At first, there was something inspiring about the protests at the University of Missouri.
Some 30 African-American players on the school's football team, supported by their coach and many other teammates, announced they would refuse to practice or play until the university president resigned or was fired over his failure to adequately address incidents of racism on campus.
No football?! Suddenly the nation was paying attention to what was, until then, a local issue.
Most of us weren't in a position to referee their claims — was President Tim Wolfe irremediably responsible for creating an environment in which some students were the subject of racial epithets and a vandal used feces to draw a swastika? What had Wolfe said or not said that he shouldn't have? What negotiations, what incremental steps, had been tried and had failed before leading to the dramatic demand? Where was the impasse?
But still. Credit the football players, with a boost from campus activists, for using their great leverage to bring those questions forward, forcing the conversation, prompting a deeper and more urgent look at the long-simmering complaints of minority students at the university.
Good protests attract attention and raise awareness. And by that measure, this was a good protest.
But then, when Wolfe resigned under pressure Monday morning, something about it had become disquieting. The precipitous result felt a little like the fruits of extortion — the school was going to lose $1 million if it had to forfeit Saturday's game against Brigham Young University — and of mob rule.
Do we want campus athletes and activists to have the power to oust administrators? Always? Or just when we agree with the outcome?
Also disquieting are the remaining six demands on a list promulgated by the student protest group.
They include this paragraph of Orwellian, paternalistic claptrap: "We demand that the University of Missouri creates and enforces comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units, mandatory for all students, faculty, staff and administration. This curriculum must be vetted, maintained and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff, and faculty of color."
Mandatory "racial awareness" classes in all departments sounds like a sentence given in lieu of jail time — a prescription for resentment, not reconciliation.
Then by Monday afternoon, something about the protests at the University of Missouri had become ugly and self-defeating.
Student protesters who continued to occupy a tent city on a campus commons were busily shooing off reporters and photographers so that "the place where people live, fellowship and sleep can be protected from twisted insincere narratives," according to a tweet from organizers.
A video shot at the scene shows an advancing line of students trying to shove away student photographer Tim Tai, working on assignment for ESPN. Over chants of "Hey hey, ho ho, reporters have got to go," Tai calmly explains that he's just doing his job and that the First Amendment protects his right to be in a public place to document the students' exercise of their First Amendment rights.
They are having none of it, and continue to taunt and menace him while waving their arms to block him from taking pictures.
A faculty member, Janna Basler, director of Greek life on campus, barges in and tells Tai to "back off … (the students) have an education to get and a life to live."
Then the student videographer, Mark Schierbecker, slips inside the perimeter and is confronted by another faculty member, communications department assistant professor Melissa Click. "You need to get out!" Click shouts at him. "Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here."
(Update, late Tuesday, Click issued this apology)
The video reinforced every stereotype of the entitled, arrogant lefty and gave comfort to anyone, particularly anyone on the political right, who wants to dismiss all the concerns at Missouri as just so much hypersensitivity of the sort that continues to stifle robust discourse on college campuses.
An email to all Missouri students Tuesday urging them to call campus police if they witness "hateful and/or hurtful speech" — even though such speech is not a crime — provided a bonus eye roll for skeptics.
Hey hey, ho ho, people. There is nothing liberal about muzzling the media, stifling speech and forcing people to take classes to raise their awareness of your point of view.
Or so I once thought.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...lissa-click-perspec-zorn-20151110-column.html
Some 30 African-American players on the school's football team, supported by their coach and many other teammates, announced they would refuse to practice or play until the university president resigned or was fired over his failure to adequately address incidents of racism on campus.
No football?! Suddenly the nation was paying attention to what was, until then, a local issue.
Most of us weren't in a position to referee their claims — was President Tim Wolfe irremediably responsible for creating an environment in which some students were the subject of racial epithets and a vandal used feces to draw a swastika? What had Wolfe said or not said that he shouldn't have? What negotiations, what incremental steps, had been tried and had failed before leading to the dramatic demand? Where was the impasse?
But still. Credit the football players, with a boost from campus activists, for using their great leverage to bring those questions forward, forcing the conversation, prompting a deeper and more urgent look at the long-simmering complaints of minority students at the university.
Good protests attract attention and raise awareness. And by that measure, this was a good protest.
But then, when Wolfe resigned under pressure Monday morning, something about it had become disquieting. The precipitous result felt a little like the fruits of extortion — the school was going to lose $1 million if it had to forfeit Saturday's game against Brigham Young University — and of mob rule.
Do we want campus athletes and activists to have the power to oust administrators? Always? Or just when we agree with the outcome?
Also disquieting are the remaining six demands on a list promulgated by the student protest group.
They include this paragraph of Orwellian, paternalistic claptrap: "We demand that the University of Missouri creates and enforces comprehensive racial awareness and inclusion curriculum throughout all campus departments and units, mandatory for all students, faculty, staff and administration. This curriculum must be vetted, maintained and overseen by a board comprised of students, staff, and faculty of color."
Mandatory "racial awareness" classes in all departments sounds like a sentence given in lieu of jail time — a prescription for resentment, not reconciliation.
Then by Monday afternoon, something about the protests at the University of Missouri had become ugly and self-defeating.
Student protesters who continued to occupy a tent city on a campus commons were busily shooing off reporters and photographers so that "the place where people live, fellowship and sleep can be protected from twisted insincere narratives," according to a tweet from organizers.
A video shot at the scene shows an advancing line of students trying to shove away student photographer Tim Tai, working on assignment for ESPN. Over chants of "Hey hey, ho ho, reporters have got to go," Tai calmly explains that he's just doing his job and that the First Amendment protects his right to be in a public place to document the students' exercise of their First Amendment rights.
They are having none of it, and continue to taunt and menace him while waving their arms to block him from taking pictures.
A faculty member, Janna Basler, director of Greek life on campus, barges in and tells Tai to "back off … (the students) have an education to get and a life to live."
Then the student videographer, Mark Schierbecker, slips inside the perimeter and is confronted by another faculty member, communications department assistant professor Melissa Click. "You need to get out!" Click shouts at him. "Who wants to help me get this reporter out of here? I need some muscle over here."
(Update, late Tuesday, Click issued this apology)
The video reinforced every stereotype of the entitled, arrogant lefty and gave comfort to anyone, particularly anyone on the political right, who wants to dismiss all the concerns at Missouri as just so much hypersensitivity of the sort that continues to stifle robust discourse on college campuses.
An email to all Missouri students Tuesday urging them to call campus police if they witness "hateful and/or hurtful speech" — even though such speech is not a crime — provided a bonus eye roll for skeptics.
Hey hey, ho ho, people. There is nothing liberal about muzzling the media, stifling speech and forcing people to take classes to raise their awareness of your point of view.
Or so I once thought.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/...lissa-click-perspec-zorn-20151110-column.html
