I stumbled across an article written by First Amendment Coalition Executive Director, Peter Scheer, today, and felt the need to respond. The article's entitled, "College Students Need Lessons in Tolerance and Free Speech."
I'll share the opening two and final full paragraphs of the article, because I think they provide a clear picture of what Mr. Scheer is trying to express.
"There's nothing like the massacre of 129 Parisian civilians at the hands of jihadi sociopaths, utterly convinced that their barbarism manifests the will of God, to provide some perspective on the recent whining of students at a number of America's most elite colleges and universities.
For the past few weeks, students across the country -- at Yale University in Connecticut, Amherst College in Massachusetts, New Hampshire's Dartmouth College, the University of Missouri, and southern California colleges Claremont McKenna and Occidental -- have been testing the limits of academic liberalism. Students have demanded official mea culpas for alleged institutional racism, sexism and other 'structural' sins against 'marginalized' groups (defined mainly on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation or gender), while expressing intolerance for criticism and outright hostility for the principle of free speech...
...Faculty and administrators need to find some backbone. Their mission is not to be popular but to teach. The terrorist attack in Paris offers them a teachable moment, an opportunity to open students' eyes to the difference between truth and propaganda; between governing by fiat and governing by persuasion; between intellectual rigidity and intolerance, on one hand, and free and robust debate, on the other."
Following Scheer's article were a number of comments from far-right individuals, stating that the typically left-leaning Huffington Post finally provided a worthwhile article to read. Others compared these protesting students to Nazis. Some blamed the Black Lives Matter movement to this uprise in college protests. I'd say roughly 99% of these commentators were Caucasian and 75% of them were Caucasian males.
Being a writer myself, especially one who focuses on comedy, satire in particular, I have greatly mixed feelings about political correctness reaching an extreme level. While I know it's never my main intention, I know full well some of my writings likely offend others and would hate to be provided an insulting label due to them, for my two main intentions are to stimulate thought and laughter. However, while I believe political correctness goes too far at times, I also know the concept of free speech is a complicated one and that the freedom to speak one's mind doesn't guarantee one won't be subject to some form of punishment for those comments. I also think Mr. Scheer and many of the article's following commentators miss the bigger picture.
As Mr. Scheer noted in his article, most of these protests center around racism, sexism, xenophobia, and/or homophobia. In other words, they center around certain demographics wanting to be treated and respected as equals. When students complain about experiencing or witnessing a racist, sexist, xenophobic, or homophobic event and feel like the university president isn't listening nor doing anything to provide them with a more comfortable college experience, they'll make their voices heard loud and clear on the matter, until a change at the top occurs. So why do so many on the right see this as political correctness going overboard, as opposed to fighting for equality?
I think what bothers Mr. Scheer and those of his ilk more than anything is the fact these college protesters, the Black Lives Matter movement, and others are challenging the status quo and fighting for change. What have many women, minorities, and homosexuals done through the years as a strategy for attaining equal rights and respect? Stay quiet, and sooner or later, equality is bound to come their way. Well, these groups realized that strategy wasn't going to work, so they instead decided to be loud, proud, and fight for equality. With the advent and expansion of social media, in conjunction with progressively more liberal younger generations, more voices are starting to be heard and more changes are starting to be made.
Do people have the right to be racist, sexist, xenophobic, or homophobic? Sure, but if they express such prejudices at the workplace, they can expect some form of punishment to come their way. That's the thing; for as much as we'd like to believe it, free speech is not absolute. We may not face governmental persecution for making offensive statements, but that doesn't guarantee we won't face some sort of punishment from our boss. Not only that, but if these offensive comments are viewed as threatening, then the police could get involved as well.
The Black Lives Matter movement and college protesters are not Nazis. As a matter of fact, the two groups couldn't be further apart from one another. Nazis captured and killed at least 6 million Jews due to their religion. Black Lives Matter and college protesters are nonviolently fighting for equal rights of such groups.
Let's face it, when it comes right down to it, Peter Scheer and those like him aren't whining about protesters' complaints about not being treated as equals; they're whining because other demographics are fighting to be seen as equal in the eyes of the law, which leaves them feeling, for the first time in their lives, as not ultimately superior to the rest.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-scheer/college-student-protests-free-speech_b_8588860.html
I'll share the opening two and final full paragraphs of the article, because I think they provide a clear picture of what Mr. Scheer is trying to express.
"There's nothing like the massacre of 129 Parisian civilians at the hands of jihadi sociopaths, utterly convinced that their barbarism manifests the will of God, to provide some perspective on the recent whining of students at a number of America's most elite colleges and universities.
For the past few weeks, students across the country -- at Yale University in Connecticut, Amherst College in Massachusetts, New Hampshire's Dartmouth College, the University of Missouri, and southern California colleges Claremont McKenna and Occidental -- have been testing the limits of academic liberalism. Students have demanded official mea culpas for alleged institutional racism, sexism and other 'structural' sins against 'marginalized' groups (defined mainly on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation or gender), while expressing intolerance for criticism and outright hostility for the principle of free speech...
...Faculty and administrators need to find some backbone. Their mission is not to be popular but to teach. The terrorist attack in Paris offers them a teachable moment, an opportunity to open students' eyes to the difference between truth and propaganda; between governing by fiat and governing by persuasion; between intellectual rigidity and intolerance, on one hand, and free and robust debate, on the other."
Following Scheer's article were a number of comments from far-right individuals, stating that the typically left-leaning Huffington Post finally provided a worthwhile article to read. Others compared these protesting students to Nazis. Some blamed the Black Lives Matter movement to this uprise in college protests. I'd say roughly 99% of these commentators were Caucasian and 75% of them were Caucasian males.
Being a writer myself, especially one who focuses on comedy, satire in particular, I have greatly mixed feelings about political correctness reaching an extreme level. While I know it's never my main intention, I know full well some of my writings likely offend others and would hate to be provided an insulting label due to them, for my two main intentions are to stimulate thought and laughter. However, while I believe political correctness goes too far at times, I also know the concept of free speech is a complicated one and that the freedom to speak one's mind doesn't guarantee one won't be subject to some form of punishment for those comments. I also think Mr. Scheer and many of the article's following commentators miss the bigger picture.
As Mr. Scheer noted in his article, most of these protests center around racism, sexism, xenophobia, and/or homophobia. In other words, they center around certain demographics wanting to be treated and respected as equals. When students complain about experiencing or witnessing a racist, sexist, xenophobic, or homophobic event and feel like the university president isn't listening nor doing anything to provide them with a more comfortable college experience, they'll make their voices heard loud and clear on the matter, until a change at the top occurs. So why do so many on the right see this as political correctness going overboard, as opposed to fighting for equality?
I think what bothers Mr. Scheer and those of his ilk more than anything is the fact these college protesters, the Black Lives Matter movement, and others are challenging the status quo and fighting for change. What have many women, minorities, and homosexuals done through the years as a strategy for attaining equal rights and respect? Stay quiet, and sooner or later, equality is bound to come their way. Well, these groups realized that strategy wasn't going to work, so they instead decided to be loud, proud, and fight for equality. With the advent and expansion of social media, in conjunction with progressively more liberal younger generations, more voices are starting to be heard and more changes are starting to be made.
Do people have the right to be racist, sexist, xenophobic, or homophobic? Sure, but if they express such prejudices at the workplace, they can expect some form of punishment to come their way. That's the thing; for as much as we'd like to believe it, free speech is not absolute. We may not face governmental persecution for making offensive statements, but that doesn't guarantee we won't face some sort of punishment from our boss. Not only that, but if these offensive comments are viewed as threatening, then the police could get involved as well.
The Black Lives Matter movement and college protesters are not Nazis. As a matter of fact, the two groups couldn't be further apart from one another. Nazis captured and killed at least 6 million Jews due to their religion. Black Lives Matter and college protesters are nonviolently fighting for equal rights of such groups.
Let's face it, when it comes right down to it, Peter Scheer and those like him aren't whining about protesters' complaints about not being treated as equals; they're whining because other demographics are fighting to be seen as equal in the eyes of the law, which leaves them feeling, for the first time in their lives, as not ultimately superior to the rest.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-scheer/college-student-protests-free-speech_b_8588860.html
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