I believe people are inherently good, therefore I support the notion that education cures hateful actions. Therefore, I believe giving up on someone by suspending them only worsens our situation. We must harness this ignorance in order to correct. Simply dismissing someone on the grounds of unjust words or actions removes our ability to educate. Katherine Knott mentions a quote in her article by Thomas L. Hill, “When you suspend or remove someone from the environment, you no longer have an opportunity to influence their behavior.” As mentioned in class, education is key in making our world a more just place.
My understanding of the terms “safe space” and “trigger warnings” is that these are phrases which are intended to keep everyone comfortable during these discussions on controversial topics. However, I reject these terms to some degree in that I feel they can stifle debate. Therefore, I support the University of Chicago’s address the its students. They are simply letting everyone know that there may be uncomfortable topics but that should not restrict us from growing from these issues. As we discussed in class, Bryan Stevenson mentioned in his talk to us, we must get uncomfortable to truly learn.
I believe there are many barriers to be broken here. Our society has created such a fearful people in the pursuit of a more politically correct world. In my opinion, we are so afraid to messing up that we have given up. The way to create a community which feels safe discussing such issues is by encouraging the notion that we will make mistakes in achieving this goal and that’s okay. Our discussion the past two weeks has aided in this because at times, the only way to learn is to become aware of your weak spots through education and open discussion.
Our national anthem is highly representative of who we are as a nation. Though it was written during high times of slavery, therefore racism, our anthem is symbolic, and therefore should be preserved. I don’t feel there is a huge presence of “collective pressure” as we each approach this tune with pride and honor. The biggest illustration of this is the olympic games. US athletes of every cultural background sing this song with pride after winning gold. As discussed in class, we must consider every perspective. However, I feel the national anthem goes beyond the individual.
My understanding of the terms “safe space” and “trigger warnings” is that these are phrases which are intended to keep everyone comfortable during these discussions on controversial topics. However, I reject these terms to some degree in that I feel they can stifle debate. Therefore, I support the University of Chicago’s address the its students. They are simply letting everyone know that there may be uncomfortable topics but that should not restrict us from growing from these issues. As we discussed in class, Bryan Stevenson mentioned in his talk to us, we must get uncomfortable to truly learn.
I believe there are many barriers to be broken here. Our society has created such a fearful people in the pursuit of a more politically correct world. In my opinion, we are so afraid to messing up that we have given up. The way to create a community which feels safe discussing such issues is by encouraging the notion that we will make mistakes in achieving this goal and that’s okay. Our discussion the past two weeks has aided in this because at times, the only way to learn is to become aware of your weak spots through education and open discussion.
Our national anthem is highly representative of who we are as a nation. Though it was written during high times of slavery, therefore racism, our anthem is symbolic, and therefore should be preserved. I don’t feel there is a huge presence of “collective pressure” as we each approach this tune with pride and honor. The biggest illustration of this is the olympic games. US athletes of every cultural background sing this song with pride after winning gold. As discussed in class, we must consider every perspective. However, I feel the national anthem goes beyond the individual.