Interesting conversation. I am glad you were able to protect faculty and staff from the "BEST," but I still can only see it as potentially leading to a sort of fascist youth or Maoist situation where students denounce others in order to satisfy personal grudges. I think it would be great of one student can say to another, "I didn't like the word you used to describe ___. It reminded me of things racists say" or something like that and the second student would really take that on board. But weaponizing these conversations can only have a chilling effect on free speech. If students fear being "reported" for expression their opinions we are no longer having the free exchange of ideas. The purpose of the university has been defeated.
I remember a young woman in grad school with me speaking to our shared faculty advisor, saying that she was appalled that in a comparative Christianity class students were being allowed to openly question the Trinity! She asked if there was a way to stop them. This was back in 1997. If it were today she would probably be reporting them to BEST.
Excellent writing! As a retired paramedic, physiology professor and Lutheran Pastor with PTSD from childhood, I have been traumatized, but really channeled it into serving God’s people inside and outside the Christian Church. I watched this stuff creep into the counseling literature (oh yeah, when I finished my doctorate I did counseling at the community college where I taught for 28 years) and it struck me as just not useful in the realm world. Good Lord, I have suffered enough micro aggressions in my life....try wearing a clerical collar in public....but I have always taught “let it roll off” without penetrating your soul. That’s how I processed through my abuse from my father, to having someone with more stripes than I had how stupid I was, to watching real folks deal with medical and surgical trauma in their lives. I pray my years of teaching, now in distant memory, did some good for some health care providers, as I shared my own ways of coping. Sorry for rambling on, but you folks do some awesome writing here. I wish mine was this good (shameless plug: padredave.substack.com)!
Sorry if this comment comes across negatively (I really enjoyed the article) but I’m thinking about what happens after college when these students bring what they’ve learned to their employers? Will they see racism everywhere they go? I think the reason so many people think our country is more racist than ever is because of training like this in school. Kids are taught to see racism everywhere and especially in older generations who did not have such training.
I’m happy to be able to keep up with what is going on, however, through articles like this!
Interesting conversation. I am glad you were able to protect faculty and staff from the "BEST," but I still can only see it as potentially leading to a sort of fascist youth or Maoist situation where students denounce others in order to satisfy personal grudges. I think it would be great of one student can say to another, "I didn't like the word you used to describe ___. It reminded me of things racists say" or something like that and the second student would really take that on board. But weaponizing these conversations can only have a chilling effect on free speech. If students fear being "reported" for expression their opinions we are no longer having the free exchange of ideas. The purpose of the university has been defeated.
I remember a young woman in grad school with me speaking to our shared faculty advisor, saying that she was appalled that in a comparative Christianity class students were being allowed to openly question the Trinity! She asked if there was a way to stop them. This was back in 1997. If it were today she would probably be reporting them to BEST.
Excellent writing! As a retired paramedic, physiology professor and Lutheran Pastor with PTSD from childhood, I have been traumatized, but really channeled it into serving God’s people inside and outside the Christian Church. I watched this stuff creep into the counseling literature (oh yeah, when I finished my doctorate I did counseling at the community college where I taught for 28 years) and it struck me as just not useful in the realm world. Good Lord, I have suffered enough micro aggressions in my life....try wearing a clerical collar in public....but I have always taught “let it roll off” without penetrating your soul. That’s how I processed through my abuse from my father, to having someone with more stripes than I had how stupid I was, to watching real folks deal with medical and surgical trauma in their lives. I pray my years of teaching, now in distant memory, did some good for some health care providers, as I shared my own ways of coping. Sorry for rambling on, but you folks do some awesome writing here. I wish mine was this good (shameless plug: padredave.substack.com)!
Thank you so much Jacob for the insight into these new offices. It has been an honor to speak and collaborate with you!
Sorry if this comment comes across negatively (I really enjoyed the article) but I’m thinking about what happens after college when these students bring what they’ve learned to their employers? Will they see racism everywhere they go? I think the reason so many people think our country is more racist than ever is because of training like this in school. Kids are taught to see racism everywhere and especially in older generations who did not have such training.
I’m happy to be able to keep up with what is going on, however, through articles like this!
Bonhoeffer’s Law of Stupidity comes to mind. Seriously.