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I’m a university professor and I don’t often give trigger warnings in my classes. My decision to use them or not isn’t ideological, it’s contextual. Even though I’m the instructor and the one with the PhD, the classroom doesn’t belong only to me. Students have responsibilities to me and each other; I’m also accountable to them. That means taking seriously that people are products of diverse and sometimes deeply traumatic experiences. It means recognizing violence, exploitation and oppression are not accidents, but the outcomes of structured inequality. It means acknowledging the university isn’t some perfect, unbiased place ruled by reason, but a complicated institution tied to powerful interests.
So why do some professors and administrators not only argue against the use of trigger warnings but publicly denounce them, and those who advocate for them? Rather than having a thoughtful, respectful and nuanced discussion with those working on a variety of social justice initiatives within the university, these critics up the ante. They frame their increasingly shrill objections to trigger warnings and other attempts to make the university a more socially just place in terms of a righteous crusade in defence of “free speech,” “academic standards” and even “Western civilization” itself. So what’s really at stake here?
For these righteous defenders of the whitewashed ivory tower, “academic freedom” and “free speech” are absolutes belonging only to that special class of people holding PhDs. Tellingly, these defenders of the academic mission are notably absent from broader struggles against state and corporate surveillance and censorship, even as they stridently denounce the fallen state of the university as a result of the machinations of a whole cast of “social justice warriors”—from feminists to Indigenous people. Despite the rhetorical emphasis on freedom, this is a viciously reactionary, conservative politics that bemoans a golden age lost to the unwashed rabble at the gates. Much could be said about the gendered, racialized and classed dynamics at work here.
Renouncing informed and open discussion about any given initiative, these academic missionaries caricature those concerned with social justice as “cupcakes,” “toddlers” or “thought-authoritarians,” belying their anxiety about losing their power. Interestingly, these crusaders are conspicuously silent in the face of the real crisis of post-secondary education as the university is systematically defunded by the state and hijacked by corporate interests at the cost of the very critical inquiry they pontificate so loudly about. If these concerns were animated by a principled commitment to free speech, critical inquiry and the university as a free and open space, the vitriol of these academic crusaders would surely extend to attacks on basic democratic freedoms aggressively advanced by governments and corporations. Crusaders for “academic freedom” who militate against those they deride as social justice warriors never spare a breath for how research and teaching within the university is constrained and channeled by powerful, moneyed actors who seek to advance their own set of interests.
Perhaps we can dispense with the charade that this debate is about trigger warnings, academic standards and free inquiry, and talk about what’s really at stake. The arguments speak for themselves: This crusade is about the self-serving defense of power and privilege, the delegitimization of social justice struggles and the rationalization of enduring injustice and inequality.
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This article appears in Nov 3-9, 2016.
Social justice is a waste of time. Resources are shrinking, populations are exploding, in 100 years equality could mean a bag of rice per year for everyone. Of course the real issue here is exponential population increase, and luckily that’s a problem that eventually solves itself.
“…these crusaders are conspicuously silent in the face of the real crisis of post-secondary education as the university is systematically defunded by the state and hijacked by corporate interests.”
“…the vitriol of these academic crusaders would surely extend to attacks on basic democratic freedoms aggressively advanced by governments and corporations.”
” Crusaders…never spare a breath for how research and teaching within the university is constrained and channeled by powerful, moneyed actors who seek to advance their own set of interests.”
We’ll call you Prof. Strawman from now on…
Not so sure about this, Alex. I’m with you in that I don’t use trigger warnings myself much in class (but I do very occasionally under certain circumstances); I’m not fundamentally opposed to them either and agree that much of the rhetoric against them is overblown, conservative, and ill-considered. That said, I know a number of folks who are opposed to trigger warnings *and* are engaged in social justice issues in a number of ways, and strongly oppose corporate and administrative colonization of higher education. In fact, a friend who is one of the most principled opponents of the corporatization of the university I know (at great personal cost) is also the person I know who is most critical of trigger warnings. I see no necessary connection whatsoever between being anti-trigger-warnings and pro-corporatization. I don’t think this kind of us vs. them representation of the situation helps matters, really.
Social justice is a waste of time. Resources are shrinking, populations are exploding, in 100 years equality could mean a bag of rice per year for everyone. Of course the real issue here is exponential population increase, and luckily that’s a problem that eventually solves itself.
It sounds like you may be of the point of view that you are entitled to the western lifestyle of over consumption, misuse and waste. Youre probably fine with the wholesale slaughter that takes place for the sake of the kind of people who have these selfish points of view, so they can feel like carnivores although they don’t have the guts to slaughter their own meat. Chances are that you have never taken the time or put in the effort to hold yourself responsible for what you take from / give back to your environment. Most people on the earth are totally capable of living entirely sustainable lifestyles. It’s the entitlement that we, the minority of people living in consumer world, that will destroy the world. Sadly it is the people who have the lowest impact on the state of our environment who will be in mortal danger because of the damage that the selfish, entitled, carnal class has done and will continue to do unrestrained.
Jonathan: No, just not stupid. If you feel so guilty because of your race you can give up everything you have and put your head on a block to atone for your crimes… but don’t try and force me to do the same.
I’am not really suggesting that I or anyone else should be getting their head put on the block. Just saying, the “too many people” argument that you used fragnol is based on the fact that people over consume and waste resources without really thinking about it. There is more food being produced and wasted than we need as a species, and the wrong kinds of food are being mass produced in ways that are unsustainable. To say that we shouldn’t care about social justice and use some excuse that we’re all going down the toilet anyway is rather defeatist and bleak. To take personal accountability for how you treat your environment and your fellow humans and other creatures that live on this planet is not really putting your head on the block. It actually is kind of a beautiful thing to respect your environment, as well as other people and cultures and whatnot, and you get positive feedback and it makes your life and the lives of those around you better. I’m not really saying that anyone needs to lose their head here. If anything I’m saying we should use our heads more. There are solutions to social justice problems and to environmental problems. It’s going to take a lot of work to truly get down to the root causes and fix these things. I don’t know what the solutions are, but I’m pretty sure that saying “it’s a waste of time” is not the best solution. It pisses me off to see this pervasive culture of “well, I can’t make a difference so I won’t even try”. That’s the kind of attitude that allows injustice to happen on all sorts of levels. It can be uncomfortable at a personal level to reflect on what we have done in certain situations and realize that we have been doing things wrong. To not do so however, is to reject a better future in favor of the short term. I would highly encourage anyone to reflect on social justice and other issues with an attitude of “my opinions matter, and my actions make a difference on some level, however small”. Obviously, no one is obliged to do this, but I think that it is rewarding on a personal level, and it probably won’t cost you very much. I doubt that you or anyone else will end up with your head on the block as the result of a little introspection.
And on another note fragnol, I don’t know why anyone would feel guilty for being of a particular race. Last time I checked no one gets to choose. It’s perfectly OK to be comfortable with your own race whatever that may be and to still respect other races. If you don’t believe that, you should really take a deep look inside to figure out why.
I’m not even reading all that, from skimming it just looks like a bunch of blabbering in the form of mental gymnastics and passive aggressive armchair psychology
Good essay. I can recall a time, not so long ago, when almost anything would be said with no regard to how people may have felt, under the guise of “academic freedom”. Those who oppose trigger warnings are, routinely, of the same ilk as the backlashers who complain about “political correctness” and the limiting of “free speech” now that they, finally, have to consider what they say and don’t have license to spew anything that comes out of their mouths. For most marginalized communities, free speech was never “free”.
Social Justice Warriors are the most fake bunch on earth! The biggest hypocrites on earth!
21st century social justice- “You cannot say anything to attack or hurt anyone’s feelings with any kind of truth,fact or stat to back it up unless such victim of hateful wording is directed at an everyday straight white man.”
The non-gay white man is fair game for all racial slurs and attacks. So much for the word “equality” from the political correct bubble crowd because you piss that out the window with your massive hypocrisy.
Multi-cultural=Less white and less straight in this twisted world of hypocrite idiots who contradict themselves I have to live among.
Fuck all you raised political correct pansys out there. You are the problem in this world! You just never shut up with the bullshit pc hyperbole.