Synopsis of Week 8 Notes:
This week I collected data from three different sources–all electronic newspaper articles. The first source I explored was a New York Times article titled “I Came to College Eager to Debate. I Found Self-Censorship Instead.” By Emma Camp. The article outlines the experience of a UVA senior who found public-shaming to be commonplace at UVA in political discussion and debate. The article brings in a recently-conducted study, as well as testimony from students and professors in the academic community. The source furthers my understanding of the topic in a few fundamental ways. First, it shows me that belief shaming and self-censorship are prevalent across all universities in the US. Next, it amplified my understanding of how fear plays into this dynamic. Finally, this source corroborates my theory that institutions are pounding their students intellectual curiosity into submission.
The next source I explored was a NY Post article titled “Yale law students disrupt bipartisan free speech panel, trigger police escort” by Yaren Steinbuch. This article came in direct response to an incident that took place at Yale’s law school last month. During a bipartisan meeting, hosted by Yale’s Federalist Society but aimed to show that people with different viewpoints could agree on matters of free speech, hundreds of protesters arrived in aggressive and threatening fashion to demand the meeting be adjourned. The event escalated so much so that local police had to escort audience members and panelists of the discussion out of the building. This source (and the event it describes) will be instrumental in driving home the point of hypocrisy in my argument. How can these student protesters claim to be fighting for equality and diversity of thought, yet be rigorously working to deny that to a specific group (conservative thinkers or leaders) based on their beliefs? How would this event be perceived if the roles were reversed, and conservative students protested a speech panel hostel by liberal students? How would the labeling of these protesters be different if roles were reversed? Moreover, this data helps to convey the fear and anxiety that students face when they choose to participate in conversations that threaten other peoples’ feelings.
The final source I drew from this week was a Forbes article titled, “Most College Students Don’t Want to Discuss Views on Politics, Race, and Other Controversial Issues on Campus.” The article is from March of last year, and it references a survey that was conducted on the topic. I chose this source because there was a specific quote that resonated with me: “Criticism of Black Lives Matter is no longer seen as an opinion; it is seen as form of racism. The opinion that Trans women should not compete on women’s sports teams is seen as a form of trans-phobia. A wide range of political opinions within universities are now viewed a form of unacceptable discrimination” (Gerstmann, Forbes). This excerpt gets at the very core of my research. Topics of public relevance have become so taboo that instead of being discussed pragmatically, opposing views are deemed racist, transphobic, classist, sexist, homophobic, etcetera. Feelings have become so fragile that disagreement is mislabeled as discrimination. My next step with these sources will be to synthesize all of this material into cohesive sub-arguments.