Crazy College Students

[Rageaholic]

There's this video going around of University of Missouri protesters trying to shoe journalists away. This seems counter productive. Wouldn't you want your protest to get attention?

The group in question, Concerned Students 1950, have some legit gripes, but they're being blown way out of proportion and when they talk about "White Male Privilege", well, that doesn't make them look like the voice of reason.

Then there's Yale which became the laughing stock over trying to tell students what halloween costumes they should or shouldn't wear. The masters sent out some letters basically saying that students should wear what they want without worrying about who might be offended. and now students are calling for them to step down

“In your position as master,” one student says, “it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students who live in Silliman. You have not done that. By sending out that email, that goes against your position as master. Do you understand that?!”

“No,” he said, “I don’t agree with that.”

The student explodes, “Then why the fuck did you accept the position?! Who the fuck hired you?! You should step down! If that is what you think about being a master you should step down! It is not about creating an intellectual space! It is not! Do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here. You are not doing that!”

It makes me wonder what kind of drugs these students are on.

[s_stabeler]

College... not about creating an intellectual space... next you'll be telling me the students want to automatically get the best degree available regardless of their actual ability.

while it's true enough that college should be something of a home, it doesn't mean that every single whim of yours should be indulged. (although, to be blunt? the letter wasn't actually all that bad- it's more warning against wearing costumes based around a stereotype than anything. (so, for example, a white girl using blackface to dress up as a movie character who is black is fine. A white girl who uses blackface to dress up as some form of stereotype of black women ( it occurs to me that "welfare queen" could be one such offensive costume) is not.) Even so. it hardly justifies harassing the person who told kids they could, in fact, wear what they wanted on halloween).

[Hyena Dandy]

It seems to me that the focus of the letter was as much on the fact that the ADMINISTRATION shouldn't be making these declarations, and if there are issues, they should be on the students to set, rather than on the teachers to demand.

[TheHuckster]

(so, for example, a white girl using blackface to dress up as a movie character who is black is fine. A white girl who uses blackface to dress up as some form of stereotype of black women ( it occurs to me that "welfare queen" could be one such offensive costume) is not.)

I don't know about that. I've never heard of a scenario where someone artificially made their skin darker to look like a black person, celebrity or not, that wasn't taken as offensive. I could be wrong. I could see someone getting a tan, perhaps, but that's it.

So many of these situations are all about blowing things out of proportion. It's like some people just want to stir the pot and make mountains out of molehills just to invent controversy. Best recent example is this Starbucks cup hoopla where idiots think their simple design is some attack on Christmas traditions.

[Rageaholic]

It seems to me that the focus of the letter was as much on the fact that the ADMINISTRATION shouldn't be making these declarations, and if there are issues, they should be on the students to set, rather than on the teachers to demand.

Which makes it all the more crazy that these students flipped out on him.

[s_stabeler]

It seems to me that the focus of the letter was as much on the fact that the ADMINISTRATION shouldn't be making these declarations, and if there are issues, they should be on the students to set, rather than on the teachers to demand.

The letter wasn't a demand- all it said (though i'm paraphrasing) was that students should be aware that there had been complaints about certain costumes- at no point did it say those costumes were banned AND it mentioned where you could find costume ideas that would not be offensive.


Also, the teacher is being harassed- including demands that he quit, incidentally, which is particularly bad since the job of this particular teacher involves living in the same place the students do- (basically, this guy's job is to help ensure the students have a good intellectual environment to study in- he is being harassed, more or less, for pointing out that the letter doesn't constitute a ban on offensive costumes, and his wife apparently sent out an email that more or less said "should this really be imposed by the administration? we're all adults here" and then, from what i can gather, some of the supporters of the restrictions decided to harass the teacher- including, as far as I can tell, more or less insisting the teacher in question apologise, and admit he was wrong (which, understandably, has not been forthcoming) and, when the teacher refused to apologise, demanded the guy quit. ( apparently, living in (for students, at least) the lap of luxury is rendered completely impossible because the guy who'se job it is to encourage an intellectual environment points out that there is a legitimate debate on if halloween costumes that are inappropriate should be banned or not.. Note that at no point did the guy-or his wife- say they disagreed that the costumes in question were in poor taste. They more or less said "can the students not deal with this like adults?" and the response from the harassers more-or-less seems to be that said teacher should treat them like kids.

[mjr]

The group in question, Concerned Students 1950, have some legit gripes

I don't know. A lot of those seem petty, to me. Basically they want this dude to admit "white privilege" (whatever THAT is), say he's sorry, then resign?

Hey, if these students don't like it, couldn't they just transfer?

[Shangri-laschild]

Hey, if these students don't like it, couldn't they just transfer?

I keep hearing this argument and it never makes sense to me. If something's bad, don't try to fix it, just leave? If you try to point out a problem or fix it, you're a bigger problem? This argument seems to get used all the time no matter how valid the issue is. At best it's insulting and disregards things that need to be fixed. At worst, it promotes the idea that the bad things happening are the fault of the victims for not leaving rather than on the perpetrators for causing the problems and that issues should be ignored rather than fixed.

[Rageaholic]

On top of all this, one of the students went on a hunger strike to get the President to step down. WTF?

[Canarr]

And then there are people determined not to take this seriously at all:

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2015/1...egestudentday/

I'm torn about this. While the Missouri students at least seem to have legitimate grievances about racism at their school, the Yale people just seem like whiny brats. If you can't eat, can't sleep, come close to a breakdown, just because someone wrote an email you don't agree with - then you need professional help.

[mjr]

I keep hearing this argument and it never makes sense to me. If something's bad, don't try to fix it, just leave? If you try to point out a problem or fix it, you're a bigger problem? This argument seems to get used all the time no matter how valid the issue is. At best it's insulting and disregards things that need to be fixed. At worst, it promotes the idea that the bad things happening are the fault of the victims for not leaving rather than on the perpetrators for causing the problems and that issues should be ignored rather than fixed.

I'm not saying if something's bad, don't try to fix it.

What I'm saying is, there are likely better ways to tackle the problem, and if you make an effort to fix the problem, and you cannot fix the problem, then there are other options.

And I'm not keeping up with this case, but sometimes things are perceived to be bad, when in reality people just don't like them. That's a topic that comes up a lot on CS, regarding customer service. People think something may be "bad customer service", when it is in fact a company policy put in place because of the SCs that are complaining.

[Rageaholic]

More bullshit.

This guys actually felt that these sorority sisters selling candy canes for cancer was some kind of micro aggression. Never mind that they were there first. and were fighting a much greater injustice than the piddly ass diversity demands.

As for the journalist that was assaulted in the viral Mizzou video, he was invited to a Q&A shortly after. At the 32:30 mark, he gets some nutcase going off on him about how he's white and entered a black space and how his presence distracts from their narrative. She brings up black people being killed by cops, but since the mizzou protests had nothing to do with that, it sounds like a starving children argument.

And lastly, this. It's a video from the assaulted journalist denouncing everything he was pressured into saying at the Q&A.

[Gravekeeper]

More bullshit.

Man, I got nothing on that one. It sounds like they tried to commandeer someone else's cause and got upset when they were rebuffed. Why should sick kids dying of cancer have to be rescheduled around your unofficial student group?

As for the journalist that was assaulted in the viral Mizzou video

What a shit show. Though I would venture that forcing the autistic guy to read a hostage script on stage is worse than an unhinged heckler.

[Canarr]

Isn't that actually the position that at least part of the BlackLivesMatter activists hold? That their cause is the only cause that matters? From that point of view, it's not unexpected that they would attack anyone who doesn't immediately adopt and assist their cause.

There's another one here, where a Pro Life group tried to adopt the BLM movement to further their own cause:

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=7087

While I hold no sympathy for the Pro-Lifers, and the methods they often use (like comparing abortion to genocide and the Holocaust, as they did here), some of the opposing quotes had me shaking my head:

The pro-choice groups said they particularly took offense to the images because they were poorly-timed with it being the week preceding finals, and that it was triggering for many students during such a stressful time.

One protester held a sign and shouted, “We shouldn’t have triggers on our campus!” and “Offensive ideas have no place on this campus!”

Students present at the display were not the only ones angered by the material of GAP. The school’s Jewish Student Organization sent out a letter on Monday telling students: “This use of the Holocaust is an act of Anti-Semitism and the Jewish Student Organization condemns the fear tactics and the imagery the Genocide Awareness Project uses. The images and comparisons made are not only inaccurate; they are offensive, and triggering to many students. The Jewish Student Organization recognizes the right of free speech; however, the messages the Genocide Awareness Project uses go beyond freedom of speech.”

While the JSO is certainly right in "comdemning the fear tactics and the imagery" the Pro-Lifers are using, it's not Anti-Semitism. And while I believe that the Holocaust is something that could actually be "triggering" to students, I still don't believe that anyone has the right to be completely shielded from anything they could find offensive.

[s_stabeler]

While the JSO is certainly right in "comdemning the fear tactics and the imagery" the Pro-Lifers are using, it's not Anti-Semitism. And while I believe that the Holocaust is something that could actually be "triggering" to students, I still don't believe that anyone has the right to be completely shielded from anything they could find offensive.

actually, to an extent, it IS anti-semitism, since you're essentially- regardless of which side of the pro-life/pro-choice debate you are on- saying the Holocaust was no worse than an individual murder- which implies that millions of jews being killed are equivalent to one non-jew being killed- ergo, anti-semitism.

as fr people having a right to be shielded from all offense, no, they don't, but they DO have a right not to be subjected to distractions when they're trying to take exams. It's the possible disruption to the exams that is the issue, not people being offended as such.

some nutcase going off on him about how he's white and entered a black space and how his presence distracts from their narrative.

to be fair, that is a very good example of racism. That is, the protestors being racist. (for that matter, isn't this talk of 'spaces' for white and black kids reminiscent of segregation? Only this time, even more blatantly racist?)