Reply to American University student government demands 'trigger warnings' be added to every class syllabus

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am a college professor and this would be really tough to adhere to.

I have a few classes that are almost entirely student-directed projects (for which I direct them through their work/methodology/concept/research) - if one of them wants to focus on abortion as opposed to something more vanilla, then they can damn well do that. So what does the trigger warning read: "There might be some things addressed here that are upsetting to some of you?" That's life. That's college. That's what you signed up for. I'm willing to mediate any inappropriate provocations or conduct, but this is just silly.[/quote]There is no way I would sit in your class or anybody else's and be called the N-word.  I wouldn't tolerate it.  It's not up for discussion.  It's not what I signed up for.  It's not what I pay for. There is no mediation nor am I leaving the room.

And as far as your opinion that "they can damn well do that", I don't think so, not to my face for the gratification of someone's definition of free speech.  I don’t need a safe space, and I'm not putting up with nonsense either.

[/quote]

First Amendment... freedom of speech.  If the person points out something that may be painful but does it in an intellectual manner that looks into the roots/histories of discrimination I think accepting the N-word may expand everyones horizons.  Professors usually do not allow students to go down racist rants.

ALso, are you going to ban literature, like Tom Sawyer and other literature coming out of the south (even written by African Americans) if the N-word is included?  I think my entire reading list of my second have my my senior year of high school would have banned according to your perspective, as well as the literature I read in my second year of college sociology class when we went over the root causes behind the civil rights movement.  As a white kid from a small town, this type literature and  discussions  taught me a lot and I learned a very different perspective of the world. That is what I paid tuition for. [/quote]

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