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Snitches get riches: University rewards student callouts with cash
The Post Millenial ^ | 1/15/2020 | Libby Emmons and Barrett Wilson

Posted on 01/15/2020 7:32:29 PM PST by Mount Athos

Students can now get paid to snitch on their peers at the University of Sheffield. The students will earn £9.34/hour to be “race equality champions,” and their training for the work will include teaching them how to “lead healthy conversations” on racism, microaggressions, and how to deal with those peers who commit infractions. Hours range from two to nine hours per week, like any part-time work-study job. But Sheffield University’s foray into “snitch culture” sounds alarm bells.

Following a report from the Equality and Human Rights Commission that cautioned about the “common occurrence” of racism for some students on campus, the University decided to combat the problem by weaponizing other students. Twenty, lucky kids will get this job, and it’s probable that plenty more would have done it for free, as have their authoritarian forebears.

This new job, such as it is, is rightfully being hailed as completely authoritarian and crazy. Anyone who has studied 20th-century history knows that the worst dictators and totalitarians of that era counted on citizens to report on one another, under threat of punishment if they did not.

Citizens in the Soviet Union, Germany, China, Spain, and other nations with brutal, paranoid leaders impressed upon their citizens how important it was that they rat out their friends, family, and co-workers.

Now that trend has some to the ultimate allied nation, the U.K. The students who take these jobs will undoubtedly think they are doing the right thing in carrying out their duties. But in trying to overcome racism, they are dividing them further.

Part of the job description is for students to call out their peers for microaggressions.

If a fellow student says to another “Stop making everything a race issue,” that’s considered a microaggression and is a reason for reporting under this new plan. If a student says “Why are you searching for things to be offended about?” That’s considered “not okay,” and that peer must be punished. The question “Where are you really from?” is apparently out of bounds, and other geographical infractions like “I don’t want to hear about your holiday to South Africa. It’s nowhere near where I’m from” is a reason to call out a kid for being racist.

Students complained about the microaggression of “Being compared to black celebrities that I look nothing like,” which would be pretty annoying for the kid who got that wrong, but is it a reason to be reported?

The University of Sheffield claims that they are just “opening up a conversation” by paying students “to help their peers understand racism and its impact.” In 2018, the University suffered some racially motivated incidents, with racial slurs found written on a whiteboard, and slurs yelled at games.

Of course, there’s no place for racism on campuses, but the way to root it out is through education and conversation, not monetized McCarthyism. Call-out culture, snitch culture, and the reframing of the conversation around how to control our thoughts does not alleviate racism; it buries it where it can fester.

Fighting racism is a positive project, but it’s not done through dividing us, through pitting peers against each other, but through a culture of egalitarianism and equality. Knowing that we are different is not as important as recognizing all the ways in which we are the same.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: britain; education; england; redguard

1 posted on 01/15/2020 7:32:29 PM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Mount Athos

Snitches get riches


2 posted on 01/15/2020 7:34:21 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Decade of decision for America)
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To: a fool in paradise

indeed


3 posted on 01/15/2020 7:35:28 PM PST by Mount Athos
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To: Mount Athos
Fighting racism is a positive project

How about declaring victory and moving on....
4 posted on 01/15/2020 7:39:19 PM PST by cgbg (The Democratic Party is morphing into the Donner Party)
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To: Mount Athos

Do they get fined if they report a hate crime and it is fake?


5 posted on 01/15/2020 7:42:14 PM PST by a fool in paradise (Decade of decision for America)
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To: Mount Athos

The little kids from 1984

If you never thought about murdering a snitch that can ruin your life, you’ll think about it now.


6 posted on 01/15/2020 7:43:39 PM PST by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not Averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: Mount Athos

Bolshevism


7 posted on 01/15/2020 7:44:06 PM PST by mo ("If you understand, no explanation is needed; if you don't understand, no explanation is possible")
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To: Mount Athos

The Hitler youth makes a comeback.


8 posted on 01/15/2020 7:52:09 PM PST by headstamp 2 (There's a stairway to heaven, but there's also a highway to hell.)
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To: Mount Athos

Death to Stalinazi Totalitarianism and its disciples !


9 posted on 01/15/2020 8:08:18 PM PST by fieldmarshaldj (Dear Mr. Kotter, #Epsteindidntkillhimself - Signed, Epstein's Mother)
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To: a fool in paradise

If they bothered me they wouldn’t get micro aggression.

They’d get the real ####ing thing.


10 posted on 01/15/2020 9:09:51 PM PST by dp0622 (Radicals, racists Don't point fingers at me I'm a small town white boy Just tryin' to make ends meet)
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To: Mount Athos

Knowing about this, just WHY would anyone want to go to school there; especially now that school fees have been upped in the UK?


11 posted on 01/15/2020 9:18:32 PM PST by nopardons
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To: Mount Athos

If I went to another school, I would show up on campus and macro aggress people and scream “rape!” whenever one of these brownshirts approched me.


12 posted on 01/16/2020 12:39:31 AM PST by angmo
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To: Mount Athos

I bet the reason behind this was not even mentioned in the article: enforcement of Sharia law.


13 posted on 01/16/2020 12:49:59 AM PST by Nateman (If the left is not screaming, you are doing it wrong ...and Epstein did not kill himself.)
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To: nopardons

because they have been propagandized not to think it is wrong.


14 posted on 01/16/2020 3:34:05 AM PST by Chickensoup (Voter ID for 2020!! Leftists totalitarian fascists appear to be planning to eradicate conservatives)
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To: Mount Athos
Students complained about the microaggression of “Being compared to black celebrities that I look nothing like,”

I look like Carlton from the Fresh Prince.

And he stole my best dance moves : /

15 posted on 01/16/2020 5:39:57 AM PST by NativeSon ( What Would Virginia Do? #WWVD)
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To: Mount Athos
"Students can now get paid to snitch on their peers at the University of Sheffield."

Coming to American Universities soon, I'm sure.

On the other hand, the UK does not have a constitution that explicitly gives it's subjects the right to free speech / freedom of expression. So maybe this is still lawful in their system.
16 posted on 01/16/2020 8:24:37 AM PST by indthkr
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To: Mount Athos

I’m sure the university administration would flip out if some whistleblower leaked the list of snitches.


17 posted on 01/16/2020 11:28:58 AM PST by PapaBear3625 ("Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." -- Voltaire)
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