In the United States of America and in almost all countries, there are laws against harassment, libel, threats, and incitement to commit crimes. These speech codes are for the safety of citizens and are often used to suppress hate speech in private institutions and in the workplace. Speech codes should be allowed on college campuses in order to create a safe environment for people of different sexes, races, sexual orientation, religions, and classes, and to provide an equal learning environment for all by limiting the freedom of speech.…
Micro aggressions are unintentional offensive comments that you might not think are hurtful but others will (Haidt). According to The Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff, trigger warnings are being demanded because they are warnings, “…in a course [that] might cause a strong emotional response.” (Haidt 44). In the article On the Repression of Free Expression by Micheal Bloomberg, it shows that in America universities today the use of trigger warnings restricts students from their freedom of speech and expressing their views on a topic or material. Micro aggressions play a big role when it comes to trigger warnings, whether they are, “intentional or unintentional…” those comments can…
Silvergate notes that limiting free speech would fall to the responsibility of college administrators who will undoubtedly over censor due to the broad harassment regulations the proposed bill contains. He supports this point by adding that the Individual Rights Foundation, FIRE already claims harassment as “the most abused tool to limit free speech.”…
In the 2016 presidential debate, some of our candidates are showing political correctness in a positive or negative way. During debates and press conferences, they show their true personalities with their thoughts and reactions. Sometimes, candidates bring up meaningful data when trying to gain supporters. Unfortunately, some of those same candidates might convey something that is not politically correct. With their debates, the Republican or Democratic Party can show how they would handle something as president and convince citizens they are the right person to lead our nation. The things they assert highly affect of what our people think of them of trying to become president.…
I recall reading an article about trigger words a couple of months ago. The article was titled Killing the Conversation in College Classrooms. In in this article they discussed trigger words and their effects on academic discussions in the classroom. They argued that professors are watering down their lectures so not to offend anyone and students are avoiding upsetting discussions because they are unable to handle the stresses that go along with the controversial topics. This article was obviously written from a leftist position because they failed to realize the actual problems. I cannot say I have ever met a student that is so triggered or upset by the use of words that they cannot engage in conversation about their meaning. Also, have you ever heard of a professor being afraid to share his opinions for fear of offending someone? I have sat through too many political rants to know that that argument is simply not true. In reality, the people who end the conversations in classrooms always seem to be the ones who preach open mindedness. These “progressives” hear an opposing opinion and employ what has now become a common tactic today, name calling. Oh, if he thinks that way he must be a racist,…
College students that belong to the majority group usually aren’t fond of being told that their unintentional actions mean they’re actually a racist. Conversely, those who support these checks on language grow more angry, discouraged that their majority counterparts cannot agree with strict rules on communication. Whenever something offensive is spoken, students adopt a victimized sense of self, creating a tirade of upheaval. Rather than developing mob mentality, calling for major change, peaceful discussion should instead be…
Nationwide, educators are implementing the usage of trigger warnings to shield emotional and physical pain from civilians that may be fragile. Trigger warning or viewer discretion are acts of kindness that help protect people with histories of conditions. In article that was published in August of 2015, “Trigger warnings don’t hinder freedom of expression: they expand it” by Lindy West, she states that “a trigger warning is letting the audience know about potentially disturbing content” (West). West also discusses psychiatric conditions that people may have, like PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), sexual assault, and more. A common example of a trigger warning could be when college professor is showing a video that holds content that might be sensitive to rape victims. Before showing the video, the professor should say, “Trigger warning- rape”. Because of the professor’s trigger warning, the student’s that may have been sexually assaulted now have time to mentally prepare themselves for video ahead.…
Imagine a world where anything could be considered offensive. Now imagine that world full of college students who are apart of a generation coddled to a point of disgust. In this world, the slightest challenge of a college student's ideas is considered offensive and disgraceful. This is the world that is being built right before my eyes. The Los Angeles Times Editorial Board wrote an essay titled “Warning: College Students, This Editorial May Upset You” wherein the topic of “triggers” is heavily spoken of. Triggers are essentially any subject topic in a class that could be found offensive to certain people. The editorial discusses how college professors are now being told they must warn students so as to not trigger them. The students can leave class if there is a possible trigger in the lecture and no points will be deducted. This is a disgrace to our bedrock of education. The real world, one without professors and people helping you through every step of the way, is mean, dirty, offensive, and unfair. College students are not learning what it is like to live in the real-world.…
Thesis: The American society has become so politically correct, that no one is able to speak their mind without facing major judgment or discrimination.…
In the article titled, “Colleges Should Censor Racist Hate Speech,” (Virginia Law Review, March 1990) Daryl Brown concludes that colleges should censor hate speech on campus and the prominence of blatant and subtle racism on campus will require a two prong…
“Crippling the delivery of unpopular views is a terrible lesson to send to impressionable minds and future leaders” (Rampell 1). This quote taken from Catherine Rampell in her article “Free speech is flunking out on college campuses” explains that strict censorship rules hurt students whose minds are still developing. Rules on censorship in a college setting are supposed to protect the rights of students. Censorship is supposed to protect them from extremely hate filled speeches, newspaper articles, and other documents. For example, defamation, lies, and uses of extremely hateful name calling such as the word “nigger,” are all applicable to fair censorship rules. Today, the power of censorship has grown strong. In a scramble to not offend anyone,…
Across the US, especially in college campuses, a rise in this idea of microaggressions and being “triggered” due to personally disagreeing with a statement or idea has been observed.…
I suspect that no community will become humane and caring by restricting what its members can say. The worst offenders will simply find other ways to irritate and insult.”…
Out of all of my biases this I would say is my most explicit and the one I most consciously remember learning. It all started going into my freshman year of college just from hanging out with older students who would joke about majors outside of the stem field and how they weren’t as intelligence as us pre-meds, or pointing out that it seems like all of the business majors seem to party 6 days a week and taking easy classes. Although I have tried to move away from that bias it’s something I struggle with especially when I’m around my friends who are for the most part all in intensive science majors (biochemistry, material science engineering, and neuroscience) and are pre-med predominately. Just to clarify I do not explicitly…
In today's society people pay a lot of attention to political correctness. People are way to worried about the fine details of what a person says and not about what they are actually saying. For example when someone is referring to a short person, they should be called a dwarf or a midget. Little things like that are being harped on so much in today’s world. In reality political correctness is based on people's opinions and people spend way too much time worrying about things that do not matter and not about real issues in world.…