The argumentation style on this thread to is to keep establishing racism exists by giving examples (blackface, cobrat’s friend’s car story), as a way to establish that what one particular person said in an e-mail was racist and therefore immature student behavior was justified. There are a lot of prejudiced opinions in this world. That’s an opinion, therefore it must be prejudiced. The undisputed fact that there has been and still is racism in this country does not prove the K’s are racist or the e-mail was racist or that the student response was warranted given the provocation.
In addition, a dangerous corollary argument being made is: Blacks have been victimized by racism, therefore whatever a black person or group labels racism must be racism. Racism is terrible, so any evidence to the contrary that something was not racist (eg. the record of the actual words spoken or the record of a lifetime of words and deeds) is automatically outweighed since racism is terrible.
“To be a student of color on Yale’s campus is to exist in a space that was not created for you. From the Eurocentric courses, to the lack of diversity in the faculty, to the names of slave owners and traders that adorn most of the buildings on campus – all are reminders that Yale’s history is one of exclusion”
Funny how these schools didn’t admit women til relatively recently, yet women as a whole don’t feel “marginalized” by attending institutions founded by men.
Lots of spaces weren’t “created for me” as s woman - business schools, law schools, medical schools, the business world. So? I’m in them now (well, metaphorically) and that’s all that matters. Can you imagine if women in the business world focused on the fact that in the 60s they could only be secretaries? Can you imagine if Ruth Bader Ginsberg pouted that the SCOTUS wasn’t “designed” for her? You can take a positive, assertive way towards life or a paranoid “everything you do hurts my feelings” approach. Guess which gets stuff done.
The “exclusion” doesn’t seem to deter the hordes of asian students of color who are rabidly suing to get into Ivy schools.
Is there a single Ivy or similar school that does NOT have affinity clubs for students of color?
Are u kidding me? The “shrieking girl” is a college senior.
How could you possibly know what “women as a whole” feel, much less women thirty years younger than you?
PG, do you know this for fact? Have you spoken to women at Yale from a faculty and student level? Have you conducted a valid survey we don’t know about or not aware of?
Here is a suggestion, read these documents that actually say different, sone were actually produced by Yale, see:http://wff.yale.edu/resources/reports-other-universities-status-women-family-life or http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/11/inside-yale-s-whites-only-panic.html
Interesting that the English Department is apparently dominated by people who don’t look at the context of the writings. I had a friend who was an undergrad art history major at Harvard and went to PhD at Yale. Harvard was all about connoisseurship while Yale was all about the social context of the work of art.
I think all universities struggle with the Western Canon. It’s important, but so many white guys! Who do you leave out?
But a disappointing male-dominated content of Yale’s literature classes cannot be used as an excuse to pillory someone who wrote a polite but unpopular e-mail about the policing of Halloween costumes! It is disturbing that some seem eager to scapegoat anyone they can just so someone pays for a litany of crimes and offenses they feel weren’t sufficiently paid for. The same dangerous pattern is occurring in the police brutality cases. As a civilized society, we need to separate out individual blame from corporate responsibility or another individual’s responsibility. Even when certain crime narratives have been disproven by forensic evidence, the attitude is, “Well, it doesn’t matter anyway because there’s still a police brutality problem.” Yes, but should an officer who acted correctly pay for the wrong actions of others? Should the Yale masters pay with their jobs and reputations for racism perpetrated by others in the past? This seems bloodthirsty.
I am sympathetic to the students’ concern about feeling uncomfortable in their own college and certainly feel that Yale, like all schools, should actively work to improve the situation for minority and marginalized students. I find it interesting, however, that the references made in that open letter were all to facts that should have been objectively knowable to students before they chose to matriculate at Yale. My white son is only looking at colleges that have a sufficiently significant percentage of black students because that is important to him. If he visited a school and saw buildings named after folks like Calhoun, I think he would cross those schools off his list (his marching band participated in a festival that took place in a town in Ohio where there were many stands selling confederate themed merchandise. He has said that he will refuse to return next year if the band director chooses to sign them up to participate again and he and other students voiced their objections). If, as a student, you want courses that have a non european-centered focus, surely you can find those schools that offer those courses. Minority students with resumes sufficient to gain admittance to Yale have a lot of options. If they chose to cross Yale off their list, that might send a powerful message for change. Perhaps these students simply didn’t think about these factors until they started, but that would surprise me a bit given that my son notices all of these kinds of things when he visits schools.
@GMTplus7 I believe the contributor was being sarcastic suggesting the student can’t make informed decisions…I kinda tend to agree if yelling profanities because you aren’t getting your way constitutes discourse…
@classicalmama #725
I think this is really valid point. I think there’s newly alienated population while we busily address racial alienation. The Charleston shooter for example. Growing up in a trailer without many opportunities no hope The only privilege he got being white. Not sure how much previlege that is.
As a parent, I absolutely agree with this. When my gay child was looking at colleges, I wanted him at the most gay friendly place that existed. However, I am grateful to all the gay students who were willing to be activists and change the social and political climate. That benefits my family. I don’t think we can expect students to educate their peers, but I am grateful to those who do so. Over and over on this thread students are being admonished to educate their peers instead of creating an uproar. Or at least, that is my reading. Personally, I am okay with uproar.
But the uproar is about “we need you, those in positions of authority, to codify acceptable vs unacceptable speech” vs the uproar being “we have every right to be on this campus and belong, and your costume of x makes me feel less welcome.” It’s an uproar that the leaders need to do stuff because I’m not empowered enough to do it on my own.
Uproar over real prejudice is different from uproar over a reasoned e-mail, though.
In my post, it truly was not my intent to posit my kid’s hardships against another’s in a battle of who’s got the least privilege. 
The generous grant that Yale gives him FAR outweighs any “microaggressions” he might experience, and if he walked around Yale insisting that others listen to his hurt and fragility, I’d clobber him.
It’s more that the blanket demands that white students, and white males in particular “must do better” aren’t particularly constructive, helpful, or thoughtful. One stereotype does not make another acceptable. A quick look at the Profile of Yale’s current freshman class, with 64 percent on financial aid, 40 percent (or so–this stat is hard to untangle) students of color, and 10 percent legacies suggests that the vast majority of Yale students today exist in a space that wasn’t created for them.
file:///C:/Users/sr3943np/Downloads/ClassProfile2019_Final.pdf
“Personally, I am okay with uproar.”
But dialogue wasn’t even TRIED first. These were all hypothetical “how would I feel if someone in my dorm were to wear xyz. Even though it hasn’t happened, I’ll still lose sleep over it. So I’ll protest against a hypothetical, instead of waiting til if and when it occurs and using my words.”
Clue - when the blackface incident occurred in 2007, did students a) cheer on the offending student (you go! Awesome!) or did they b) look at him in disgust and socially ostracize him? If b, then you can’t claim that there’s systematic racism when the vast majority of students went - ew, yuck, what a loser.