Opinion
‘Social justice’ from misleading rhetoric
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Also by W. Lee Hansen:
- Shades of diversity (April 4, 2003)
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The latest code words surrounding UW-Madison’s crusade for greater racial and ethnic diversity are “white privilege” and “social justice.”
These additions to the vocabulary on diversity appeared last semester in news reports on student government accountability, multicultural student leadership conferences, the campus Diversity Forum and ASM’s “social justice” programs.
The person leading the charge to link diversity and Plan 2008 to “social justice” is Dean of Students Luoluo Hong. Her actions raise several questions. Do her comments represent a shift in the focus of campus diversity efforts? Is she speaking as a university official? Answers to these questions are important because implementing her vision would have a profound effect on this campus.
The focus on “white privilege” and “social justice” began last fall at UW-Madison’s all-day Diversity Forum. There, participants sought to identify new “solutions” to help reach the goals of Plan 2008.
A morning panel session, co-chaired by the Dean of Students and several diversity program staff members, concluded that Plan 2008 as presently conceived could not succeed until the deep-seated barrier of “white privilege” is removed. “White privilege” means that non-minorities (whites) fail to realize the enormous advantages conferred on them by their “whiteness,” advantages not available to people of color.
The panelists claimed the nature and consequences of “white privilege” are clear — white students feel little or no responsibility to support Plan 2008. Worse, they are alienated from Plan 2008 because its programs focus almost exclusively on minorities. This very fact stigmatizes minorities. That stigma increases their difficulties of performing academically. It undermines the confidence they need to succeed.
In short, Plan 2008 reproduces the very problems it seeks to remedy!
The solution, the panel believed, calls for a campus commitment to “social justice.” It rests on a belief that a “socially just learning community” requires rooting out the inequality and oppression of minorities. It is not enough to concentrate on diversity (increasing minority representation), multiculturalism (celebrating different race and ethnic groups) and climate (building a welcoming climate for minorities).
Instead, a more supportive and comfortable environment must be created by pursuing the all-embracing concept of “social justice.” But, the exact meaning of “social justice” seems to be just as ill defined as the current buzzword, “campus climate.” Until “social justice” can be precisely and understandably defined, programs to promote this goal cannot hope to succeed.
This lack of clarity did not deter panelists from offering their solutions. They proposed a new mandatory seminar for all freshmen, designed to make students aware of “white privilege” and its evil consequences; “Social justice training” for faculty and staff to achieve a similar goal; Also, new search and screen procedures requiring administrators, faculty, and academic staff applicants to express their commitment to “social justice;” And, in the interests of fairness, equal representation on faculty committees: half would be students and the other half a combination of faculty and academic staff.
If this new push for “social justice” were taken seriously, the panelists argued, UW-Madison would be transformed. At last, the campus would become more welcoming to minorities. Unthinking and unaware white students, staff and faculty would be sensitized to their privileged status and shed their last vestiges of racism.
These “solutions” to overcome the failures of Plan 2008 are breathtaking. The inevitable indoctrination occurring in “social justice” programs would go against everything this university represents. It would inhibit the search for truth through the “sifting and winnowing” process.
It would undermine the central purpose of the university with its commitment to the discovery, development, transmission and dissemination of knowledge. It would play havoc with teaching, research and outreach activities.
The reasons for such devastating effects are clear. Modern research universities, much less society in general, have no expertise in engineering “social justice.” Nor is there convincing evidence that universities could quickly and effectively develop such expertise and make good use of it. Finally, whether such engineering would produce the hoped-for effects is not at all clear.
What seems to lie behind concerns about “social justice” and “campus climate?” It is quite simply the absence of what is known as common courtesy, politeness, civility, tolerance and respect for others.
If these attributes are truly important in the modern world, they should be acquired long before students reach college. Families and religious organizations are much better equipped than universities to inculcate these values.
Dean Hong offers a different vision for this university. Will she be suggesting the University’s mission statement must be adapted to embrace the elusive and controversial concept of “social justice”? Will she soon be offering a menu of “social justice” proposals to the campus administration, to ASM, to the Faculty and the Academic Staff Senates, to the Board of Regents and perhaps to the State Legislature?
Chancellor John Wiley, in responding to a question at the Fall Diversity Forum, stated firmly that a mandatory freshmen seminar is not in the cards, for political, economic and logistical reasons. But, was he aware of the other “social justice solutions” being discussed? Since then, the idea of “social justice” keeps cropping up. The most recent occurrence came in the Dean’s discussion of the failures of Plan 2008 at the ASM “social justice awareness week” in late November.
The emergence and apparently growing advocacy for linking campus policies to “social justice” represents a new threat to the integrity of the University. It calls for continued vigilance by students, faculty, academic staff and the public to prevent the spread of this latest “solution” to promote diversity.
W. Lee Hansen (wlhansen@facstaff.wisc.edu) is professor emeritus of economics at the UW.
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In other words, under Plan 2008 white students are supposed to feel guilty about being white. Sounds like the same ol' political correctness at work again. No thanks! The easier it is to get through this four-year paper chase, the better it'll be for me. I don't need the extra unnecessary burden of having a campus liberal screaming in my ear over a problem for which I'm not personally responsible.
I thought I was going to be proud to send my kids to UW in about 20 years. But by then half the curriculum will involve telling them A>how evil they are because they're white and B>Why the government should get to take about 75% of their income or else they're against "social justice".
Looks like maybe it's the SEC or Big 12 for them...
Thank you, Mr. Hansen, for speaking up. Are there any Madison liberals who are able to see what backlash you have created through your own extremist mentalities? Your reign of terror is finally coming to an end.
Just two years ago, you liberals were the gold standard. Today, you are nothing more than a minor footnote in Madison history. May this great city of ours forget that you were ever around.
Amen.
What vitriol! First of all, let's address Prof. Hansen's argument.
It seems to be that he believes that teaching or even reaching for social justice will inhibit intellectualism.
"Modern research universities, much less society in general, have no expertise in engineering "social justice.""
Really? Have you ever read "When Work Disappears?" or "Nickel and Dimed?" Those books don't necessarily solve the worlds problems but they lead you to a more sympathetic world view without actively "engineering" anything....or hell, "To Kill a Mockingbird"?
I don't really expect much less from an economics professor who if they can't quantify something into X/Y axis of choice they don't believe it, but you teach at one of the premier liberal arts and research colleges in the country!
Ever heard of COWS? Or seen the work the medical school does in rural communities? Or seen the high level of teachers this education school puts out? Or seen the quality prosecutors and public defenders the law school produces? What do you mean "social engineering" is beyond the grasp of this institution?
That's the kind of thing that only someone who has no vision thinks. I believe this college can do a lot of social engineering, in fact, has been doing so effectively for a century.
Prof Hansen. I will stop believing economics is a pseudo-science if you explain to me why people have give millions for tsunami relief.
Try this:
http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2004/12/should_you_send.html
Reading crap like this makes me happy about ripping up the Alumni Association donation requests i get every month.
Instead of a new mandatory seminar for all freshmen, designed to make students aware of "white privilege" and its evil consequences"-- why not a mandatory seminar for all minorities and those involved in BS multicultural organizations designed to inform them that slavery ended a long time ago and blacks have the same opportunities in life as whites do. The course should also inform them to stop blaming the white man for any failures they may come across in life. The only people Ihave seen play the race card in the last 20 years are these diversity organizations and minorities in general...
The minority excuse making is getting a little old at this point. first you get into college with lower grades and test scores, then you get into graduate school with lower scores, then you get bumped to the head of the line for jobs at big corporations all because of affirmative action. At what point are you going to be forced to perform at the same level as everyone else?
The problem at places like the UW is that whites are being fooled into being ashamed of their success by their unaccountable professors.
Professor Hansen,
Keep on "Speaking truth to Power"(tm).
It was the attack on a socialist which propmpted the below but times change and now it is the conservatives who require protection.
"WHATEVER MAY BE THE LIMITATIONS WHICH TRAMMEL INQUIRY ELSEWHERE, WE BELIEVE THAT THE GREAT STATE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN SHOULD EVER ENCOURAGE THAT CONTINUAL AND FEARLESS SIFTING AND WINNOWING BY WHICH ALONE THE TRUTH CAN BE FOUND."
This dude is a one-trick pony. He's been making this same argument for years. We get it, you hate affirmative action. You're an old, rich, bitter guy that just doesn't get that racism exists today. Fine. Please don't write the same thing every year and get it published. Or, learn a new trick! I'm sure you hate immigration, too, and thosa immigrints they're taking all mah jobs! Write about that.
This is why so few minorities vote republican... becauseliberals have convinced them that they can never be part of the "do it yourself" party since white people keep holding them down. It is time to get passed that notion. If you don't, you will only get as far as the handouts take you. Getting ahead takes hard work.
Go ahead and blame me for holding you back, or for slavery, or whatever it may be. I will never be ashamed because I was born a certain color... in my case, white. I know life isn't fair, and that blaming other people will never get me anywhere.
No, visable UW Madison activists are a one-trick pony. UW Madison is the only school on ETS' XSpan that has warnings about sending minority students to attend here.
Any name that I've heard as a campus activist from the central human rights groups based in Britain and working around the world have been students who have no visability on campus and who have no association with the Dean of Students.
ASM is one of the most culturally incompetent organizations I've ever worked with. I've never walked into a first meeting with an organization and been lectured by 'a professional organizer' who can't even be found on the web doing speaking engagements as I have, telling me how to think. In a corporation, that behavior towards minority management would get you sued and bad press.
Let me list some of the major activist initatives around the country and I will list the number of UW grads and students on the left who have been involved:
Chicago:
Paseo Boriqua - 1, David Muhummed, the only real activist with heart to ever come out of this school
Staving off gentrification from UIC in the Mexican neighbood of Pilsen. - 1, a girl from the Creative Writing program who had nothing to do with activism.
Uptown - Helen Schiller, the alderwoman
New York:
Spanish Harlem and Puerto Rican Workshop: 0
Harlem: 0
Bronx initatives, including any that actually live in the cohesive communities of color like Parkchester or serve on those type of co-op boards: 0
Newark renewall, around Ras Baraka, Ironbound Center, Igregia Luterana or anyone else: 0
Philadelphia, in West Philly collective, non-profit consortiums, Vieques protests: 0
This happens first, because whites are alienated from participating collectively. Campuses, cities and other organizational organisms are in the end, organic holes, not compartmentalized holes. And second, students are yelled at instead of invited to think critically about matters. I can't tell you the number of graduates I've encountered who think every discussion about race is a joke and don't even want to listen because they are so sick of being put down for being white.
White privilage is kinda true but it's not effective to berate people plus, if people here were truly a bunch of post-modernist thinkers, they would realize that white privilage could be problemitized as well. Have any of them read the work about white urban poverty tied to Irish flight into American port cities?
Besides that, Jesus Christ, have some heart for where people come from.
Most of all, Karl Marx would be ashamed of the Marxist legacy here -- no real class analysis.
UW Madison activists, the whole country, every campus thinks you are full of bullshit. My friend from Howard -- yes, he's black, laughs about how people here call blacks and Latinos 'people of color.' Period. If these tactics were effective, minority numbers would have risen as they have at other schools.
All these programs are just a guilt reliver for rich, white liberals who grew up with absolutely no minorities around them, hate their Republican dadies who never hugged or kissed them, and just discovered people are poor in this world, when they went to cop heroin with their buddies.
All the spouting is also a smokescreen for the fact that the UW does no real recruiting. Most major colleges have a minority recruiter you can call who will come, expenses paid by the school, to recruit kids and work with teachers to get disadvantaged students admitted. The UW does not nor, having been an admissions specialist, do they ever work with you like other schools. It's hard to even get return phone calls from admissions. My kids who were interested in coming here ended up going to Boston University, U of C, Shippensburg, Swathmore and Bryn Mawr.
Maybe they don't offer public relations classes because they don't want people to figure out that lip-service programs are a textbook PR tactic.
I think that the professor hit on something very well. We all ought to be civil and well-mannered, and that is really all that matters. If manners and politeness were the campus norm, there would be a lot more harmony. Why subject students to a vague or agenda-driven notion of "social justice," especially since "social justice" is not a well-defined concept and is subject to distortion by any special interest?
One more thing. Economics as a pseudoscience? Classically, economics was a branch of moral philosophy. Adam Smith was primarily a moral philosopher, for example. Maybe that explains why so many millions were given to tsunami relief. It was the MORAL thing to do.
Keep up the good work, professor.
This kind of unproductive talk is why I quit getting involved. I didn't want to disagree with it and be labeled a conservative by people who couldn't argue their way out of Marxist theory 101 or who have never even heard Phil Ochs, love me I'm a liberal so they could find themselves at the butt end of the song's joke and change.
Dude, I get annoyed by rich, rude people here, too but you know what, that isn't everyone and I certainly don't want to go around accusing people of being a certain way when I don't even know them. Besides that, some people just have a different style and if you take the time to get to know them, well, that's where change happens.
You want to talk revolution? Have any of you ever been on the other end of the phone negotiating with Columbian Marxists for the life of one of your students whose family can't pay $40,000 for her release?
Let me tell you also, I've brought 3 white people from this school into the neighborhoods where I grew up. The Republican and the apolitcal person loved it. One has even gotten involved with one of the communities - as people should, regardless of race.
When I brought the white leftist, loudmouth activist to a historic diner where blues musicians hung out and you could hear rare records on the jukebox, she went back to all her other core activist friends and they chided me for making her feel uncomfortable for being the only white person in the joint I brought her to.
All this negative rhetoric is simply not productive and it plays into the hands of anti-affirmative action forces, which, if anyone has read the Supreme Court decision, gives 25 years for special programs. We are going on three down.
It's sad to see all the bitter commentary on this site related to this article.
My family is half intermarried with Romanians and Poles. Some of my uncles don't have a high school education and even as Puerto Ricans, they won't allow this nonsense talk around their house. They hope their kids, being mixed with two awsome cultures, will work towards problemitizing our concepts of race. I wish I was my 'spiclok' cousin who could speak Spanish and Polish at home.
I don't care about the complicated rhetoric, theory and blah-blah around this. I went to a 75% black High school for two years and there were only 2 Black students and no Latinos in my honors classes because kids who tested into them, freshman year, Mexican, Puerto Rican and Black wouldn't matriculate into the classes because they were afraid of the social preassure of being perceived as 'white.' Talk to any public school teacher that doesn't spit out convoluted theory as a ruse for the teachers union and they'll tell you the same thing. The internalized racism because of this talk is fierce.
Call me a coconut and I'll take you down to the 'hoods where I've done gang intervention and you can see how coconut I am. Maybe you want to say that in front of one of my uncles who champions education because he spent most of his life in a gang. No? Didn't think so.
This is a sad commentary on the UW. It errodes the academic integrity. There are many more sophistocated ways of looking at race and privilage, even problemitizing the issue within the so-called cannon of Western History. Furthermore, along side this ruler with no clothes on parade, there is so little being done to even get 2 or 3 more disadvantaged students on this campus.
Besides, that, there are plenty of poor ass white students. I taught them in Philly. And do you know what? They feel bitter that the only avenue for the them to get into college and pay for it is the Army. Call two of my former students and ask them about that -- oops, can't they're both in Iraq and one died there.
I really don't know what's going to happen at this juncture but at this point, some of the loudmouths here, next time they gather their suburban asses in the circle next to Humanities to protest this or that, I think it's time to start dynamiting that old Humanities building.
Stop the devisive, negative talk. For once, just get basic with your spoiled brat asses and think about how what comes out of your mouth makes someone feel who was actually interested in learning something about people different than themselves.
And by the way, no multi-culti graduates here ever move back to the hood. They become lawyers who come into the VIP room I work in, drunk, and ask me how much they have to pay to sleep with a cocktail waitress. True story.
I'm glad that I'm from a culture that doesn't see these distinctions like mainstream American culture and so-called progressives. If I ever have kids, or adopt them from my friend's program in Brazil like I plan, I hope they are never exposed to the likes of some of the people that think up this nonsense.
UW Alumni reading this: Start your own outside fund and make scholarships for disadvantaged students of every background.
I don't care if I sound silly or 'liberal' or 'conservative' or whatever. I've lived a life of reality, and reality calls for pragmitism.
By the way, I know Ras Baraka, Amiri Baraka's son, and I've been present when he's chided young members of the New Black Panther Party for this kind of angry rhetoric.
You want to battle bein' down, let's go.
I've said my piece. Now, I'm going to enjoy the rest of my time here with positive individuals with no daddy issues and no, 'I wish my family wasn't minority and rich issues so I could feel comfortable walking around the Bronx at night' issues.
For the rest, keep track of the names all these activists after graduation in the cities they go to and see if they ever get involved in anything, anti-gentrification, political or otherwise. You'll have a good laugh.
god..I hate all you whiny liberals and conservatives on campus so much. Please shut the hell up and realize the majority of the campus doesn't give a damn
"god..I hate all you whiny liberals and conservatives on campus so much. Please shut the hell up and realize the majority of the campus doesn't give a damn"
Before anyone gets on my case about sarcasm, let me emphasize that I'm being completely serious: this is probably the most intelligent comment posted so far, and by a wide margin.
It would be cynicism, but people who don't give a damn are the people with friends who aren't just white.
Wow...It's articles like this and the majority of the comments that have been made here that don't make me question why so many people leave this school because of its hostile environment.
Professor Hansen I apologize on behalf of the institution that granted you your degree for not teaching you how to research, because if they had taught you how to do this basic and fundamental thing you would know the true meaning of terms like "white privilege," "affirmative action," and "social justice." Also, if you were in anyway a truly educated man and a halfway decent economics professor you would realize just how important diversity in education is, especially when major multinational corporations are refusing to recruit students who graduate from this institution because they are socially unconscious. Maybe you can use this bit of information to help explain the stagnant economy of Wisconsin when UW graduates don't receive jobs after graduation.
Nobody is trying to make white people feel guilty about being white they are trying to help them understand that in this day in age, not everyone is treated equally and that some people actually had to work harder than the hardest working white person to get where they are today.
You attack Dean Hong and student involved in ASM but if it wasn't for them there would be no to make sure media outlets such as the Badger Herald are around for you to express your racist and bigoted comments.
Also, you mention that certain things such as common curtesy and decent human relations are the responsibility of religious institutions and families, well here's a message from my mom."If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all!"
Liberals, you want progress against racism? Tell whites how to HELP, not feel ashamed. Conservatives, you want to get rid of affirmative action? PROVE to us that you'll hire on merits alone.
You wanna know why this country is becoming so "divided"? Imagine the liberals and conservatives as a married couple, after the honeymoon has worn off. Every time you try to throw a party (election, major law passage, etc.), you end up bickering and eventually throwing dishes at each other.
And we, the moderates who really don't care so much in comparison to living our lives, we're the party guests who got so sick of leaving under storm clouds that we don't wanna show up anymore. THAT'S why we our "record" voter turnouts are still only around 50 - 60 percent. I'm sorry, but you BOTH look, sound, and act like spoiled toddlers whenever some political fad hits the airwaves.
Forget the other countries that look at us and roll their eyes; you're losing you're OWN DA**ED CITIZENS!! I guarantee...the first side to start looking respectable will win in a landslide.
-W. Northend
thank you, "professor" hansen for "standing up" against the liberal "scumbags." i am "grateful" that there are at least a few "sane" faculty and "leaders" on this campus to "counteract" the liberal "smearjob" being waged against otherwise "non-racist" and "friendly" white "people" like me and "you."
the "question" now is, how the hell do we "get rid of" these total "wackjobs" like dean "hong" who are clearly "ruining" the "campus climate" for "non-racist" and "friendly" white "people" like "you" and me and the other "racially superior" and "non-indoctrinated" conservative "common sense" folks on our campus.
i look forward to more of your "thoughtful" columns. please keep on "writing." you're almost as "brilliant" as that other "renowned" herald "columnist" mark baumgardener. i would "love" to see you guys "discuss" racial politics sometime. i'm sure you would have so many "insights" to "share" about the current "propaganda" campaign being waged by these liberal "fuckshits" who need to shut their "traps."
uw alum
new orleans, la
W. Northend is right, especially in the first sentence.
And to the person who called the professor a racist, I don't see him talking about anyone being inferior. That's a strong word. Have you ever had your life threatened because of your race or had someone refuse to help you with math because of your race? Well, I have so I don't take the word as lightly as you.
Wow! And I thought the State of the Union of Address would be the only thing to scare the shit out me today. This article and the ignorance and hostility of the majority of the comments have actually topped it. This all goes to show how much a freshman seminar and work towards social justice is needed on our oh so horrifyingly liberal campus.
By the way....
WHITE PRIVELEGE does not mean making white people guilty or ashamed. It promotes being realistic about different positions in which individuals are placed based on their race. In contrast to being a minority in this country, the privelege in being white is the fact that white men and women never have to think about their race. Talk to any person of color and you will learn that is not the case for him/her. Understanding white privelege is not supposed to induce guilt, on the contrary, it is supposed to induce empowerment an understanding. It is not retribution for the past but compasstion for the present and future.
SOCIAL JUSTICE is ambiguous because identity is ambiguous. Its not black or white or straight or gay or conservative or liberal. It promotes the embrace of individuals for all they are, it promotes understanding each other's differences and it promotes making connections based on our similiarties...be it nothing more than our common humanity.
Ok, you need to make up your mind. Some of you are saying (while many of you are thinking) minorities get into the school based on lower standards. You basically call them inferior in any way shape or form you can without actually saying it. Then you say you want everything to be equal, but how do you expect minorities to ever be placed on an equal pedestal if you keep telling us we aren't? That's the racist attitude, not all the little bullshit oh you don't like rappers oh you can't get into Johnny Os. That's not real racism. Real racism is you people who constantly knock minorities because you assume they are inferior, and you never let them get themselves into a position to be viewed as equal. There are plenty of minorities at this school who did just as well as you did if not better on ANY test you've ever taken in your life, but you would never know that because you're too blinded by your preconceptions. REALIZE that not every non-white student you see at this school performed worse than any given white student, and realize that not every white student at this school "deserved" to be here. Wake up.
Dude, it's liberals who suggest minorities are inferior, not conservatives.
Liberals are the ones who say minorities should get jobs and spots in college because of their skin, not because of their merit. Conservatives are merely pointing that out.
Mr. WHITE PRIVILEGE and SOCIAL JUSTICE - you are the one who makes sure we all think about our race. Thanks to you, blacks are ever conscious about the slightest offense and will blame them on society. Thanks to you, whites do think about their race because you tell us to feel bad about it.
White privilege is a lie, plain and simple. It is a tool of guilt used by race merchants to get us to accept their "solutions", which lo and behold always involve giving them more power. Blacks, Asians, Jews, Indians, whatever are just as capable of doing anything any white guy is. The problem is they won't believe it until people like you stop telling them that they can't.
Conservatives aren't just "pointing it out". Conservatives are saying minorities perform at lower levels and don't have the same kind of grades, commitment, and intelligence that white kids have. If conservatives really wanted equal treatment, they would stop saying that minorities have lower intellect. White priveledge is not having to worry about people looking at you and smuggly thinking "that kid got in here because he's black (or some other minority ethnicity), he didn't do well in school", KNOWING goddamn well that you outperformed half the people thinking it. It's easy to say that if you were in the same situation, you would just ignore it, but when you hear people constantly talking about it and looking at you like you can't accomplish anything on your own...when you do...it's a horrible feeling that doesn't just go away and you can't just block out. White priveledge is not having to deal with that every day of your life.
But why do you think some whites wonder if african americans got in because of lower standards?
IT'S BECAUSE LIBERALS DEMAND THAT YOU BE LET IN WITH LOWER STANDARDS!
"IT'S BECAUSE LIBERALS DEMAND THAT YOU BE LET IN WITH LOWER STANDARDS!"
Clearly, they're not demanding that only minorities be let in with lower standards. After all, you're here.
It would be interesting to see what would happen(to enrollment, campus racial activists, these arguments, etc) if race was just taken off of the admissions application all together.
It would be interesting to see the results (of enrollment, on-campus racial activism, arguments like the ones above, etc) if the admissions office would just remove the race question from the application all together.
"Nobody is trying to make white people feel guilty about being white..."
Really? Then what was all that political correctness bullshit for? Who was targeted? Wasn't that the whole idea, to make white whites ashamed of what they are?
Listen, asshole, I'm proud to be white. Screw you if you can't handle that. Go f#@& yourself if you are sooo offended by that. I'm white, my boyfriend is white, hell, both my parents are white! What's more, I could care less if you think I'm a big racist. You've been calling me that for so long it doesn't even bother me anymore. Nowadays I'm actually proud of my white heritage. And I feel no shame over it either. White pride!
"White pride!"
You were fine, right up until the end. Then you blew it.
Way to sound like a Nazi, dumbass!
I dont know what all the white UW students are bitching about. Seems to me that they made it into the university just fine. Sorry if you are shocked to see someone who isn't white for the first time. Maybe you could have just gone to UW-Stout if you wanted to be surrounded by the same small minded people you have known your whole life.
Its MS. WHITE PRIVELEGE and SOCIAL JUSTICE.
Wow, some of you have the wind so far at your backs you don't even know it. Others cannot even spell "privilege." I can see we have more work to do. You can write as much as you want professor, your words have not deterred any progress and have only brought more exposure to the issues of social justice and privilege. For that, I thank you.
-Ken Taté
Professor, you neglect to say HOW social justice will be damaging to the University. All you said was that the university won't know how to implement it. Will that fact cause the collapse of the institution? The only negative effect I can fathom is the personal problem that you could possibly lose your job for not supporting the cause of social justice. To me that wouldn't be such a bad thing. From my personal viewpoint, social justice is a positive thing so I welcome it. But even from the viewpoint of social justice as a negative thing, I don't think it will bring about the end of the university as we know it.
"Its MS. WHITE PRIVELEGE and SOCIAL JUSTICE."
I'm willing to bet you look more like a Mr. than a Ms. anyway.
And I can't help but notice you had no response to my argument.
"Social Justice" is just another meaningless hippy chant.