If you have followed this blog from its inception (a very long time ago), you will note that I used to be left of center. I'm probably still a bit left of center but consistently test as a moderate. These days, to be moderate is to be considered a Nazi. I don't exaggerate. In some cases I had changes of positions. Why? Because I decided to be honest and challenge the things I believed. That is, I looked at the data and realized that the things I believed were simply not supported by the facts. I could not in good conscience continue to advocate for things I
knew to not be the case just because said evidence was "bad" for black people. Furthermore, I could not simply be silent on the matter(s). Understand, there are a lot of people who know full well that their ideologies are based on bullshit and rather than be honest, they simply stop speaking on the subject and hope nobody notices. This is particularly the case when people are PAID to believe in and speak on the thing they know to be bullshit. I think the the professors at Evergreen are at such a crossroads. A second (only 2 eh?) professor has
spoken out and I want to look at that:
My most rewarding teaching experiences have been when my mostly left leaning students have prompted me to examine my own views on controversial issues.
This is a serious problem IMO. In my opinion it is teachers that should be prompting their students to examine their own views on controversial issues. If teachers, particularly at a supposed institution of higher education, are being challenged by their students, rather than by their
peers, then I think there is a problem here. While new students will bring in ideas and experiences because they live in a different generation and time, the bedrock principles shouldn't be challenging.
I would like to think that students have also benefited from being exposed to the occasional “redneck” perspective in the classroom and on field trips.
You would
think but clearly for a significant population of students
and faculty/staff have not benefitted from such exposure. I would hazard to guess that because these contacts are relatively brief rather than something they have to live with. I would hazard to guess that for a lot of these students, dealing with the rednecks are considered "oh here we go with THOSE people today" kind of attitude.
Many of the farms we visited were my clients, who always looked forward to the annual visits by Evergreen’s “strangely dressed students with piercings and tattoos” that seemed to be much more inquisitive and insightful than their land-grant university counterparts.
I have worked on farms and dealt with "country folk". They are generally quite welcoming of people and generally friendly. They respect people who are competent, even if they are "strange" and are generally not two faced.
I believed that I had found the antidote to the ever increasing disease of polarization and identity politics that has been dividing our rural and urban populations.
Now Evergreen has taken from me the medicine needed to cure the illness.
You thought. I wonder, has this person not noticed the changes that were going on before then? Is he implying that the students just woke up one day feeling like everything is racist? And if the students could wake up in such a way how did Evergreen take the medicine away? I think Everygreen itself is a part of the problem.
the college is now contributing to the vilification, paranoia and irrational rhetoric that fuels hatred and violence. The antidote has now become toxic.
I agree that the college is contributing to vilification and paranoia but I believe that the college has been systematically and structurally creating students and faculty who vilify and create paranoia. This stuff doesn't happen overnight.
It is about a collection of professors that are so blinded by their advocacy, that they cannot fathom different viewpoints.
No, this collection of professors who passed "go", collected their $200 and are now persons who indoctrinate. Their letter shows that they are not interested in discussion or scholarship, they wish to pronounce what is and isn't acceptable and punish those who refuse to stay in line.
I recently met with a student who was angry that she was told to shut up at a student rally, based solely on the amount of pigment in her skin. She did not comply, and was called a racist. I asked her if this bothered her. She said: “No, because I am not racist.”
It
should bother her. In fact, that is why she was
angry. Faculty and Staff and admin of Evergreen should find it unacceptable that they are graduating students who think that the appropriate response to trying to stifle dissent is to call someone racist. Seriously.
To the faculty, too afraid to speak out: I urge you to walk toward the fire. After all, if this brave student is a bigot, then I guess I am too. They are just words. You will not lose your job, but you might lose your dignity.
Evergreen should be bothered that they have created a climate in which faculty and staff, who should be the adults in the room, are afraid to speak freely. And again, this did not happen overnight. I guarantee that this is a culmination of slowly eroding right of free speech. And yes, unless the faculty are tenured they very much risk losing their jobs. Staff members have even less protections than teaching faculty.
This morning was the first time that I was actually nervous coming to campus. Not because of threats of white supremacists, but because I was worried that someone on campus would think that I might be one of them.
You know, maybe, just maybe so called "white supremacists" are not the real and immediate problem.
