Quote:
Originally Posted by OldDog
When and by whom were the Mizzou poo swastika, the Yale swastikas, the Duke noose and others defended as constitutionally protected free speech?
Much as I may try to empathize with her, she is from a well to do family and community in CT and she is attending YALE. I am wondering what rage issues/triggers she has endured in her 20 something years. Her outburst much more resembles my neighbor’s horribly spoiled 13YO daughter than a promising 20 something attending one of the most prestigious institutions of learning in the world. I can’t help wondering if shielding college students from anything “offensive” does them any favors in preparation for the real world. The ladies at my local Shell station have a more well-adjusted outlook than does this young woman (and they use more refined language.)
Now we’re to the point that disagreeing is offensive, "an example of gender based micro aggression," and met with demands for firings/resignations. I watched how Mizzou students, and some faculty, treated those with whom they disagreed. I read how protesters at a Yale free speech forum, as well as the Yale student above, treated those with whom they disagree. There was nothing “micro” about their aggression. It was more like proto-fascism.
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Hey, OldDog! Apologies for not replying sooner!
The things I cited can all be defended as constitutionally protected free speech.
I was giving you examples of how what the students are mad about is NOT an email about Halloween costumes; it goes much, much deeper than that. Their peers, their fellow students, are painting swastikas in feces, and hanging nooses, and donning blackface at parties. And it's not like this behavior is new to them once they get to college. The NYDaily News ran an article this week about a 14-year-old honor student and athlete at school in Virginia writing a letter about the racism and harassment he faces from his peers:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nati...icle-1.2432355
Honor student and football player. Fourteen years old. This is his letter:
"To Whom It May Concern:
Yesterday on the football bus coming from our football game a kid ... started saying racist things to me. He then started saying he does not like blacks and he told me 200 years ago my ancestors hung from a tree and after he said that I should I hang from a tree. That made me super mad, so in the locker room I told him not to call me n----r or that I should be hung on a tree. The coaches took me away from the kid because I was really mad and they think I was going to fight him but I want someone to do something about it because I’m tired of boys messing with me because of my skin. I’m at my boiling point with this. Please do something about this because when I bring it to the office/principle you do nothing about it and I’m tired of the racism."
And as the article makes clear, it's far from this one encounter.
The student in the video may well be from a financially secure family and, as you pointed out, she's going to Yale. That said, as many of the students protesting on campus have pointed out, it's Yale. It's supposed to be a safe space; they're paying for this. And if this stuff happens on the privileged grounds of Yale, what does that mean about what's happening in the rest of the nation?
Dr. Sue mentioned that, as an Asian American, he has, hundreds of times, been asked, "Where are you from? No, but where are you from? But where?" (Because, apparently, "Portland, Oregon," which is where he was born, is not an acceptable answer). "Oh, Dr. Sue, you speak English so well!" (Well, duh, it's his first language. May be his only language, for all I know). This is a guy with a Ph.D, who I'm sure is quite financially comfortable, getting this stuff from well-meaning individuals who probably really don't think they're being offensive, but what comments like this say is, "You're an other; you're different."
If you haven't clicked the link about visual micro aggressions I posted in my first reply to this thread, I really really recommend it. It's a quick scroll through of young men and women of color holding up cards with the kinds of things they experience every day. Heck, I'll repost it here because I think it's really important.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/hnigatu/raci...sis#.ne5YdwNEa