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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Sanitizing Higher Education
By Robert Weissberg
The intellectual damage caused by forcing the university to admit
academically ill-prepared minority students is seemingly endless, but just
when it seems that matters cannot get any worse, they do.
The latest installment of this crusade now occurs at the University of
Illinois-Urbana, a school where I taught political science for 28 years, so
I know this nonsense first hand. Here’s the sorrowful tale (for a Harvard
version, see here).
According to the 45% of those who responded to a recent on-line survey of
4800 U of I students of color (black, Asian, Hispanic and multi-racial)
during the 2011-12 academic year, a quarter reported that their classroom
contributions “have been minimized because of race” and they were “made
to feel inferior because of the way they spoke." Fifty-one percent felt that
they were stereotyped and a third reported that their classroom
participation was minimized while 25% believed that were not taken seriously
due to their race.
In addition, 40% also felt uncomfortable on campus, especially in fraternity
and sorority housing. Much of this comes under the heading of micro-
aggression -- classmates seemed reluctant to sit near them during class,
white students hinted that minority students owed their U of I admission to
affirmative action and how during class discussion they were often called
upon to supply a “racial minority view.” Such is the nature of this
unconscious micro-aggression that asking a dark-skinned student where he or
she was born is deemed harmful. Indeed, the denial of white racism or white
privilege is itself a form of racial micro-aggression (p. 3 of the report).
As a professor who long taught race-related topics, allegations of classroom
micro-aggression are particular relevant. The report abounds with
illustrations of this barely hidden hostility, but the following two
excerpts must suffice:
I have noticed that being a man of my race and stature, many of my white
peers in classrooms will have expressions or comments of disbelief towards
me when I make an intellectual remark or if I get a concept that they may be
struggling with. (African American, Male)
When working in groups with my classmates, I was always given the easy
portion of the project because they assumed that I was not capable of doing
the harder parts. (African American, Female)
Tellingly, no defense witnesses are called. The victim’s beliefs are
sufficient to convict. I can only imagine the indignation if professors
could (even anonymously) counter these allegations and cross examine the
accuser. How many students would actually level the accusations?
Though I did not teach at the U of I when this survey was conducted, I’m
pretty sure that the reactions of these offended students is accurate for
the simple reason that many blacks and Hispanics are in over their heads.
Beginning in 1975 I regularly taught classes with affirmative action blacks
(the university at that time identified them) and their academic
deficiencies were obvious (but not true for Asians). Their classroom
comments were often uninformed and thus treated with disdain judged by the
facial reactions of their smarter classmates. Their grades were also often
dismal.
Now, how is all this thinly veiled hostility to be fixed (and here I assume
that most of this effort will focus on black and Hispanic students given the
overall success of Asians)? The report calls for such remediations as more
faculty training to facilitate less hostile class interactions, lessons for
instructors on how to avoid stereotypes, increasing self-awareness of
prejudice among white professors, adding racial bias items to teacher
evaluation forms and, perhaps most relevant for faculty, including “
diversity engagement” in the tenure and promotion decisions (i.e., so
tenure will not require following the party line).
For students, there would be a General Education requirement about race,
white privilege, and inequality in the United States plus a course about
people of color in both Western and Non-western settings. Then increase the
opportunities for inter-group dialogue and team building plus more workshops
on cultural competency and tolerance and, perhaps most frightening, create
mechanisms for students to report perceived racial micro-aggressions (
emphasis added). That is, students will be enlisted as Politically Correct
spies. One can only be reminded of the Spanish Inquisition’s efforts to
stamp out the slightest traces of religious heresy. The list is a truly
breathtaking compendium of Stalinist measures to impose a political
orthodoxy.
Does anyone honestly believe that it is possible to sanitize university life
, eliminate these often invisible, inherently subjective micro-aggressions?
Keep in mind that a professor who encourages a lively give-and-take
discussion will invariably be guilty of micro-aggression. And if this
remediation feat were accomplished, would blacks and Hispanics then graduate
in record numbers and go on to productive careers? Would the world improve
if the University of Illinois advertised itself as an ever-so-caring place
of learning where nobody was ever offended or forced to feel bad about their
racial or ethnic groups? If subtle racism is as debilitating as alleged,
what explains widespread black failure in the racism-free sciences? Or is
physics and chemistry similarly infected but beyond the ken of whites?
Expunging micro-aggression is especially daunting since these black students
from Kindergarten onward have been marinated in paranoia-like victimhood.
Moreover, for countless academically struggling minorities, this bogus
explanation of their academic insufficiency is the perfect excuse and one
that cannot be challenged since disputation itself proves debilitating white
racism. Why study in such a poisonous environment? And without hard work,
performance of these minority students will decline yet further and there
will be even more perceived micro-aggression (low grades will certainly
become micro-aggression).
For professors valuing their careers large areas of social sciences terrain
will become terra incognita. Why risk offending sensitive souls by venturing
into anything that deals with race? But, if one must venture forth on
topics like crime or affirmative action, just drink the Kool-Aid and flatter
the sensibilities of hypersensitive minority students, even this entails
lying. If some black students believe that the Black Panthers were just a
free breakfast charity, don’t argue (I once faced such a black student who
vigorously made this argument). Better yet, hire racial ideologues to teach
everything that touches on race, since they will surely avoid offending
black students. In today’s university, in a contest between truth and
keeping the peace, the latter always wins.
Down deep none of this concerns racial micro-aggression. I seriously doubt
that the University of Illinois administrators buy this nonsense or are
likely to accept the report’s recommendations beyond a few symbolic steps.
The entire enterprise is really about inventing “scientific” excuses for
black and Hispanic academic failure (black enrollments are down at the U of
I). Administrators know full well that multiple remedial programs have
failed for 50 years and this new proposed hypercoddling will join the rest.
To repeat, if anything, eliminating all discomfort guarantees an incomplete
though psychologically satisfying education, just what struggling minority
students need. So, like primitive people facing yet more draught, the
calamity must be blamed on something, perhaps an evil spirit, spiteful gods
or even witchcraft.
Lastly, imagine what happens when these mollycoddled students join the
workforce? They will be shocked by any criticism and may even sue to protect
their delicate egos from those who disagree with them. Who would hire such
employees even with a University of Illinois degree? |
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