University of Missouri Football Strike

[DTD Alum]

Originally Posted by DeltaBetaBaby

No, I don't think she should be fired, and yes, my summary was EXTREMELY flippant. But to bring up her email without bringing up the one that preceded it (as was done in this thread) is equally misleading.

So she wants students to self-police instead of administrative policing? Well, that's a noble goal, but it ignores the reality of the situation, which is 1) The original email was a suggestion, not something with the force of the institution or potential consequences behind it, and 2) This "self-policing" is not happening and it is having a negative effect on students of color.

The bottom line, in my mind, is that institutions cannot relieve themselves of the responsibility to provide campus experiences that are free from racism, and to brush things off as free speech or not the institution's responsibility is to avoid conflict at the expense of students of color.

So you disagree (largely) with her. I partially disagree with her and if anybody is truly interested I can get into why, but I doubt people are. I don't think it's a big deal when people disagree with each other. I do think the nature of our cultural climate at the moment is to immediately attempt to violently destroy and negate the opinions that are different than ours. People are literally calling for this woman's resignation in a frenzy over a well articulated opinion. If somebody disagrees with her, then it should be time for dialogue between the two sides, not a frenzied attempt to destroy somebody's livelihood over saying such a thing.

Universities should be a place for debate of ideas, of viewpoints. Too long have marginalized viewpoints been violently silenced, but now I wonder if other viewpoints are being violently silenced as well, even if the intentions are good (to make a safer space for said marginalized viewpoints). This woman certainly said things that not everybody may agree with, but her thoughts are hardly extreme, nor bigoted, nor crudely or aggressively stated. Is a person's opinion on Halloween costumes (and yes I understand that this fits into a larger narrative, but still) now to be the deciding factor on whether or not said person is a hero or a villain?