Quote:
Originally Posted by Reaper16
The thing is though that words DO hurt, and it's arguably worse to collectively pretend that they don't.
And the thing about safe spaces that people ought to realize is that no one lives in a safe space. It's basically about having a therapeutic place -- a regular meeting, say -- where you can share your feelings with people who have similar experiences as you. Outside of a "safe space," people get mocked or belittled for sharing those feelings. People get confronted with "you're lying" or "that didn't happen" or "I don't believe you" or etc etc. by people who lack empathy or sympathy for those experiences. And to some degree that's fine. These students are in college after all, and they should expect their academic or political ideas to be questioned. But for certain disadvantaged groups (often we're talking about ethnic groups or LGBTQIA+ groups) they get A LOT more scrutiny than others, to the point of bullying and erasure. The idea of a safe space is to have a place where they can share without the constant challenging they get outside of the safe space. BY NO MEANS is an entire campus supposed to be a safe space; that's a misunderstanding of the concept.
"Microaggressions" shouldn't be a controversial term either. There's certain ways people get treated that aren't super confrontational but still serve to put down others, to treat them as lesser-than. Misgendering a person you know to be trans, for example. Or people walking across the street, clutching their purse, when a black person gets near. Or campus security letting white students walk into a building without checking ID but suddenly needing the young latina to produce a campus ID. These things aren't often blatantly hateful, but they wear on the people who experience them. I'd be surprised if anyone here doubts that these little prejudices happen in day to day life. Microaggressions is simply the word that's been decided upon to categorize these behaviors.
People are free to think that students these days are mentally weaker than in past generations because of their desire for these kinds of spaces and terms. I do think there's something to your guys' refrain that seeing oneself in constant victimhood can hold one back from the opportunities that ARE present. But I also think the same people suggesting that aren't being empathetic enough to the minority experience. It's simply emotionally harder to endure small daily prejudices than a lot of white Americans give it credit for. Ask your wives sometime about catcalling, and how much that wears down on them as women -- that's a thing that men can't fully understand too, because it simply doesn't happen to them. Similar thing.
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I can appreciate this post, it's very thoughtful. But I must say that in today's society the "ACLU culture" and the "you can't just lock them up culture" has made it nearly impossible to deal with bullies. It's difficult to get rid of these things/assholes when "the system" ensures they know there won't be many repercussions.