When I began to listen to the episode “Kids These Days” the second story was titled "Free Expression Takes Work", Brooke Gladstone interviews Cameron Okeke. To add context socially, culturally and psychologically in this story Cameron is a recent graduate of University of Chicago, who is an African American and looks to advocate for safe places. When he went to school there he said that he felt unsafe to express his ideas or opinions and needed to go to the office of Multi-Cultural Affairs in order to find peace and feel safe. The University of Chicago in their freshman welcome letter stated that they did not support safe places nor trigger warnings for students. This bothered Cameron and he wrote a piece entitled "I'm a Black UChicago Graduate. Safe Places Got Me Through College." When they
started discussing safe places I was confused and unaware
of what they meant by safe places. According to an article
on the Washington Post states, the phrase “safe places” was first used about 50
years ago for women’s rights forums and included those looking for relief from harassment
for being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. Now it means a place for group of people who feel ostracized can be comfortable sharing their beliefs
(1). I believe that students should be able to have places where they are able
to go and meet among those that have the same beliefs as them. They should be
able to meet together and discuss their ideas just like there are any other
kinds of clubs on campus such as the Multi-Cultural Diversity Club. In the
episode they explain that some universities have ultimately cancelled scheduled
speakers to their university because they may present information that may
offend another person or may not be politically correct. Our country was
founded on a Bill of Rights and the first amendment in it is free speech. Each
of us has the opportunity to share our viewpoints and opinions just as much as
the next guy. Our society is now evolving and it chooses to become offended by
just about anything. We need to go back when people could express their
opinions, disagree on the matter and then walk away and respect the fact that
we disagreed. If we are going to grow as a country we must be able to freely give
our opinion without someone telling us that we are wrong and cannot do that. In
the example of Colin Kaepernick kneeling or sitting during the national anthem,
I believe that he has the right to be able to take a stand for what he calls
oppression of minorities. I do not agree with how he is trying to gain
attention on that matter because people are now only taking about the action of
sitting down or kneeling instead of the real issue of people killing cops and
cops killing people. I do however understand and see his role in expressing his view points and trying to get his message heard.
After the section of the show discussing safe places they then move to discussing trigger warnings. Once again I was confused by what they meant. Later in the article of the Washington Post, which was mentioned earlier, states that trigger warnings are to
alert students of information that will be presented and may be disturbing (1). In this section of the episode Brooke Gladstone interviews Kate Mann, to add context socially her role here is as a philosophy professor at Cornell University. She believes that trigger warnings are to just prepare students for material that will be presented and are not used to have students skip class. I also believe that faculty members should give trigger warnings before
presenting information that some might find offensive or disturbing. After
giving a trigger warning the students then can choose to participate in the
discussion or leave if they would like because that is their right. This should not impede the faculty
member to go ahead and present this information although it be disturbing because as
a student at a university we are there to learn and become more
educated. We are able to learn through other people’s opinions and different viewpoints
to widen our scope of thought. I believe that we all have different experiences
that shape our lives and there are some things that may bother us and we can
have the chance to choose not to listen but this cannot stop the instructor
from presenting that information. Trigger warnings are generally used when
talking about rape or other traumatic incidents. I personally know someone who
was raped about ten years ago at the age of 12. That day continue to haunts her
and she can’t escape it. It happened and she can’t go back and change the fact
that it happened but she can reduce the effects of the trauma to come back and haunt
her again and again through trigger warnings. Many people think that there is
no need for trigger warnings and that if a person reads, hears or watches
something disturbing they should then make the decision to stop reading, walk
out or stop watching. An article in the Huffington Post gives a wonderful
response to those people. As a direct quote from the article she writes “by the
time we reach triggering materials in an article, it is too late. Stopping at
that point doesn’t not help. It makes no sense to have read halfway and
encounter a particularly traumatic passage before stopping, when a simple
trigger warning at the top of the article would suffice and prevent unnecessary
pain and memories. A trigger warning gives us a tool to regulate our emotions
and for us to set the content aside, until we are ready to process the content
and engage with it in beneficial ways (2).” It is critical to give quick
warnings which can ultimately help someone else from feeling unnecessary pain
and trauma. It is very important to do your best to know those around you and
try to understand their circumstances in order to be more sensitive. We each have the opportunity to speak freely but it also important to respect those others around us.
Sources
- Christina Paxson. Brown University President: A Safe Space for Freedom of Expression. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/brown-university-president-safe-spaces-dont-threaten-freedom-of-expression-they-protect-it/2016/09/05/6201870e-736a-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html?utm_term=.7c3d0f35e067
- Jacqueline T Lin. Why We Don’t See a Need For Trigger Warnings. The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/why-we-dont-see-a-need-for-trigger-warnings_us_57ce3c8fe4b06c750ddb87c2
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