Post by ivymike55 on Aug 16, 2014 21:18:41 GMT -7
Back in January 25 University of California Los Angeles students participated in a sit-in protest because, get this, one of their professors had the gall to correct grammar and spelling issues on some black students’ papers. Val Rust, a professor of education and information, was the target of the protestors for what they feel was racial insensitivity. Describing themselves as “aggrieved minority students,” they claim that the professor was wrong to correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar in the papers of black students. They made no statement towards him correcting any other race or ethnicity students' papers. Although there were some Hispanics that joined in the sit-in.
Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color, the group which launched the sit-in, said the act of correcting a black student was “micro-aggression.” But it’s much worse than you think. The group issued the following statement: “A hostile campus climate has been the norm for Students of Color in this class throughout the quarter as our epistemological and methodological commitments have been repeatedly questioned by our classmates and our instructor. The barrage of questions by white colleagues and the grammar ‘lessons’ by the professor have contributed to a hostile class climate.”
Interesting 'Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color' would use the term "epistemology" since it is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred to as "theory of knowledge". It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired. Much of the debate in this field has focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification. If the students writing skills aren't up to college level writing and need to be corrected perhaps they failed to acquire that particular knowledge base somewhere along the way.
Okay let me attempt to rap my head around this groups statement. Do these students really feel they should be afforded special privilege because of THEIR race? A professor is racist for correcting black student papers? Trying to hold black students to college level writing skills is a hostile act of racism? So far the the only examples the protesters could put forth of Rust's "crime" was that he told a black female student that the word “indigenous” should not be capitalized. The student felt this correction was “ideologically motivated.” The other example is that Rust allows discussion about race in his classroom. He allowed a discussion/argument to take place in his class between a white student and a black student. The black student told the white woman that she had no right to feel oppressed, and Rust did not express agreement either way. To allow discussion about issues concerning race makes Rust or anyone else for that matter a racist? Will this man’s crimes never cease?
Of course those that attended and stayed awake during elementary, middle and high school should have learned "indigenous" is not a proper noun but is an adjective and should not be capitalized unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence. Correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation in student's writings and allowing discourse are not acts of racism. They are what college professors are supposed to do.
The good Reverend Al Sharpton has taught these students well. Take anything negative that happens to a black person, especially if it is their fault, blow it out of proportion and voila: you have racism. Of course they are still students and haven’t yet figured out how to turn that racism into money, but Rev. Al has a good post-graduate course for that. What has our University system come too?
Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color, the group which launched the sit-in, said the act of correcting a black student was “micro-aggression.” But it’s much worse than you think. The group issued the following statement: “A hostile campus climate has been the norm for Students of Color in this class throughout the quarter as our epistemological and methodological commitments have been repeatedly questioned by our classmates and our instructor. The barrage of questions by white colleagues and the grammar ‘lessons’ by the professor have contributed to a hostile class climate.”
Interesting 'Call 2 Action: Graduate Students of Color' would use the term "epistemology" since it is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge and is also referred to as "theory of knowledge". It questions what knowledge is and how it can be acquired, and the extent to which knowledge pertinent to any given subject or entity can be acquired. Much of the debate in this field has focused on the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to connected notions such as truth, belief, and justification. If the students writing skills aren't up to college level writing and need to be corrected perhaps they failed to acquire that particular knowledge base somewhere along the way.
Okay let me attempt to rap my head around this groups statement. Do these students really feel they should be afforded special privilege because of THEIR race? A professor is racist for correcting black student papers? Trying to hold black students to college level writing skills is a hostile act of racism? So far the the only examples the protesters could put forth of Rust's "crime" was that he told a black female student that the word “indigenous” should not be capitalized. The student felt this correction was “ideologically motivated.” The other example is that Rust allows discussion about race in his classroom. He allowed a discussion/argument to take place in his class between a white student and a black student. The black student told the white woman that she had no right to feel oppressed, and Rust did not express agreement either way. To allow discussion about issues concerning race makes Rust or anyone else for that matter a racist? Will this man’s crimes never cease?
Of course those that attended and stayed awake during elementary, middle and high school should have learned "indigenous" is not a proper noun but is an adjective and should not be capitalized unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence. Correcting spelling, grammar, punctuation in student's writings and allowing discourse are not acts of racism. They are what college professors are supposed to do.
The good Reverend Al Sharpton has taught these students well. Take anything negative that happens to a black person, especially if it is their fault, blow it out of proportion and voila: you have racism. Of course they are still students and haven’t yet figured out how to turn that racism into money, but Rev. Al has a good post-graduate course for that. What has our University system come too?