University of Chicago strikes back against political correctness

[britrawick]

A letter to incoming University of Chicago freshmen professed no support for “trigger warnings” or “safe spaces” https://t.co/d2fpqCZ6ZQ
- The New York Times (@nytimes) August 27, 2016
The anodyne welcome letter to incoming freshmen is a college staple, but this week the University of Chicago took a different approach: It sent new students a blunt

Comments

[mimblexwimble]

if you're calling people who request trigger warnings and safe spaces "cry babies", op, you can fuck right off with that privileged bullshit

and instead of framing this as a liberal vs. conservative thing how about framing it as what it actually is: a fight against increased accessiblity for people with trauma, PTSD, and mental illness

[sakuraberries]

this tbh...I have no patience for people who don't understand the purpose of trigger warnings and safe spaces, or worse, understand and simply don't care. the lack of empathy is astonishing.

[britrawick]

Asking people not to come to your university cause they have different views than you is insane, and not at all in line with the point of academia and i will absolutely keep calling people who do that cry babies. If someone is offensive fuckin debate them not tell them to shut up cause they are offending your sensibilities

[mimblexwimble]

You're parroting crap about trigger warnings and people with trigger warning requests that "anti-PC" people have either pulled out of thin air or have latched on to as an example after a single instance. We are human beings with mental illnesses and trauma, not senseless infants whining about differing "world views". It takes an incredible lack of empathy (and a whole lot of privilege) to refuse to listen to us and instead to listen to people who think "political correctness" is a dirty word.

[mimblexwimble]

also here's an article that might help dissuade people of the myth that students ask for trigger warnings and safe spaces to avoid "broadening their horizons" or "listening to different viewpoints". Trigger warnings help people with trauma prepare themselves to be in and receive value from a learning environment.

[cherriesarered]

Yes, thank you! I feel like a lot of people who are against trigger warnings don't (or more likely, refuse to) understand that trigger warnings often help people to engage more/better with potentially triggering material.

[ladycyndra]

Its also the not taking responsibility for the hurtful things they say and do. Like if I'm hurt or triggered, its my own fault and I'm the crybaby, when these triggers have real life trauma for me and leaves me exhausted when the panic and anxiety attack is over. The OP is cold.

[lightframes]

Thanks for the link.

Trigger warnings help people with trauma prepare themselves to be in and receive value from a learning environment.

I thought this was obvious, but I guess not...

[hahahey]

The beginning of that letter makes me so wary as a WOC. I would be calling up the university to get a very clear understanding of what their insinuating, especially in stating that they won't cancel invited speakers for being controversial. That's a very broad statement, and I would be insulted if my tuition was spent inviting a racist/sexist/homophobic asshole to the campus and I'm expected to just accept that without protest. The first paragraph absolutely rubs me the wrong way, especially the "so called trigger warning" line. What a vague way to do what you want and try to dodge backlash in the students early on.

[queenlily]

This is the main argument I have for the blocking-campus-speakers part. It's not like the school is preventing them from showing up and speaking on the campus, but rather that students are disagreeing with their tuition money going to PAY someone with abhorrent views to speak. Declining to pay to give someone a platform to speak is not the same thing as violating someone's First Amendment rights. It's pretty much analogous to saying "I don't want my tax dollars going to pay for x." Students should care about what their tuition funds.

[star_maple]

Yeah, I don't think most people asking for 'trigger warnings' are looking to be insulated from opposing ideas, I think they're just looking for a heads up on the syllabus. When I was in Film School I had to take a 'history of film' course from a rather... eccentric professor. EVERY. SINGLE. FILM he showed in the course had a rape scene. He didn't show Citizen Kane or Godfather or any of the other films you'd expect in a History of Film overview course... just these films from all over the world with this one particular thing in common. The names of the films were listed on the syllabus, of course, but my classmates and I had never heard of them so we didn't know what to expect. I am not triggered, fortunately, by such things, but I found myself starting to needing to leave the classroom during the screenings because it was so overwhelming. Personally, I think giving people a heads up so they can mentally prepare for such things isn't coddling-- it's just polite

[cherriesarered]

Omg, that sounds awful. I am not a rape survivor, but that would make me pretty uncomfortable (and also somewhat wary of the prof, because why would anyone do that?).

What is your favorite movie?

[star_maple]

Yeah, he was a pretty gross dude. I wrote on the movie Contact, but only after I promised to make an Oedipal Complex one of my themes, because everybody in the class had learned that you got an A if you mentioned fucked-up sexuality, so that was clearly his thing.

[lightframes]

People like that shouldn't be allowed to teach, I swear

[petecarl]

I don't get why people think content warnings (trigger warnings) are gonna ruin everything? You don't have to bring it up every time, just say on the class syllabus, this class may study works that reference rape, assault, etc. Profs don't need to be like "on page 112 of this reading there is a homophobic slur". They can just tell the class in general (like in the syllabus) much like when a show gives a viewer's discretion is advised.

[petecarl]

and obviously if the school invites someone who advocates some racist or sexist ideas they'll get backlash. it's pretty concerning that they're saying straight up that they'll refuse to listen to students. this is the type of thing that should be decided on a case by case basis.

[fencer_x]

seriously, your psych 101 class is not fanfic. You're not in danger of ~giving away the plot~ if you tell people you're going to be discussing a sensitive subject ahead of time.