Week 7
A03
Free speech is protected in the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights. This freedom of speech, with the combination of a more accepting and progressive society, allows many individuals to express themselves the way they want. However, this progressive society has created a culture that tries to block anything that challenges their "progressiveness." In the article, "The Coddling of the American Mind" by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt, the progressive culture of millennials is criticized for their use of political correctness and how political correctness may hurt mental health on campus. Many millennials are the first to politically correct people to make sure others aren't offended, and they ask for trigger warnings, or to tell professor to "avoid teaching the subject in order to protect themselves and their classmates from potential distress" (Lukiandoff, 2015.) Many of these types of student push for censorship of "triggering" language to protect the ones that may have experienced traumatic events and possibly suffer PTSD from it. They use censorship in the name of political correctness to be able to make students feel safe and be able to express themselves, but this is very contradictory. This way of protectiveness "prepares them poorly for professional life, which often demands intellectual engagement with people and ideas one might find uncongenial or wrong" (Lukiandoff, 2015.) One of the problems that was investigated in this article, was that law students were pressuring law professors to avoid teaching rape law for the potential of triggering themselves and their classmates and protecting them from potential distress. Law professors found this difficult, because they felt like it was trying to teach "a medical student who is training to be a surgeon, but who fears that he'll become distressed if he sees or handles blood" (Lukiandoff, 2015.) Sometimes, there are subjects and issues that need to be talked about, and there is no other way around it. How can a lawyer help their clients if they do not know about all the language in the laws, including rape laws? Whether it be differing opinions or strictly academia, it is important to hear all sides of the story and to know one's history to truly understand it. When professors are deciding to teach material to a class of students that expects trigger warnings, they may end up avoid teaching the subject all together to save them the trouble that they might go through later. While trying to make sure that people do not feel uncomfortable in an environment, shielding them completely from things that may "trigger" them does not help either. In the article, it argues that shielding those with anxiety will instill their anxiety, and the best way to overcome anxiety is by Ivan Pavlov's exposure therapy, where they are able to build a tolerance to things that may be triggering.
This image below is a satire of how political correctness could be taken too far. For instance, in the article, there was an example of how a university brought a camel to campus for students to pet in light of "Hump Day," but the event was shut down due to animal abuse and offensiveness to the Middle Eastern community. In reality, the origin of "Hump Day" came from a commercial that made no Middle Eastern references and only featured the camel in a workplace.
Question: Where do you draw the line between being politically correct and being too sensitive?
Lukianoff, G. & Haidt, J. (2015). “The Coddling of the American Mind.” The Atlantic.
Singal, J. (2015). Is There Any Evidence Trigger Warnings Are Actually a Big Deal? Retrieved from http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2015/12/are-trigger-warnings-actually-widespread-at-all.html
The Book On All Sorts of Wrong [Cartoon]. (2011, April 14). Retrieved May 14, 2017, from http://imeanwhat.com/breaking-newzzz/kobe-minced-meat-bryant/
No comments:
Post a Comment