The Coddling Of The American Mind (Trigger Warning Article In The Atlantic...)

The word 'coddling' just kind of sets me off, I imagine a room full of stuffy aristocrats with monocles, idly pontificating between drinks of brandy.

i prefer "mollycoddling"

xp Are you for real Adam? Do you actually decide things based on who's paying?

fwiw, I don't think the friction with the media at Missouri takes anything away from a successful protest in the face of aggressively racist behaviour and complacent leadership. My comments above were w/r/t other colleges.

xp Are you for real Adam? Do you actually decide things based on who's paying?

― impossible raver (Re-Make/Re-Model), Tuesday, November 10, 2015 12:41 PM (4 minutes ago)

i'm sure he'd say the same thing about media coverage of a $10k-a-plate republican fundraiser

there is a HUGE difference between an elected official fundraising for his own party and a student who typically gets saddled with $20k+ a year of debt

esp when articles like these are used as examples to cut further school funding/scholarships/etc cos OMG SCHOOLZ LIBRUL BAD NO MONEY FOR YOU

i understand that, I was responding to the dumb thing you said by taking it to its absurd extreme. we don't need to debate whether the media has the right to cover students -- it's obvious they do

yeah i never said they didn't. only that i would err on the side of students.

wasn't the "media" in this case also a student? or did i misread something?

amazed how riled up people can get about a stupid non-story as opposed to the impressive story of students organizing against a racist thing and getting results.

the 'getting results' here seems kinda fuzzy. it honestly seems like this chancellor was basically a run of the mill bureaucrat who broadly sympathized w/ the students but could have gone about interacting w/ them better. I really don't get why poop swastikas are his fault or what exactly he is supposed to do to prevent future poop swastikas. not sure what kind of a 'result' having his head on a pole is and I'm guessing he just didn't want to deal w/ this anymore.

I am shocked to hear that I'm reframing things in terms that cause me to agree with myself, and will take the next week on retreat to figure out whether I agree with my views because of my persistent bias, or because of my animal magnetism.

what exactly he is supposed to do to prevent future poop swastikas.

That's his job. You can't say "Oh poop swastikas. Kids will be kids. What are you gonna do?" It's a straight-up hate crime as far as I can tell from the available reporting.

i don't know that getting this guy to resign was a huge victory for anyone or anything but whatever i mean in neoliberalism u take ur victories where u can get them i guess

well maybe they should install anti-poop swastika cameras across the school, or create walls that have poop-swastika sensors built into them

sterling wrote:

but yeah that doesn't matter because somebody didn't want some photographer to take some photos at one point, so that's the issue not racism but these students hate free speech i guess.

that's a weird gloss: 'somebody didn't want some photographer to take some photos at some point'. i wouldn't say that's precisely what happened. and yes, it is a single incident. it's symptomatic of some larger trends in campus activism, but yes, even that is not exactly a world-historical problem, as i noted above.

that said it's not a zero-sum game. talking about this stuff doesn't preclude talking about the events at missouri in general. as i also have done, above, in discussing the role of football players.

i think you know that, though. in fact, i'm sure of it. you just can't resist your usual pedantic urge to police the speech of others.

and yeah i think the big 'victory' at mizzou is overstated. presumably they will hire a new college president who will be better at PR; the question of whether he or she will actually do anything, or whether there's really much of substance he or she can do, is another thing.

i don't want to condescend to the student and professor activists, though, and assume they don't realize that getting this guy out of the picture isn't just one step.

but yeah that doesn't matter because somebody didn't want some photographer to take some photos at one point, so that's the issue not racism but these students hate free speech i guess.

btw NOBODY in this thread is saying this

you write "the issue" --- but can there be, you know, more than one thing happening at one time? can things have layers to them?

or do you not trust us (or trust anyone but your own sublime intellect) to carry two thoughts--perhaps ones that carry some contradictions and complications--in our mind at once?

xp

in terms of what Wolfe could/should have done- this is a list of demands issued by the students on 21 October, students met with Wolfe later that week and said that they did not feel he was taking the demands seriously or making any moves towards putting them into effect, though the second demand is that Wolfe resign, so I guess maybe things were already past the point of no return by then? the catalyst for the demand for his resignation seems to be him refusing to engage with the protesters who had blocked his car at the homecoming parade?

I. We demand that the University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, writes a handwritten 
apology to the Concerned Student 1­9­5­0 demonstrators and holds a press conference in the 
Mizzou Student Center reading the letter. In the letter and at the press conference, Tim Wolfe 
must acknowledge his white male privilege, recognize that systems of oppression exist, and 
provide a verbal commitment to fulfilling Concerned Student 1­9­5­0 demands. We want Tim 
Wolfe to admit to his gross negligence, allowing his driver to hit one of the demonstrators, 
consenting to the physical violence of bystanders, and lastly refusing to intervene when 
Columbia Police Department used excessive force with demonstrators.  
  
II. We demand the immediate removal of Tim Wolfe as UM system president. After his removal 
a new amendment to UM system policies must be established to have all future UM system 
president and Chancellor positions be selected by a collective of students, staff, and faculty of 
diverse backgrounds.
III. We demand that the University of Missouri meets the Legion of Black Collegians' demands 
that were presented in 1969 for the betterment of the black community. 
  
IV. We demand that the University of Missouri creates and enforces comprehensive racial 
awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units, mandatory 
for all students, faculty, staff, and administration. This curriculum must be vetted, maintained, 
and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff, and faculty of color. 
  
V. We demand that by the academic year 2017­2018, the University of Missouri increases the 
percentage of black faculty and staff campus­wide to 10%. 
  
VI. We demand that the University of Missouri composes a strategic 10 year plan by May 1, 
2016 that will increase retention rates for marginalized students, sustain diversity curriculum and 
training, and promote a more safe and inclusive campus. 
  
VII. We demand that the University of Missouri increases funding and resources for the 
University of Missouri Counseling Center for the purpose of hiring additional mental health 
professionals; particularly those of color, boosting mental health outreach and programming 
across campus, increasing campus­wide awareness and visibility of the counseling center, and 
reducing lengthy wait times for prospective clients. 
VIII. We demand that the University of Missouri increases funding, resources, and personnel for 
the social justices centers on campus for the purpose of hiring additional professionals, 
particularly those of color, boosting outreach and programming across campus, and increasing 
campus­wide awareness and visibility.

I. We demand that the University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, writes a handwritten
apology to the Concerned Student 1­9­5­0 demonstrators and holds a press conference in the
Mizzou Student Center reading the letter. In the letter and at the press conference, Tim Wolfe
must acknowledge his white male privilege, recognize that systems of oppression exist, and
provide a verbal commitment to fulfilling Concerned Student 1­9­5­0 demands. We want Tim
Wolfe to admit to his gross negligence, allowing his driver to hit one of the demonstrators,
consenting to the physical violence of bystanders, and lastly refusing to intervene when
Columbia Police Department used excessive force with demonstrators.

i get the general point, but as an actual request this seems ridiculously specific in a hectoring way. i mean do they also want them to count to sixteen and rub his tummy while chewing gum?

and sterling if you're talking about "isolated incidents," the actual incidents of overt racism on campus, however awful, aren't exactly a tidal wave. so if your logic w/r/t to activists harrassing journalists is "this one thing happened, but it's not important"--that same logic could be used to trivialize the racist incidents on campus.

man i bet friedersdorf popped a boner at this one

This behavior is a kind of safe-baiting: using intimidation or initiating physical aggression to violate someone’s rights, then acting like your target is making you unsafe.

did we already discuss this on this page btw? http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/why-we-should-fear-university-inc.html

this is the reporter who was shoved, i take it

https://twitter.com/nonorganical

well worth checking out

re: whether or not this is a big victory, is there any chance of this part of the second demand happening now?

After his removal a new amendment to UM system policies must be established to have all future UM system
president and Chancellor positions be selected by a collective of students, staff, and faculty of
diverse backgrounds.

I. We demand that the University of Missouri System President, Tim Wolfe, writes a handwritten
apology to the Concerned Student 1­9­5­0 demonstrators and holds a press conference in the
Mizzou Student Center reading the letter. In the letter and at the press conference, Tim Wolfe
must acknowledge his white male privilege, recognize that systems of oppression exist, and
provide a verbal commitment to fulfilling Concerned Student 1­9­5­0 demands. We want Tim
Wolfe to admit to his gross negligence, allowing his driver to hit one of the demonstrators,
consenting to the physical violence of bystanders, and lastly refusing to intervene when
Columbia Police Department used excessive force with demonstrators.

I admire their commitment to the aesthetics of the show trial. "The letter must be hand-written, because that's how you know he really means what he wrote! And he should have to cry, and rend his garments, as he speaks! And can we shave his head after?"

the football team thing has been really striking to me because of the fact that they joined with the hunger striker.

there was a similar protest at my alma mater in the 90s, over the imminent renaming of a renovated building on campus after an alumna who had made statements in arguments made to southerners that women's suffrage (her cause) would actually bolster white supremacy, not harm it. iirc there might have been a couple other places people were able to dig up where she also voiced a similarly politically-expedient indifference to racial oppression, but before that point and after that point she apparently repudiated racism, so it was a hard charge to make stick very much or amount to anything that moved a lot of people. just the kind of thing easily brushed aside that makes committed administrators say 'in view of her large accomplishments we are very proud of our first woman graduate' etc., so despite complaints - and it's not like this person's past was a big public secret just come to light - the admins went forward.

there was a protest movement on campus in response, that lasted for a couple years, had a name, demands, went on marches around the quad, got faculty to sign on, hooked up with related grievances especially around diversity on campus. after repeated sit-ins and related challenges to get the president to actually even continue dialogue with them - he adopted the this-is-closed-we'-re-done-talking-about-this style of leadership - one of the students, a grad student iirc, went on a hunger strike that lasted for about six days before he had to be hospitalized. during that there was a shorter daylong sympathy hunger strike.

the admins didn't move an inch.

this was in the early days of widespread internet adoption, so you can still go on the campus newspaper site and read idiotic letters to the editor from fellow students. and it had state govt and national attention, got written up in the nyt. but on campus it just had a tendency to look a little pathetic, like posturing: people carrying signs and marching around our quad just utterly lacked a social/political context in the area that would have made it seem like an effectual action to take. they were relying almost entirely on the residual generic campus commitment to action in the service of progressive ideals, inchoate in most students and vaguely recalled by some of the faculty from their lives elsewhere. which was not enough to spark anything.

and it seems like it would have been unthinkable at the time that the football team would have been spurred to take any action at all, much less to do what the mizzou team did.

one of the earliest complaints i've found about the plan to rename the building after the shady alumna used the word 'comfortable'.

aero was actually around at the time, i wonder what he remembers about it.

you write "the issue" --- but can there be, you know, more than one thing happening at one time? can things have layers to them?

or do you not trust us (or trust anyone but your own sublime intellect) to carry two thoughts--perhaps ones that carry some contradictions and complications--in our mind at once?

Well, after reading President Keyes making a direct connection between protesters demanding space and police officers shouting "Why are you resisting arrest?" as they abuse people both physically and with their institutionally-granted authority, it's perfectly reasonable to doubt the mental faculties of some of the people being critical of the protesters.

dude i think he also called you a sublime fan in case you want to dignify that charge with a response

apparently Loftin will remain as "director for research-facility development," probably earning his chancellor's salary.

pushing up against someone and saying "Why are you invading my space" is a disingenuous tactic that makes the person you're accosting seem like the aggressor. Cops use a similarly disingenuous tactic.

things can reflect one another in some ways but not others. sorry i'm dumb enough to know that.

Those missouri protester demands are unreal. Did a lot of people sign that specific petition?

Mostly item 1, with the itemizing of the apology letter. The rest seemed reasonable when i glanced at it

dude i think he also called you a sublime fan in case you want to dignify that charge with a response

― j., Tuesday, November 10, 2015 12:41 PM (49 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was responding to sterling, not DJP FWIW

xp I don't think it was a petition, it was from a statement issued by the Concerned Student 1950 group

http://www.columbiatribune.com/list-of-demands-from-concerned-student-group/pdf_345ad844-9f05-5479-9b64-e4b362b4e155.html

not that any such demands would be unrealistic or not specific to their contexts, but i've seen fairly similar ones from campus protesters elsewhere recently, the strategies may just be fairly routine. student representation, equity in faculty/staff representation, mandatory educational component of some kind, etc.

the swarthmore newspaper protests, e.g. even

things can reflect one another in some ways but not others. sorry i'm dumb enough to know that.

And sometimes the circumstances surrounding the ways in which they don't reflect grossly supersede the circumstances around the ways in which they do and render the comparison irrelevant at best. Admittedly, you could be making an equivalency argument between protesters' relationship to journalists and the police's relationship to the general public that would make the comparison you're making have actual weight but that would actually mean you are even dumber than I think you are, so I hope that's not what you're trying to do.

from the Atlantic comment thread. zinnnng:

"One feels for these students. But if an email about Halloween costumes has them skipping class and suffering breakdowns, either they need help from mental-health professionals or they’ve been grievously ill-served by debilitating ideological notions they’ve acquired about what ought to cause them pain."

Must be difficult to be in college these days, organize a protest, and have to consider the feelings of a Atlantic article commenter.

skipping class wow that never happens in college

brilliant call to send these miscreants off to the psych so they can get prescription medication like a normal American

several years ago just as i started working at a slac they held an all-faculty meeting to do a bit of onboarding, old and new faculty together, and they went over a little presentation on unexpected ways young people might be very different than the olds expected. among them, the constant contact with parents, and the increased prevalence of already-diagnosed or yet-to-be-diagnosed mental health problems.

like, they did a quick survey about phones and text messaging frequency and things like that, and of the couple-hundred-ish faculty in the room, i, already past 30, was one of the few people in the room whose answers aligned with the students rather than the faculty. the social/behavioral facts across generations are just different.

it's symptomatic of some larger trends in campus activism

― wizzz! (amateurist), Tuesday, November 10, 2015 1:04 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

no, it isn't part of any trend. that's part of what i was posting about initially. reporters who have covered protests at any point in the past all chimed in and said "yes, this is what happens, what's the story."

i guarantee you if you were at the campus tent cities set up in protest about apartheid in the 1980s you would have found conflicts between reporters wanting to go into the middle of them and protestors seeking to restrict access.

in fact if you are at any event ever, even in a public space, and it is well managed, you will find people directing reporters to where they would and would not like them to be. usually reporters who are more seasoned have figured out ways to navigate that and push their access but also know when they should not escalate, in order to get the best story possible. those reporters have typically learned that yelling "free speech" is not a good way to get people to talk to you, engage with you, and allow you good access to cover them.

a good read on press access and the relationship to protests is, of all things, mailer's armies of the night btw.

I can't tell if these ongoing college incidents are indicative of a tiny minority of students seeking accommodations that they may very well grow out of or if they imply broader cultural shifts among a large and diverse similarly aged demographic. And I feel like it is in the interest of this potentially radical minority and the media seeking controversial narratives and political antagonists alike to make them seem larger and more significant than maybe they are which just distorts the picture more.

i think that's fair

sterling, i'll give your post more thought. i don't think what i saw is as routine as you argue, and i do think that it entails an unreasonable extension or misuse of the concept of "safe spaces" -- which connects it to larger trends in campus life. but i don't want to be too dismissive.

i still think that your assertion that the story is /either/ "x" or "y"--and that talking about "x" is necessarily to discount or obscure "y"--is condescending at best.

missouri school of journalism paper's story on Jonathan Butler

http://www.columbiamissourian.com/news/higher_education/quest-for-justice-drives-mu-hunger-striker-to-grab-things/article_8fbbb75e-873a-11e5-a683-4f42206b7731.html