On US college campuses, a debate over what is considered 'free speech'
Students in America are angry.
Over what, exactly? The debate is deeply philosophical at the core. In one camp stand minority students who say they feel marginalized want to protect their safety. In the other camp are those who say they wish to uphold academia's longstanding tradition of fostering debate, and welcoming dissent, on sensitive issues.
The two in what is now a famous example from the University of Missouri, where was blocked by a mob from documenting Missouri students protesting in a public space. The mob chanted 鈥淕o, go, go!鈥� while Tai fired back, 鈥淭he First Amendment protects your right and mine to be here.鈥�
The Twitter account associated with the activists later explained, 鈥� so the place where people live, fellowship, and sleep can be protected from twisted insincere narratives. It鈥檚 typically white media who don鈥檛 understand the importance of respecting black spaces.鈥澛�
The Missouri case 鈥� which resulted in the resignation of the university's president 鈥� illustrates a deeper thread snaking across college campuses: a shift in thought about freedom of expression in academia. At Yale University, about Halloween costumes erupted into controversy that simmered for days. A top administrator at last week amid race protsts. The University of Southern California is devoting an entire fund to . At Mount Holyoke, students of the play "The Vagina Monologues" because it failed to include transgender women.聽
In short, college administrators have a lot to deal with right now. Some commentators have complained that what鈥檚 missing is聽adult leadership.
鈥淭oo often university presidents, their boards of trustees and leading political figures default, and quickly, to the most reactionary ,鈥� wrote The Wall Street Journal. 鈥淲e want to be clear about this, because so many of these university leaders regard themselves as principled liberals. But their timidity is putting at risk the classical liberal values that are the essence of the idea of a university.鈥�
The deeper question university administrators are faced with is how to reconcile an issue as intangible as creating 鈥渟afe spaces鈥� for its student body 鈥� a safe space that, as was the case with Missouri, is exclusive of discussion, and even media coverage.
On Tuesday The New York Times of collected grievances from students around the country.聽
The list is long 鈥� and varied. Grievances vary from witnessing a student fly a Confederate flag on campus to a Latina woman being told to 鈥済o back to Iran.鈥�
This isn鈥檛 the first time American academia has wrestled with so-called political correctness. In the 1980鈥檚 and 鈥�90鈥檚, student protests were surging. But as reported by The Atlantic, today's protests have a different basis. 鈥� (specifically hate speech aimed at marginalized groups), but it also challenged the literary, philosophical and historical canon, seeking to widen it by including more-diverse perspectives. The current movement is about emotional well-being.鈥�
The movement to restrict hate speech from campuses in the 80鈥檚 was largely successful; campuses saw a paradigm shift in the vocabulary concerning minority students. But today's movement is harder to define, at least in part because many see it as a paradoxical movement that does something not usually associated with campus protests, and that is to limit freedom of expression.
