly intellectually dishonest. And universities seem to be inviting these problems, as they propose more and more college classes and majors focused on identity, ethnicity, self-discovery, etc. I do wonder whether the activist protestors in these cases represent a proportional cross section of majors or whether more traditional majors are underrepresented. |
Anonymous
And many native Americans would think your Chicago education has conveniently failed you. |