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.
It’s entertaining when a bunch of progressives (including the professor) get tangled up and adversarial over who is more politically correct.
“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.”
WOW! You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried. It’s like arguments I used to hear in Berkeley over whether this-or-that was Marxist or Trotskyite. No normal person cares because the distinctions are rubbish.
Socrates would be delighted....debate among a state of higher learning was always a good thing. Course, with Socrates...there never is a true winner. There must always be a debate, which leads to another debate, which leads onto another debate.
I was in grad school in the ‘80s. Wouldn’t be able to do it in this brave new world:
I would be telling to many people to go **** themselves.
to= too
I DUNNO....sounds rassiss
Since when is a professor *required* to side with any brown student against a white student, regardless of topic?
In any case, the situation would have been made far more ironic had the professor stepped in on that particular topic, because the white student could then immediately point to the professor’s proactive stance against her as proof that whites get oppressed too, and that there are many forms of oppression including ideological.
I was in college in the early nineties; I was encouraged by the number of foreign students (primarily Indian and Arab) who didn’t mind telling a feminist professor that their cultures had survived thousands of years with traditional gender roles, and would continue to do so. The furious professor didn’t seem to comprehend that the students’ very presence in her classroom, in her country, were the writing on the wall that the post-Christian West was finished.
Showing their illiteracy right there by using "text speech" to name their organization.
Another incident demonstrating our culture is being destroyed by our education system.
Some cultures have standards and value achievement, some do not. Our elites have chosen to accept mediocrity. The barbarians are inside the gates. We know from history how that turns out.
Just think the students complaining will soon be teaching our children and grandchildren on a college or university and will be considered by society to be great thinkers.
I wonder how many of these students are actually paying for their “education?”
“The report urged the university to strengthen its bias incident response procedures and hire a Discrimination Officer.”
Of course; another BS job in the grievance industry - probably to be filled by some token who doesn’t use proper grammar. We are desperately trying to create work for people with no marketable skills.
Tried to read it.
It all started to look like blah blah blah blah...
At what point do the parasites finally kill the host?
Students that don’t want to be taught? I guess they should just purchase their degrees outright, or have the taxpayers do that for them, in actuality. Surely then they will have the equality they demand?
cracKa aIn’T gonna TelL mE when to use bIg letteRs,,,
Micro (µ) is a prefix in the metric system denoting a factor of 10-6 (one millionth).
So “micro-economics” is “one-millionth economics”? What’s “macro-economics” then?
Their days are numbered, as are the hairs on their heads. Obama is creating a lot of cant-free young people.
Why did you correct your spelling? Are you racist against yourself?
I find it ironic that it used to be illegal to teach negroes to read and write, and now their fighting to bring that back. Democrats are good at what they do.
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