Week 7- Rachel Ibrahim

Rachel Ibrahim

Week 7

Section A03

The article about the Free Speech movement in Berkeley was an excellent example of this week’s theme of academic freedom and its threats. A huge component of college is learning about the world, its politics and how you want to be a part of it. Part of this includes the freedom to choose and express whatever political opinion you desire. We (America) pride ourselves on being the land of the free yet the FSM in Berkley proves that no such freedom exists. The ability the university has to shut down free speech and arrest students for expressing their opinions might be the biggest threat to academic freedom there is. In addition to that, I also thought ‘The Coddling of the American Mind’ brought up a lot of good points that border on being a threat to academic freedom as well. Similar to what Professor Valverde said during the beginning of this course, there is no such thing as a safe space-- or at least in the real world. I definitely believe that while unfortunate, the real world is a tough and vindictive place that college is supposed to prepare their students for. As Lukianoff and Haidt said, ‘what are we doing to our students if we encourage them to develop extra-thin skin just before they leave the cocoon of adult protection?’ I think this coddling of emotions and hypersensitivity can ultimately be harmful in the long run. Restrictive speech and political correctness definitely has a place and time, but maybe not to quite the extent it is being used these days. Obviously, hate speech, racial discrimination, etc should not be tolerated, but words and events that are not targeting a group/person in attempt to cause fear, uncomfortableness and/or harm shouldn’t be considered as negative as it is. Viewing every little comment and micro-aggression as something that needs to be eliminated from the university environment is teaching students that they should be hurt by every little thing they find somewhat offensive. This is an unsustainable practice that doesn’t set students up for success. In addition to creating this unrealistic ‘safe space’ within universities, they also tend to band sensitive topics, like rape or violence within our history, and this is another type of infringement upon our academic learning.

Question: While a lot of sensitivity towards and the banning of potentially hurtful topics can sometimes be a bit ridiculous, are there certain things that really should be banned? Or is any type of censorship that is justified because of this reasoning? In other words, do we have a right to learn about everything or are there some things that really shouldn’t be discussed?

References:

Lukianoff, G & Haidt, J. (2015, September). “The Coddling of the American Mind.” The Atlantic.

Cohen, R. (1985). Berkeley Free Speech Movement: Paving the way for campus activism. OAH Magazine of History,1(1), 16-18.

Singal, J. (2015, December 6). Is There Any Evidence Trigger Warnings Are Actually a Big Deal? Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/12/are-trigger-warnings-actually-widespread-at-all.html