Monday, November 9, 2015

Signs of Racial Opprssion: People Who Probably Could Not Graduate High School Attending University

Nov. 9, 2015 Inside Higher Education reports on football players strike:
Racial tensions at the University of Missouri and Yale University have escalated dramatically in the last week.

At the University of Missouri, a student at the flagship campus at Columbia is approaching a week on a hunger strike to demand the resignation of President Tim Wolfe, who has not done enough, minority students charge, to deal with racist incidents on campus. In a highly unusual move, the black players on the football team on Saturday announced that they would boycott games in the future unless Wolfe resigns. He has not done so, but has vowed to do more to improve race relations and he has apologized for his role in one disputed incident. Sunday evening, the university system scheduled a meeting for today, in executive session, "for consideration of certain confidential or privileged communications."

I'm sure there are football players who could be admitted on their academic merits, but I doubt it is a large fraction.  From Fox News:
I. We demand that the University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, writes a handwritten apology to the Concerned Student 1-­9-­5-0 demonstrators and holds a press conference in the Mizzou Student Center reading the letter. In the letter and at the press conference, Tim Wolfe must acknowledge his white male privilege, recognize that systems of oppression exist, and provide a verbal commitment to fulfilling Concerned Student 1-9-5-­0 demands. 
 What about football player privilege?

 The whining at Yale is even sillier:
A blog post by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, which posted the above video and others, said, “Yale students have every right to express their anger and frustration with Yale faculty. But FIRE is concerned by yet another unfortunate example of students who demand upsetting opinions be entirely eradicated from the university in the name of fostering ‘safe spaces’ where students are protected from hurt feelings. Practicing free speech does not merely entail the right to protest opinions you object to -- it also means acknowledging people’s right to hold those opinions in the first place.”

As one comment observes:
I watched the Yale video and think the students shouting down Christakis were in the wrong. They demand from Christakis a "safe space" where they can express their feelings, but when Christakis expresses a different view they scream at him and demand his resignation. As someone else has noted, there is a certain irony here lost on the students.
And another:
I imagine that whining is nothing new at Yale, it's just that in the past they said "You can't talk to me like that because Daddy is a Congressman!" instead of "You can't talk to me like that because this is a Safe Space!"

1 comment:

  1. I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

    There is something wrong here, when a university (the primary goal of which is to teach young people to THINK) nominates a "Free Speech" area .. where students can say whatever they want to, and the other students are not obliged to hear them on their pedestrian travels from one class to the next.

    God FORBID that students are actually "allowed" to speak freely anywhere else on campus.

    Or .. well, professors; but then, they would not speak freely for fear of losing their tenure.

    So .. what DO Universities teach?

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