There probably have been some isolated, race-related incidents on or near campus. I don’t live too far from Columbia, so I can see it as a possibility, for several reasons. Columbia has some history of pro-Confederate sympathies, dating back to the 19th century. The area has been nicknamed “little Dixie.” The Confederate flag has been displayed at the cemetery by a Confederate memorial group, and there was a Confederate flag rally this summer, including a stop in Columbia, after the controversy in SC. Given that Mizzou has embraced enrollment from a purportedly higher minority populace from more urban areas, e.g., KC and St. Louis, which in and of itself isn’t bad, it could possibly increase the likelihood that there are going to be racial “name calling” incidents like those that have been reported when you have more minority students on campus with what is otherwise traditionally been a mostly white, suburban or rural student populace, at least those coming from in state.
Whether or not those incidents have occurred at any higher rate than they might occur at other universities with a similar student composition remains to be seen - probably not. Former students of mine that attend school at Mizzou have stated that they have never found there to be an overly hostile campus climate in regards to racial relations. If nothing else, the whole debacle certainly highlights the tried and true observation that most people are perfectly comfortable with free speech or free expression as long as they agree with it, but when the shoe is on the other foot, free speech be damned.
[quote]smh_23 wrote:
I saw a Missouri student – white girl – claim that certain articles, I believe they came from the NYT and Washpost, had a “clear pro-free-speech bias.” [/quote]
You know what?
I’ve changed my mind on the lefties “free” college plan. Fuck it, let’s just give it away. Because if someone as infinitely stupid as you just described qualifies to attend a single college level class, the degree is already so watered down it is meaningless now. No point in not giving them away. [/quote]
Kind of makes a perverse sort of sense. These kids appear to be getting no education at all, so they’d be getting nothing, for free.
On a more general note, and believe me when I say that I am not blind to the proliferating idiocies described throughout this thread, it probably doesn’t hurt to remember that news and social media can magnify and distort things. In the grand scheme of this country, a couple hundred idiots at Yale don’t even amount to a large portion of current Yale students (and, indeed, it was students’ concerns that prompted the offending email in the first place). You get online and see the tweets and you have to remind yourself that you’re listening to people through a megaphone. Yale is home not only to these little twits but also the next generation of inventors, scientists, billionaire businessmen and women who will employ American workers and generate money in America, yadda yadda. It isn’t all that unlikely that a future Republican president is at this very moment living in a Yale dorm, perhaps right next to these snowflakes.
I graduated from an ivy league graduate school a couple of years ago. We had a few of these types, SJW’s and the like. We even had one particularly rape-obsessed student who was very publicly asked by another student (this guy came from the dry-wit haven of England) whether she’d herself actually been assaulted. When she said no, he answered in his Christopher Hitchens voice: “But a girl can dream, yes?” The vast majority of us had been thinking the same thing – though we weren’t the type to screech on Twitter. She, of course, was. Hence the distorted image.
Jonathan Butler, man who claims Mizzou President hit him with his car, turns out to be a lie…
[/quote]
If that’s the incident in question, wow. Just wow, wow, wow, wow.
Also, apparently, his daddy made $6-8 million last year, and yet he’s involved in a protest at least partially about “privilege.” Would that I’d been born so underprivileged!
This is a long piece from The Atlantic, but well worth the read. “The Coddling of the American Mind”
“In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for educational and mental health.”
smh, what you said about us seeing students who may not represent the entire student body is true. That’s the only thing that gives me some hope in all of this. Believe me, my husband and I have been wondering if we’re doing the right thing paying tuition at a certain school that rhymes with Kale. So far, our son had a good head on his shoulders, but some of his stories about the censorship of ideas in the classroom are truly disturbing.
[quote]MaximusB wrote:
From the first link, I am more convinced this whole thing is fabricated. Cops find no evidence and the alleged photo is an old pic.
[/quote]
Think about it logically for second. If you or i were in the dorm where someone pooped anywhere other than a toilet, everyone would know and there would be a ton of pictures. Gross, but when it’s 2am and you’re fucked up; you’re probably going to be amused by sending poop pictures to friends.
We put up a sign up list in our bathroom for guys who fucked this one girl. It was taken down within an hour, and we got a talking to from the head of the dorm. This was 15 years ago…
Who cleaned it up is a good question? I dont think a student is cleaning feces up, and im pretty sure a sound minded janitor would be pissed and reporting this to someone… If it ever existed [/quote]
Custodians reported it to the police, and an officer stopped in and filled out a report.
I don’t see any reason to doubt it. I just don’t get what Wolfe’s position had to do with it. If the police couldn’t identify the vandal from just poop on a wall, what exactly is Wolfe supposed to do? And frankly, who even knows if this was truly an anti-Semitic/racially motivated act? From what I can tell the vandalism occurred after this thing had begun to heat up. Maybe a true blue supremacist, sure. Maybe an anon troll who actually doesn’t give a rat’s backside about race/religion, and simply gets his kicks from stirring up a hornet’s nest that’s already angrily buzzing. And yes, maybe it was someone sympathetic to the movement’s cause. Having seen the video of the “hit and run,” where it had to be clear to everyone there participating and watching the event that the young man literally ran himself up to the car, and considering how many then kept their silence about (if not outright condoned) the scam, for the benefit of the cause…Yeah, I can’t help but consider the possibility that the “poop swastika” was also a scam. Not a scam in existence, but in motivation.
[quote]smh_23 wrote:
On a more general note, and believe me when I say that I am not blind to the proliferating idiocies described throughout this thread, it probably doesn’t hurt to remember that news and social media can magnify and distort things. In the grand scheme of this country, a couple hundred idiots at Yale don’t even amount to a large portion of current Yale students (and, indeed, it was students’ concerns that prompted the offending email in the first place). You get online and see the tweets and you have to remind yourself that you’re listening to people through a megaphone. Yale is home not only to these little twits but also the next generation of inventors, scientists, billionaire businessmen and women who will employ American workers and generate money in America, yadda yadda. It isn’t all that unlikely that a future Republican president is at this very moment living in a Yale dorm, perhaps right next to these snowflakes.
[/quote]
Outstanding. Good reminder.
I’m upset when I read pretty much anything like the Yale and Mizzou stories. Or any comments section on any news article. Seeing so many loud, obnoxious morons in one place is disheartening.
But then, I’m happy whenever I visit my alma mater for events where I’m interacting with current students and/or student-athletes. Every time I visit with my college football coach and get a chance to address the team, or meet with current students at a networking event and talk about their future plans, I’m pleasantly surprised at how much they seem to have their shit together. The future ain’t all bleak. Like you said, the stories that blow up on Twitter and in the media are just the idiots who happened to get a megaphone, but there’s good shit happening every day.
[quote]smh_23 wrote:
On a more general note, and believe me when I say that I am not blind to the proliferating idiocies described throughout this thread, it probably doesn’t hurt to remember that news and social media can magnify and distort things. In the grand scheme of this country, a couple hundred idiots at Yale don’t even amount to a large portion of current Yale students (and, indeed, it was students’ concerns that prompted the offending email in the first place). You get online and see the tweets and you have to remind yourself that you’re listening to people through a megaphone. Yale is home not only to these little twits but also the next generation of inventors, scientists, billionaire businessmen and women who will employ American workers and generate money in America, yadda yadda. It isn’t all that unlikely that a future Republican president is at this very moment living in a Yale dorm, perhaps right next to these snowflakes.
[/quote]
Outstanding. Good reminder.
I’m upset when I read pretty much anything like the Yale and Mizzou stories. Or any comments section on any news article. Seeing so many loud, obnoxious morons in one place is disheartening.
But then, I’m happy whenever I visit my alma mater for events where I’m interacting with current students and/or student-athletes. Every time I visit with my college football coach and get a chance to address the team, or meet with current students at a networking event and talk about their future plans, I’m pleasantly surprised at how much they seem to have their shit together. The future ain’t all bleak. Like you said, the stories that blow up on Twitter and in the media are just the idiots who happened to get a megaphone, but there’s good shit happening every day.[/quote]
Of course you guys are right.
But just like I told my daughter when she asked why “the boy got on the train if he was scared” when watching Polar Express. It’d be a real short movie if he didn’t dear.
You know, this thread would be real short if we talked about the people you guys mention, and that they are the vast majority.
The Dean of Students at Claremont McKenna College resigned Thursday, amid a growing outcry from students at the college. No alleged swastikas or racial slurs here.
Back in April, a group of students sent the President of Claremont McKenna College a list of recommendations on how the school could better support students of color. According to Reyes, the administration indicated they would implement changes, but had done very little. They asked for a resource center for marginalized identity, more funding for multi-cultural clubs, and a more diverse faculty, among other things.
That response, though. Couldn’t help but cringe. I could feel the guilt of not knowing his place as an ignorant white fella trying to appropriate an issue that isn’t his to lead on. So very apologetic of his ignorance, so needful for everyone to know how serious he had been in his attempt. So eager to soothe those “hurt” by his attempt to create his own event in support of the same concerns.
Might be under your radar because it’s not happening at an Ivy or a major state school like Mizzou, but now this is becoming all the rage, apparently. Students at Ithaca College are calling for their President’s resignation.
[quote]ActivitiesGuy wrote:
Might be under your radar because it’s not happening at an Ivy or a major state school like Mizzou, but now this is becoming all the rage, apparently. Students at Ithaca College are calling for their President’s resignation.
In some of these cases, in reading deeper into what’s actually going on - on campus - in taking into consideration a very local knowledge of the situation that wouldn’t permeate off campus into mass media reports, there are often significant underlying issues of which these incidents are sometimes just the icing on the cake (such was the case at Mizzou too). The article linked gives some indication that such may be the case here too.
Oftentimes there is underlying resentment on the part of the faculty and students, sometimes with issues that had zero to do with race initially. Beyond a cursory glance, it probably wasn’t as simple as a president being asked to resign because there were a few instances of racial disparity on campus. That’s often just being used as another tool to attack an already unpopular administrator, but in the modern climate of hypersensitivity, it may be the one tool that most effectively prunes the thorny branch.
[quote]JR249 wrote:
That’s often just being used as another tool to attack an already unpopular administrator, but in the modern climate of hypersensitivity, it may be the one tool that most effectively prunes the thorny branch.
[/quote]
That’s a rather chilling situation we find ourselves.
[quote]JR249 wrote:
Oftentimes there is underlying resentment on the part of the faculty and students, sometimes with issues that had zero to do with race initially. Beyond a cursory glance, it probably wasn’t as simple as a president being asked to resign because there were a few instances of racial disparity on campus. That’s often just being used as another tool to attack an already unpopular administrator, but in the modern climate of hypersensitivity, it may be the one tool that most effectively prunes the thorny branch.
[/quote]
Completely agreed.
I’m not necessarily against students mobilizing against something that they genuinely perceive as problematic. What concerns me is that I’m not sure how many of these are really legitimate concerns vs. kids that are like “Cool, I’m gonna go be a protester today and stick it to the man!”
And I mean that when I say I’m not sure. I’m just not close enough to any of these situations to know whether the problems are legitimate or not. But it does make me wonder if we’re heading for a year or two where it’s the trendy thing to do, just protest and demand the school President’s removal.
As discussed on the prior page, a couple of loudmouths getting press coverage can make it seem as though there’s a lot of “discord” on a campus when most of the students are just fine and happy there.
