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UC Faculty Training: Saying ‘America Is the Land of Opportunity’ Is a Microaggression
National Review ^ | 06/11/2015 | By Katherine Timpf

Posted on 06/11/2015 4:53:00 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The phrase is just one of many that faculty were advised not to use.

A University of California faculty leader-training handout instructed professors not to say that “America is the land of opportunity” because that’s a racist, sexist microaggression.

According to the handout, called “Tool: Recognizing Microaggressions and the Messages they Send,” the statement “assert[s] that race and gender [do] not play a role in life successes” — despite the fact that saying opportunities exist and saying that opportunities are more easily attainable for some people than others are not mutually exclusive assertions.

Other microaggressions listed on the document include asking, “Where are you from or where were you born?” (because it suggests that the person you’re asking is “not a true American”); asking a post-doctoral minority student whether he or she is lost in the halls of a chemistry building (because it makes ”the assumption that the person is trying to break into one of the labs”); and having students fill out forms on which they have to check a box indicating whether they’re male or female.

Another handout, called “Tool for Identifying Implicit Bias: Awareness of Common Shortcuts,” listed some no-nos for conducting a job search, including “expecting candidates to resemble someone whom the search committee is replacing” — despite the fact that looking to replace an employee with a similar employee seems pretty logical given the fact that the replacement by definition would be doing the same kind of work.

According to the university’s webpage, the seminars were initiated by UC president and former Department of Homeland Security head Janet Napolitano. Napolitano’s invitation touted them as a place to talk about the “best way to build and nurture a productive academic climate” and help attendees meet their “responsibility” to do so.

Napolitano’s invitation, dated last January, announced that the seminars would be offered at all ten UC system schools, but an article posted Wednesday on the College Fix states that they were held at only nine of the ten campuses throughout the 2014–15 school year.

— Katherine Timpf is a reporter for National Review Online.


TOPICS: Education; History; Society
KEYWORDS: academicbias; antiamericanism; california; college; endwhiteshaming; exceptionalism; faculty; leftismoncampus; liberalidiots; microaggression
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To: TurboZamboni
...fried chicken.

More microagression?

21 posted on 06/11/2015 5:54:36 AM PDT by sima_yi ( Reporting live from the far North)
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To: SeekAndFind
asking a post-doctoral minority student whether he or she is lost in the halls of a chemistry building (because it makes ”the assumption that the person is trying to break into one of the labs”);

In business, if you see someone roaming the halls who looks lost or confused, you ask to see a company badge or where they are going.

In academia, apparently, the more confused one looks means the more micro-aggressed they will be when approached.

t thought we were all told after 9/11 to look for out-of-place behaviors -- if you see it, report it. Why would someone ignore a stranger wandering aimlessly by laboratories stocked with dangerous chemicals?

-PJ

22 posted on 06/11/2015 5:55:39 AM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: rarestia
What's even more comical (or sad, depending on your point of view) is that the presence of "disrespect" need only exist in the mind of the recipient.

One point of all this is to justify being angry for no good reason.

It flips the entire basis for "aggression" upside down. Do something thoughtful or nice, and become the aggressor. Ignore the perpetually offended, and become the aggressor.

23 posted on 06/11/2015 5:57:43 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: GreenHornet
-- What exactly is the definition of "Microaggression?" --

Whatever some lunatic wants to make it mean. "acting white" is microagression, and I suppose "being white" is, too.

24 posted on 06/11/2015 6:00:08 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

My gulf war veteran principal I had back in the 6th grade said the same thing.


25 posted on 06/11/2015 6:04:12 AM PDT by the_individual2014
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To: bmwcyle

“Cultural Marxism had not taken control.”

No Marxism at least makes a bit of logical sense even if it is fallacious ideology. This is sophistry of the worst kind.

Basically this is an argument from authority and force.


26 posted on 06/11/2015 6:15:14 AM PDT by Fai Mao (Genius at Large)
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To: SeekAndFind; GeronL; MeshugeMikey

Time was California explicitly outlawed Communists and seditionists from indocrinating school students.

The Democrats of the past decade changed that law.

The rewards of their action are becoming evident every day.


27 posted on 06/11/2015 6:16:11 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Funny how Hollywood's 'No Nukes' crowd has been silent during Obama's Iranian nuclear negotiations.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Land of opportunity.
Rags to richs (no caste system).
Free to produce (you do not have to be born into the guild).
The State does not get to dictate your profession or where you will work (as under the Communist model).

There ARE differences between America and other nations.


28 posted on 06/11/2015 6:19:03 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Funny how Hollywood's 'No Nukes' crowd has been silent during Obama's Iranian nuclear negotiations.)
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To: NativeSon
so if America is not the land of opportunity, why would all these people be streaming in?

Invasion.

29 posted on 06/11/2015 6:19:32 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Funny how Hollywood's 'No Nukes' crowd has been silent during Obama's Iranian nuclear negotiations.)
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To: rarestia

The Left uses “microaggression” to impose OCD the way Imam use the koran to impose Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.


30 posted on 06/11/2015 6:21:12 AM PDT by a fool in paradise (Funny how Hollywood's 'No Nukes' crowd has been silent during Obama's Iranian nuclear negotiations.)
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To: Cboldt

There are plenty of people on social media reminding these lightweight morons that there’s no “right to not be offended.” It’s disgusting how prevalent this is now.


31 posted on 06/11/2015 6:22:28 AM PDT by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Who creates these stupid leftist prog words (safe room; microaggression; deniers) and how do they manage to spread them like wildfire throughout the land? Worse, why do normal people play along and immediately adopt them? We start speaking their language right away, usually in ridicule, but that reinforces the term nevertheless. Wouldn’t it be better to just ignore such stupidity?

Conservative attempts to counter with their own words always fail (warmist).


32 posted on 06/11/2015 6:23:52 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom (For those who understand, no explanation is needed. For those who do not, no explanation is possible)
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To: rarestia

Fairly amazing that some adults actually put out “training” material that aims to legitimize being unreasonably offended. well, maybe not too amazing, lunacy runs in adults too.


33 posted on 06/11/2015 6:27:18 AM PDT by Cboldt
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To: GodBlessRonaldReagan

These people at UC are engaging in WACKOAGGRESSION


34 posted on 06/11/2015 7:40:48 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: a fool in paradise

Im working on concepts to illustrate what a MicroAggression might “look like...” a tiny Icon.....

Id appreciate all the help I can get on this project..


35 posted on 06/11/2015 7:42:31 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: a fool in paradise

Motivated to Work Privilege


36 posted on 06/11/2015 10:04:47 AM PDT by GeronL
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To: GreenHornet
What exactly is the definition of “Microaggression?”

It means: "Since no matter how hard we look for examples of racism-based lynchings, racism-based policies or laws, or any real hate speech we have decided to make up invisible acts of racism and oppression to complain about. If we were to admit that real racism and bias have all but been eliminated in our society then we would be out of jobs."

37 posted on 06/11/2015 10:12:40 AM PDT by Cementjungle
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