I would respectfully suggest that it’s usually not a good sign if your “side” is the one that’s wishing that objective video evidence didn’t exist.
The notion that the Silliman / Yale students were thrust into the limelight by the video is silly. These protests and marches would have occurred anyway. It was Christakis’s email that catalyzed this, not the video.
I also think the thread is close to jumping the shark if people are reduced to writing about wacky conspiracy theories involving Christakis working in cahoots with Lukianoff to stage a video.
An honest question … I’ve never heard of a Yale policy prohibiting anyone from taking a picture or a video of their open grounds or the people on it. Does one exist, or was this assertion false? If there is one, then I suspect there’s going to be a lot of sad tour bus operators today
Sorry, I don’t see the gray. The strawman is put up by the people who do.
If a man pinned a picture of a scantily clad woman in his cubicle and his female coworkers complained, does it matter that the woman in the photo was his wife or sister? Does it matter that his wife/sister lost 200 lbs to look good in that piece of fishnet and he’s simply proud to show off their achievement? Does it matter if was a picture of himself in the fishnet after he lost 200 lbs and became transgender? The answer is no, no and no.
If you have a costume you were gifted/inherited from a friend/relative who was in Japan, and there is a chance there are people who don’t know that at the party/workplace you attend, the answer is also no.
My daughter has never worn a Chinese costume for an event at which there is mixed company. She’s worn a cheongsam exactly twice in 17 years: once for a private family holiday (Chinese new year) and once a photo shoot. FWIW, she looks entirely caucasian. But even if she didn’t, all the Asians I know don’t celebrate their ethnicity at costume parties. I’ve never seen that. If you’re looking for guidance on whether celebrating an ethnicity at a costume party is okay – follow the example of the people in that ethnicity/group. If you know of Asians (or blacks or jews or hispanics or lesbians or whatever) who dress in their stereotypical identities/cultural uniforms at the costume parties — you must go to some interesting parties.
And Why doesn’t using the term MASTER offend any of these students? All day long they have to call someone master… That has extremely offensive historical connotations- more so than halloween costumes… is it bc it also has another meaning perhaps like some Halloween costumes can have??
These are all things that IMO should be open to discussion as opposed to regulation
I was talking to my daughter, a Yale student about this, and it seems that opinion is less divided on campus than it was, because of some context. The fact that video was taken and publicized by Lukianoff, in a technically private area of Yale (within Silliman), matters to students. He has been asked to take the video down, but has refused, and apparently Christakis demurred when asked to urge him to do so. The girl most prominently featured in the video has received death threats, as her name and address have been published. She has apparently left school.
Also, according to my source, Christakis is not well-liked as a master. He declined to have a master’s office or office hours (which is standard for masters), and decided not to host any senior events this year, which is very unusual. He was brought on as master over a much more beloved candidate because he wanted to be master and it was part of the package to lure him to Yale to teach. I can’t vouch for the accuracy of all this, but it might give some context to why a Master’s Aide is so angry at the master. I suspect that this is somewhat like the University of Missouri situation, in which a lot of general dissatisfaction with a leader boils over in some specific context that, to outsiders, seems like no big deal. (Note: I’m now unsure about whose name Christakis didn’t know–maybe it wasn’t the master’s aide, who surely he would know.)
I’ve been generally impressed with Salovey, the President of Yale, and I predict that he will deal reasonably with the situation. I do think it may well be that Christakis and his wife will step down, but if they do, it probably means that they didn’t have much support from other constituencies. As I said, I think that’s what happened at Missouri.
Isn’t it possible to support free speech and simultaneously ask people to be respectful of other’s feelings and beliefes? Both sides seem to be saying my way or the highway. People should be free to wear whatever costume they want regardless of how it might make someone feel vs people can’t say or do anything that might offend me and I am the only one that gets to decide what is offensive. The balance between the two has always been a challenge, but the students in transcript one do not seem to understand that if they curtail speech (or costumes) they don’t like someone else will come along and try to stop speech they support. Not sure how widespread this is at Yale (or Missou) but certainly should be part of the discussion about micro-aggression and unintentional racism.
ruswimyoga,
Interestingly, the history and use of the term “master” at Yale was discussed in NC’s first letter to his Silliman residents in August of this year. He invited the students to call him by his first name http://silliman.yalecollege.yale.edu/news/thoughts-title-master
Anyone else find it mildly amusing that the symbols on Silliman’s coat of arms/seal/shield are: acorns- a bunch of nuts? :-j ( Apparently they are from Vanderbilt’s family crest) http://silliman.yalecollege.yale.edu/about-silliman/history
Interesting how you are so sure that your answer is the right one. I disagree. I think if you are bothered, you discuss. For me that is the only correct answer.
You are also missing the major point. It’s not that free speech should allow abusive behavior, but whether the government or other authority figures should deal with offense. I don’t think so once the parties are adults. You are free to your own opinion and I respect it.
There are also (and should be) consequences to behavior outside of official discipline. If someone wears an offensive costume to a party and it’s discussed to no comfortable resolution, then the offended party has the right to exclude that person and if the act is widely considered offensive, the social ostracism is the best possible outcome.
And again, it’s not a question of what others wear or don’t wear. It’s a question of whether it is offensive and how to address offense. Just because you are offended doesn’t mean that is the universal default position. It might be that the offended person is the outlier and everyone else, even from the same group, might say “get over yourself” or not want to deal with that person anymore.
Another critical situational context which is being ignored by some here is how its exhibition is different in Japan versus the US/Western societies because:
In the US/Western societies, the mass media and mainstream White dominated society has had a long history of misappropriating the geisha and other foreign/exotic cultural items to negatively stereotype and demean the racial/ethnic immigrant/minority groups associated with them in those very societies.
In Japan, the dynamic is different because the society is majority Japanese and negative stereotype won’t have nearly the same import as there will be far more positive stereotypes/role models of Japanese society and culture to counteract any negative stereotypes by virtue of the society and culture being shaped and run by the Japanese majority.
This is one key reason why Japanese-Americans and other Asian-Americans* tend to be much more sensitive to this issue than Japanese or other Asians who were born and spent most of their formative/adult years/entire lives in their respective countries.
The experience of someone who spent all or most of his/her formative and moreso young adult years in a society where he/she’s part of the dominant majority is very different from that of someone who did so as a visible minority in a given society. And its worse of that society’s dominant majority has had a long history of negatively stereotyping one or more aspects of that minority’s culture.
On the flipside, I’ve read and heard complaints from White posters and classmates/colleagues about being stereotyped and treated negatively while studying abroad/working in several East Asian countries. This ranged from students who were offended at being portrayed or even mocked because of buffoonish stereotypes portrayed in their local mass media or worse, because they are associated with criminality and/or being “unclean”**. It’s interesting how offended and outraged one gets when they get to experience being negatively stereotyped as a minority in another culture for the very first time.
Because many Westerners...including Americans historically had issues with distinguishing between the different Asian cultures/nationalities/races....whether due to the inability to tell the difference and/or because they can't be bothered to do so. It's similar to complaints by several URM classmates and colleagues about how many Whites don't bother to differentiate between them as individuals and instead, see them in stereotypical terms to the point they can't distinguish them individually even after knowing them for a while due to academic, professional, or social situations.
** In Japan and South Korea, there’s many negative stereotypes of Americans…including White Americans with being obnoxiously argumentative and criminality due to negative experiences and interactions between the local populace and US tourists and military personnel. This was a sore point with several family friends and colleagues who were confined to their military bases and were issued micromanaging instructions on when they and their families could leave the base even during their free time and how to interact with locals in a culturally sensitive manner because of those perceptions and past negative incidents which they themselves admitted was due to the actions of a few bad apples in the service.
There are also Japanese public bathhouses and Japanese/Korean clubs/bars which publicly refuse service/entry to anyone who is non-Japanese or non-Korean*** respectively due to stereotypes they aren’t as hygienic, sexually harass female customers/staff, obnoxiously argumentative, or have a tendency to become rowdy and violent due to perceptions and past experiences with western tourists, military personnel, etc. Incidentally, some landlords in Japan do refuse to rent to Westerners/Americans for some of the same stereotypical reasons as several White classmates and colleagues found to their dismay.
*** In practice, this sometimes…but not always means non-Asian as they are often stereotyped as being far more similar to the Japanese/Koreans in terms of behavior and conforming to the rules by the business concerned.
Harvest asks “In what way did he leave the students less convinced of the importance of freedom of speech? The students were certainly exercising their rights in that regard.”
Yes, and while he gets praised, they get abused. The media amplifies his message and ignores/distorts theirs. One kid yells and curses and the vid goes viral, but dozens of students told their stories and hundreds signed an open letter. Little or no national coverage from their POVs. Just poor rational white guy attacked by mob of angry/entitled/childish/emotional (URM?) students who are destroying American higher education. That’s gotta be demoralizing.
That’s before we get to his enactment of how productive it is to call people on it when you find their actions offensive. Your reward may be to hear their offensive comments repeated ad nauseum and to be disabused of the notion that perhaps they had no idea that someone might find what they were doing offensive.
Because of the way Pinterest works the link isn’t particularly useful. Below are among the costumes linked on the “good” costume Pinterest page (IOW, click on the link for “Great Group Costumes” or “25 Costumes No One Else Will Have” and you’ll find…)
Sexy angels (essentially lingerie and wings)
Pregnant Confucius (slanted eyes, coolie hat, inexplicably pregnant despite a long mustache)
Tuxedo Bunny
Nuns
Taco Bell Hot Sauces (with things like “Open quickly…I’m burning up in here” written across the front of the short shirt dress and “Think outside the bun” written on the butt)
Pumpkin spice condom (with a pumpkin spice tampon recommended for a second “couples” costume)
Hot native American (complete with feathered earrings, face paint, braids, and a beaded headband)
Many real people (“unemployed Don Charney”, Anna Winter, drunk Mylie Cyrus, etc.)
Which of these are offensive, which just in mildly bad taste but funny? I think, once again we’re thrown back to “Use your best judgement.”
It seems like the Christakis’s think of themselves as Voltaire and the Marquise du Châtelet in defending free speech. Unfortunately, they might might find a lettre de cachet kicking them out of Yale soon. However, that is a better position than the students who seem to alternatively draw inspiration from Mao’s Little Red Book and the townspeople of South Park with disastrous results.
The Harvard Crimson had an opinion piece on the topic:
"The question of race at Yale, and at most colleges, is a complex and painful one, and this editorial does not assume to offer a definitive survey. It certainly appears that much of the Yale student body considers the incident at SAE a symptom of an unacceptable racial status quo on campus. Yale President Peter Salovey, Dean of Yale College Jonathan Holloway, and the masters of Silliman were correct to hold dialogues with students about the email in the days that followed. It seems clear that the Yale administration can and must do more to create an environment where students of color feel welcome in the university.
But the possibility of fruitful dialogue is exactly what makes the out-of-proportion, disrespectful reaction to Christakis’ email so deeply disappointing. The students should have accepted the offer of more discussion, rather than meeting an outstretched hand with harassment and shouting.
Video clips, which appeared online late last week, show student protesters yelling and cursing. Yesterday, the Yale Daily News reported that several students protesting a visiting speaker, Greg Lukianoff, spat and cursed at several fellow students as they left the talk. While this behavior is not, of course, representative of a majority of the protesters, a pattern has emerged in which student outrage has taken increasingly aggressive forms."
“I would respectfully suggest that it’s usually not a good sign if your “side” is the one that’s wishing that an objective video recording didn’t exist.”
Contrary to the implication otherwise, the existence of the video, as well as the identity/biography and motives of the videographer, are both very helpful in shaping public opinion. No matter which side of the argument you stand. Given this context, I disagree with your use of “objective” in describing the video.
I haven’t seen anyone object to the existence of the video. The motive for recording the conflict and distributing it widely by the videographer, whose career is based on creating outrage about same — is totally fair game.
I object to the existence of the video, taken by Lukianoff, under the circumstances in which it was taken as described by Hunt, unless the students agreed to be filmed.
Completely agree with Zoosermom.
DH was born and raised in Japan. He is not asian, but if he chose to wear a yukata and geta sandals to a costume party and someone didn’t like it, IMO that would be their issue, not his. Ignorance of his background is not an excuse. It’s just… ignorance.
I’ve heard that there was dissatisfaction with the Christakises’ performance as House Masters at Harvard as well and there were suggestions that she was using that affiliation to promote herself nationally as a media expert on college students.
@exacademic: I suspect the difference is partly to do with the message (did you expect the media to be on the less speech side?) and partly with the hyperbole. They are talking about needing a “safe space” from an email stating that students should deal with what they find offensive, rather than have the university do it for them. It’s hard to take seriously a group of people that are afraid of an email telling them to stand up for themselves.
@jym626, I was rather taken aback by the “don’ts” on the Pinterest page. One showed a white woman dressed as Snooki from Jersey Shore. Another “don’t” was the singer Amy Winehouse. (I saw a woman dressed as Amy Winehouse’s angel in Chicago this Halloween, and I thought it was a fantastic costume.) The proposed limitations went beyond the ethnic stereotypes and unsafe costumes I expected to see.
“One could make the argument that Lukianoff should not have been filming on private property.”
No, I don’t think you can when he was an invited guest. If he were a trespasser, different story. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I also haven’t seen any suggestion that he was filming with a hidden camera; people hold up their phones all the time and it’s clear what’s going on.
Presumably alh is drawing distinctions between public and private space (that I don’t think apply here)? Otherwise, I’m not sure we want to reduce the evening newscasts to only being able to use cartoonists’ depictions.
Added: Looks like @alh edited their post after I copied and pasted it. I give you my word I did not edit what was originally posted. I further submit post #515 into evidence. Of course, I completely grant anyone's right to add later nuance to their written remarks.
I don’t disagree with what you’ve written (though I question its relevance with regards to most of the discussion in this thread). But that’s not what I objected to.
EC’s email talks about college as a “safe space” for obnoxious/offensive/transgressive behavior. Same discourse (but she doesn’t get pilloried for it) – just different interests being protected.
Agree with you about who the media will side with – just for different reasons.
