Posted on 11/27/2013 2:33:10 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Racial tensions are inflamed at the University of California at Los Angeles following several incidents — most notably, one where a professor corrected the grammar, punctuation and capitalization in minority students’ assignments.
The act of correcting a black student was “micro-aggression,” according to the members of the student group “Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color,” which launched a sit-in during a subsequent meeting of the class.
“A hostile campus climate has been the norm for Students of Color in this class throughout the quarter as our epistemological and methodological commitments have been repeatedly questioned by our classmates and our instructor,” wrote the group in a statement to the college. “[The] barrage of questions by white colleagues and the grammar ‘lessons’ by the professor have contributed to a hostile class climate.”
Some 25 students participated in the sit-in, including five of the 10 members of the class.
Val Rust, a professor of education and information, was the official target of the sit-in, though the aggrieved minority students had problems with UCLA’s handling of racial issues that went far beyond just one classroom, according to Inside Higher Ed.
Rust is guest-lecturing in China this week, and did not respond to a request for comment. He sent a letter to his colleagues in the education department, however, in which he clarified that he meant no offense to minorities.
“I have attempted to be rather thorough on the papers and am particularly concerned that they do a good job with their bibliographies and citations, and these students apparently don’t feel that is appropriate,” he said in a statement, according to The Daily Bruin.
Some of the corrections were clarified by sit-in organizer Kenjus Watson. Rust told one student that she should not capitalize the word “indigenous” in her papers. This correction was ideologically-motivated, according to Watson.
Rust admitted that he likely made matters worse by not aggressively and proactively taking the side of a minority student who was engaged in an argument with a white female student. The minority student told the woman that she had no right to feel oppressed, and Rust did not express agreement either way.
“Two weeks ago a Student of Color and a white female student got into a big discussion,” said Rust. “She wants to use Standpoint Theory [a method of analysis coined by feminist sociologist Dorothy Smith, based on the idea that all knowledge is subjective and based on one's position in society] in her dissertation, and the Student of Color told her she had no business claiming that she was a member of an oppressed group.”
“She came back saying there are all kinds of oppression. I likely did not handle the situation well, because I chose not to stop the discussion between them, so it went on for quite a while, and the Students of Color apparently interpreted my silence to mean I wasn’t supporting them.”
But the minority community at UCLA is upset about more than just Rust’s class. A recent report claimed that minority professors are the victims of discrimination and racial bias. The report urged the university to strengthen its bias incident response procedures and hire a Discrimination Officer.
“What we’re speaking to is part of a larger, institutionalized culture on campus,” said Watson in a statement.
The university did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There are different races and cultures on this planet. Some cultures are just ruder than others. Some cultures are more treacherous than others. Each race has its own color of skin.
Any race that has not mastered the grammar and punctuation of its language does not belong in college - let alone graduate school.
Could be even smaller if we are talking about my budget compared to the country.
I can use “their” if I want to. It’s up to you to figure out what I meant. Don’t oppress me with your white rules of grammar.
Only people of color can be oppressed. That is why so many people of color hate Jews and deny the holocaust. Truth be known, the most oppressed group in today’s America is the evil adult white male. I thank the Lord every day that at the age of almost 60 I am still employed. Too many of my peers are looking for a new start, having lost their careers due to 0bamanomics. I have told some of them to put the following on job applications. Last position held: “Gay Serial Killer”.
Why don’t these stupid asses give up on education then?
Just go back to the wild and hunt with spears if you want to stay so ignorant.
As far as I know, the only graduate programs where students do not pay for the education are in the hard sciences. These are also the programs that train students for jobs that have very low unemployment rates (about 2% in my field).
Graduate students in soft subjects often accumulate mountains of debt, and graduate to find out there are no jobs in their field. Sure, their masters and PhD certificates look nice on the wall, and the PhD recipients are privileged to be called "Dr.", but their degrees are worthless. There is not a lot of employment out there for people whose main skill is digging up proof of racism, sexism, and other isms everywhere they look.
That probably depends on your field of study. The hard sciences still attract rational people who, for the most part, are sane thinkers. That's because people actually have to be intelligent to pursue higher study in hard sciences.
Bolshevik law exempt gangs meet menshevik elitist white hypocrite liberals.
Maybe we should also have our own government gun freenzones, starting with the home.
That would be economics times one million.
Dear God! Parents are paying money, students are borrowing money to waste time on this drivel?
This is beyond farce.
You just corrected your spelling. You are oppressing yourself. I am going to report you to the authorities You have no right to oppress yourself
Haha. You saved me the trouble of having to post a correction to your earlier post.
;-)
It probably didn’t help when the professor remarked to the Students of Color during their sit-in:
“I see you finally found something you can excel in.”
My first History test in college (1960), as i was hillbilly freshman, was marked up and 34 words were red lined.
The professor called me out and said that “college students must be able to spell”
“you will fail the is course if you can’t spell, regardless of your knowledge of history” He was kind enough not to point me out!
Learned my lesson then and there!
Don’t correct the student, just give them a piss poor score and move on. There is no point to trying to “educate” a tribe of idiots with a chip on their shoulder.
What pisses me off is those minority students probably have tons of loans and grants, while the white students had to pay their way, much like I had to do with my 2.
“There is not a lot of employment out there for people whose main skill is digging up proof of racism, sexism, and other isms everywhere they look.”
It’s like basketball. A lot of people play it, most don’t make a nickle at it, but a select few at the top will do very well. Look at the Revs Sharpton and Jackson.
Q: How does an engineer get a philosopher off of his front porch?
A: He pays her for the pizza.
Lol!
Educational progress in AmeriKa. We are in deep poop, knowwhattImSayyin!
My son taught grad students at the University of Texas. When he corrected graduate students spelling and grammar, he was labeled an elitist snob. He is no longer in academia.
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