06 August 2007

"Shut Up" Explained the Students

How many times are we going to have to put up with the preposterous trashing of free speech and free thought on college campuses. How dare I condemn the established multicultural institutions on campus! Didn't I know that I had no business commenting on the issue since, as one student stated on a campus forum, I was just a "white, libertarian girl from the O.C." Considering how often students refer to their right of free speech when they criticize the school or presidential administration, their reactions to my article were stunning.

Students accused me of being a racist and an ignoramus because no one they knew had ever objected to the houses. One black girl asked me to be her "Facebook friend," suggesting I didn't have any minority friends or else I wouldn't have written the article. Most students did not respond to my arguments, opting to personally slander me. One boy called me a racist and then told me that he was "greatly offended by the white perspective that [I] hold." Many minorities actually belittled me for suggesting that the school should evaluate them on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. I wonder if I had quoted Martin Luther King's speech verbatim if they still would have accused me of having a racist, "white perspective."

A few students complained that I used the word "black" in lieu of "African-American." But they didn't have a problem with my using "white" instead of "Caucasian."

It only gets worse from there. Read it all.

It's simultaneously funny and sad to see the next generation play the game of rational thought and fail at it so thoroughly and do it at precisely the time in their lives when they should be leaving adolescent stupidity behind. The lesson these students will take away from their college years is that once they feel they have their mind made up, they'll know the steps necessary to stifle any opposition to their views and employ the tolls of authority to do so.

So much for all that "open you mind" jive the promise in the course catalogs.

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