Is University Becoming a Waste of Time?

[Michael Hardner]

It's ridiculous to think racism doesn't exist anymore.

I agree with you, but I am a white male. Maybe biotk is a person of colour ? Not sure...

[Argus]

Perhaps it is time to focus on the message rather than the messenger.

The message seems to be that anything which offends an emotionally immature progressive must be banned and whoever uttered it condemned and punished.

And I see progressives on this web site demanding the same thing here.

Edited November 12, 2015 by Argus

[biotk]

I agree with you, but I am a white male. Maybe biotk is a person of colour ? Not sure...

People who are there seem to think that racism is an ongoing problem. People who are not there seem to think that it is not a problem. I guess that is a tie.

[Michael Hardner]

I guess that is a tie.

That reasoning is pretty terrible. One group says one thing, and another says another thing ... therefore a tie. No.

[Smallc]

Kimmy, I can tell you are young and don't have the real world experience to understand the nuances of this thread. But you will gain understanding as you mature. trust me.

I thought you were young?

[Big Guy]

That reasoning is pretty terrible. One group says one thing, and another says another thing ... therefore a tie. No.

Perhaps that is happening because one group has successfully attended University while the other has not.

[H10]

You guys keep asking for evidence, I can give you evidence but you have to understand that the phenomena of bias and indoctrination in schools and universities is mostly slow, gradual and subtle.

Someone posted this on asexuality.org today (random example):

I'm kind of annoyed with my English teacher right now because she essentially uses her classroom as a soapbox. When she had us read The Awakening, she said that the girls who didn't sympathize with Edna were reading it wrong (context: Edna lives around the turn of the 20th century in New Orleans. Her husband is kind but kind of controlling, and she eventually cheats on him with 2 different men and abandons her kids). Basically she went on this huge spiel about how Edna didn't have a choice but to do what she did back then.

Next, she had us watch a video about systemic racism read pieces by Ta-Nehisi Coates and Brent Staples, two well-known black authors, to supplement our Huck Finn/ Native Son reading. The pieces made several good points about race in society, which is something that ties in to what we're supposed to be learning in English class. The problem is that she took one viewpoint on the pieces/issue and preached it as gospel truth. Now, that viewpoint (that society is designed to screw over women and minorities) may or may not be correct, but that's not the point. My point is that teachers should show both sides and let students develop their own interpretations rather than spoon-feed them.

Has anybody else had a problem with a politically motivated teacher?

http://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/129202-politics-in-the-classroom/

Funny, a teacher tried to show both sides of world war 2 in alberta and that went very badly.

[H10]

Really? How was he doing that? As I understand it this racism consisted of a few isolated incidents involving students themselves, mostly drunk, not the university.

What about other slurs? If I call someone a fat ass is that a problem? If I mock their baldness or their weird facial piercings or them wearing glasses or their bad fashion sense or their height, or lack thereof, is that a problem? If while drunk I tell a girl she has nice boobs does the president need to cry on camera about the shock he felt on hearing about my rudeness? If someone puts graffiti on a bathroom wall which mocks gay people does the president need to parade down the center of campus flagellating himself with steel whips?

What makes the university responsible for the occasional doofus saying something rude? And in what world or reality do these students think their wailing and gnashing of teeth and bursting into tears because they heard about such an incident not cause most thinking people to consider them oversensitive, emotionally overwrought idiots?

Apparently they had been writing letters to him and trying to get meetings for 2-3 years to try to deal with these issues and he had been avoiding them at every corner. These are actually going back to 2010. He was essentially neglectful of his duties. If you take the job, yes you are going to have to deal with discrimination issues. You cannot just hide under your desk and refuse to do your job. He really did deserve to be fired just on that alone.

Well the issue is that those are not protected grounds under the equal protection clause. Now if someone calls you the f bomb and you are a gay or the k bomb and you are a jew. We aren't talking about boys being boys, we are talking about actually illegal and in many cases criminal acts, federal hate crimes. If there was a string of rapes, robberies and shootouts on campus could the president just hide under his desk? if there was embezzlement in the school he couldn't get away with it. I don't think he should get away with not doing his job here.

No he doesn't need to flagellate himself, but he should be removing this culture of hatred from the campus.

The university is inviting in these students, they are providing a service and have a responsibility to not create and actively remove those who are committing crimes and who are making it a hostile working environment. They have a legal obligation to provide these services without discrimination. And having swastikas and race slurs aimed at you isn't fulfilling that. The students don't have anywhere else to live or to go.

I don't think you can be "overly sensitive" when you paid thousands of dollars were promised a service without discrimination and have been denied your educational experience due to rampant racial discrimination. I certainly wouldn't be happy to pay $50,000 for a good or service to later discover it was covered in swastikas and subsequently have it degraded to the point it was untenable for usage.