During a forum hosted by the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board on Literature Humanities last semester, a student shared an experience with an audience of instructors and fellow students. This experience, she said, came to define her relationship to her Lit Hum class and to Core material in general.
During the week spent on Ovid’s “Metamorphoses,” the class was instructed to read the myths of Persephone and Daphne, both of which include vivid depictions of rape and sexual assault. As a survivor of sexual assault, the student described being triggered while reading such detailed accounts of rape throughout the work. However, the student said her professor focused on the beauty of the language and the splendor of the imagery when lecturing on the text. As a result, the student completely disengaged from the class discussion as a means of self-preservation. She did not feel safe in the class. When she approached her professor after class, the student said she was essentially dismissed, and her concerns were ignored.
Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” is a fixture of Lit Hum, but like so many texts in the Western canon, it contains triggering and offensive material that marginalizes student identities in the classroom. These texts, wrought with histories and narratives of exclusion and oppression, can be difficult to read and discuss as a survivor, a person of color, or a student from a low-income background.
The MAAB, an extension of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, is an advocacy group dedicated to ensuring that Columbia’s campus is welcoming and safe for students of all backgrounds. This year, we explored possible interventions in Core classrooms, where transgressions concerning student identities are common. Beyond the texts themselves, class discussions can disregard the impacts that the Western canon has had and continues to have on marginalized groups.
For example, another student who attended the forum shared that her Lit Hum professor gave her class the opportunity to choose their own text to add to their syllabus for the year. When she suggested the class read a Toni Morrison text, another student declared that texts by authors of the African Diaspora are a staple in most high school English classes, and therefore they did not need to reread them. Toni Morrison is a writer of both the African Diaspora and the Western world, and her novels—aside from being some of the most intellectually and emotionally compelling writing in the last century—should be valued as founding texts of the Western canon.
The student’s remark regarding Toni Morrison was not merely insensitive, but also revealing of larger ideological divides. This would have been an opportune moment for the professor to intervene.
The MAAB has held two forums in our On the Core series and had multiple meetings with professor Roosevelt Montás, the director of the Center for the Core Curriculum. The goal of the forums on Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization was to give students, professors, and faculty a space to hold a safe and open dialogue about experiences in the classroom that all too often traumatize and silence students. Repeatedly, we heard from students who demonstrated that having difficult experiences in a Lit Hum or Contemporary Civilization class may actually be part of the norm. Unfortunately, not all professors seem equipped to be effective facilitators in the classroom.
Students need to feel safe in the classroom, and that requires a learning environment that recognizes the multiplicity of their identities. The MAAB has been meeting with administration and faculty in the Center for the Core Curriculum to determine how to create such a space. The Board has recommended three measures: First, we proposed that the center issue a letter to faculty about potential trigger warnings and suggestions for how to support triggered students. Next, we noted that there should be a mechanism for students to communicate their concerns to professors anonymously, as well as a mediation mechanism for students who have identity-based disagreements with professors. Finally, the center should create a training program for all professors, including faculty and graduate instructors, which will enable them to constructively facilitate conversations that embrace all identities, share best practices, and think critically about how the Core Curriculum is framed for their students.
Our vision for this training is not to infringe upon the instructors’ academic freedom in teaching the material. Rather, it is a means of providing them with effective strategies to engage with potential conflicts and confrontations in the classroom, whether they are between students or in response to the material itself. Given these tools, professors will be able to aid in the inclusion of student voices which presently feel silenced.
Students at the forum expressed that they have felt that Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization’s curricula are often presented as a set of universal, venerated, incontestable principles and texts that have founded Western society. Such a presentation does not allow room for their experiences in the Western world or in class discussions. While these founding principles have been liberating in many ways, instructors should more consistently acknowledge during class discussions that many of these same principles have created an unjust, unequal, and oppressive existence for many, as Professor Montás has suggested during our forums.
One of the defining elements of a Columbia education is the Core. The Center for the Core Curriculum, professor Montás, and many instructors have been receptive to our feedback and expressed dedication to addressing these issues. Altering the Core Curriculum is another important discussion—one that would undoubtedly require the insight of the larger student body. In the meantime, we hope that our recommendations will enable students to have a more intellectually rewarding experience in their classrooms.
The authors are members of the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board. Tracey Wang is a former news deputy for Spectator.
To respond to this op-ed, or to submit an op-ed, contact opinion@columbiaspectator.com.
Comments
"She did not feel safe in the class"
"Students need to feel safe in the classroom"
You people sound like 1980s Christian mothers talking about theirs kids being exposed to the evil influence of Madonna. Grow up, open up, care less about your identity and more about your passions, and please be passionate about anything... except your own identity. Such an insufferable breed of self-centered Care Bears.
I think you are incredibly insensitive of Care Bear culture. As a representative Care Bear, I was triggered by your statements and deeply hurt. I for one, love Madonna's Like a Prayer. Makes me want to get on my knees.
I'd like to start a petition to have people like you banned from buying and selling Care Bears for entertainment purposes.
Stop culturally appropriating me.
One must commend the authors for drawing attention to the triggering nature of classical texts by figures like Ovid, texts that should be carefully expurgated from the canon of texts that are studied in our institutions of higher learning. Another verbal trigger that is even more harmful to the atmosphere of safety we need on our campuses is satire.
Authors like Sterne and works like the Letters from Obscure Men (appropriately banned by Pope Leo X in 1617 because of its triggering nature) should be strictly forbidden. Students should also be advised that certain form of inappropriately deadpan parody are so triggering that they are illegal in this country: hopefully a small step towards the ultimate eradication of all triggering language from our society. See the documentation of America's leading criminal satire case at:
http://raphaelgolbtrial.wordpress.com/
I must apologize to my noble readers for the gross incompetence of my amanuensis, who bungled certain details of my posting, hence triggering incalculable confusion among my fans and enemies alike. I have seized the keyboard from this knave and confined him to the stables for the night as we await the morning to progress with our travels; and I repost my remarks here in the intelligible figure I should have hoped they would have had to begin with:
One must commend the distinguished authors (members, as they indicate, of the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board) for drawing attention to the triggering nature of classical texts by figures like Ovid, texts that should be carefully expurgated from the canon of works that are studied in our institutions of higher learning. Another verbal trigger that is even more harmful to the atmosphere of safety we need on our campuses is satire.
Authors like Sterne and works like the Letters from Obscure Men (appropriately banned by Pope Leo X in 1617 because of its triggering nature) should be strictly forbidden. Students should also be advised that certain forms of inappropriately deadpan parody are so triggering that they are illegal in this great nation: hopefully a small step towards the ultimate eradication of all triggering language from our society. See the documentation of America's leading criminal satire case at:
http://raphaelgolbtrial.wordpress.com/
And if she had done the reading prior to class, she would have been able to put the book down immediately before getting triggered, and talked to her professor in advance about a substitute assignment. Worst case, she could have just skipped the particular session in question.
Which begs the question, why didn't she read the book prior to class?
Thanks for all the upvotes. As a former Columbia student myself, I feel ashamed for this op'ed. This goes to show that, despite such ridiculous articles, there are some of us who still believe in studying the classical canon and a grown-up approach to education.
I really, really, really distrust people who write pieces like this. As an Hispanic former student, I really don't trust people who merely invoke minority struggles as a cudgel in order to dictate what can and can't be taught in a classroom and how it can or can't be taught.
"Toni Morrison is a writer of both the African Diaspora and the Western world, and her novels—aside from being some of the most intellectually and emotionally compelling writing in the last century—should be valued as founding texts of the Western canon.
The student’s remark regarding Toni Morrison was not merely insensitive, but also revealing of larger ideological divides. This would have been an opportune moment for the professor to intervene."
"Intervene" being code for "shut down the conversation".Merely disagreeing with another student about whether or not Beloved should be in the Core b/c people likely already read it in high school IS NOT an opportunity to 'intervene,' but to argue. THIS is where intellectual (and believe it or not, emotional) growth happens for both students. You don't get to unilaterally decide what texts should be in the Core over FEELINGS of safety. Although it no longer amazes me people fall for this sort of emotional manipulation, I still find it disgusting. I also find it disgusting that half the people reading this will be inclined to pay attention to it (at first) because I labeled myself as Hispanic (as if that lent me any authority on the subject).
As much as I'd like for Beloved and 100 Years of Solitude to be in the Core, I have to recognize that I need to make a case for it. I don't want a Disaffected People's Feelings Committee representing me. They're censors and manipulative busybodies invoking others' struggles in order to make themselves feel important/relevant.
" I don't want a Disaffected People's Feelings Committee representing me. "
I'm sorry, but I think your argument about people who "invoke minority struggles as a cudgel" and implications that these women (I am assuming by the names; I apologize for any mistake) who are writing this op-ed are "disaffected" by minority struggles is incredibly rude. A quick Facebook search would show you that that is not the case and that, in fact, all four authors of this piece are women of color. Debasing their arguments because of an (incorrect) assumption that they are merely appropriating minority struggles in order to work some other agenda is incredibly unhelpful to the conversation.
Also, thanks for assuming that Beloved is the only Toni Morrison book, or the only Toni Morrison book worth reading? My Lit Hum class read A Mercy, a very underappreciated Toni Morrison book, and we had an incredibly fruitful conversation about it. And my professor was the chair of Lit Hum, so I don't think it was an absurd addition.
Look up the word "disaffected."
But you're right about A Mercy.
At no point in my post did I mention or imply that Toni Morrison's Beloved is the only book of hers worth reading. My favorite book of hers is Song of Solomon, actually. I took a wild guess as to the identity of the book given how often Beloved comes up in conversation, in my experience (shrug), so sue me.
It's funny how your response shows traces of the kind of annoying tendencies I mentioned in my post. You're free to dismiss my argument as 'rude,' but keep in mind this is mere dismissal, not refutation - I can be a big meanie, but that's not going to automatically make your suggestions for the Core any more legitimate. Neither is appealing to authority via your LitHum prof. {{pathetic}} Which is a shame, because there are a handful of cases to be made for changing the Core and including a Toni Morrison book. What I'm railing against isn't the book, but the authors' arrogant insistence that an 'intervention' was due when a student disagreed with the idea.
I'm struck by the phrase "unhelpful to the conversation." ... are you sure you don't just mean "doesn't support the authors' argument" ? How much of a "conversation" is it if 'playing nice,' so to speak, is conflated with agreeing with the people who intend to change the Core?
@ "Alum CC'14" Excellent response!
All posters should leave out references to Ms. Morrison's work as deserving of inclusion in the Core if they wish to be taken seriously. One imagines Ovid will still be studied when Ms. Morrison is forgotten.
An underappreciated book by a writer who won the Nobel Prize, you mean? That sort of underappreciated?
1.
2. Nobody is trying to dictate what should and should not belong in the core. A dialogue is being had in which both parties are figuring out the best way to make Core Classrooms more inclusive of marginalized groups. Once again, a DIALOGUE, is being had. Much different than dictating. This dialogue is being had because at the present moment, students of marginalized groups generally have bad experiences with the core. The 4 women of color writing this op-ed are advocating for marginalized students.
3. Whether you want to admit it or not, one of the reasons that Toni Morrison is not included in the core is because the writings of women of color are not valued in this Eurocentric western world. However, the truth is that to understand the western world, you need to analyze it from the perspective of the ones being oppressed by the Western world. At the moment, we are only getting the perspective and narrative of White Europeans.
4. "Intervene" does not mean, shut the conversation down. If anybody is trying to shut the conversation down, it is people like you who do not want to hear and consider the grievances of marginalized students. On the contrary, WE want conversations like this to be had until the problem is solved. Once again, this is why the four women of color wrote this op-ed; not to shut down the conversation, but to spark it.
5. The people who are unilaterally deciding what texts are in the core, is Columbia. These four women are not unilaterally doing anything. They are simply advocating for more balance and inclusion of the narrative of marginalized peoples in the experience of Columbia's Core.
6. Your entire post is riddled with hyprocrisy. You are claiming that we are dictating and shutting down conversations, yet you are the one who is using backhanded arguments to defend your bigotry. Stop hiding behind the veil of impartiality and actually make a comprehensive rebuttal instead of painting people as "Disaffected" simply because they are bringing to light the complaints of the marginalized student body. Just as you don't want the "Disaffected People's Feelings Committee" representing you, I'm sure that these women are not out to represent snarky bigots like you.
Balls. The entire point of this wave, propagated by young sheep, is to SHUT DOWN dialogue, so that no one dares question the indoctrination.
Kelvin, when you graduate and come to my company looking for a job please remind me that you wrote this comment. That way I can kindly ask you to leave my office. Anyone so brain addled to think what happened represents marginalization is too foolish to work for me.
Well, Dan, your post is the quintessential example of where this is all going. Not only did you shout Kevin down (an "intervention"), you also threatened financial oppression as a part of your Foucaldian discourse strategy of power. Wow. Just wow.
Dan is merely stating the obvious. Some people may very well feel "oppressed" by reality and facts though. I still can't deal with the fact that Pluto is no longer classified as a planet. But whadyagonnado!
That word salad of pabulum sounds like something straight out of the Marxist Manual for the Mentally Morose. You aren't educated, Ovary, you are well-indoctrinated with a nasty sense of accomplishment and entitlement, though. I, like Dan, would never hire one of you credentialed, yet devoid of any knowledge, SJW snowflakes. You and your ilk are a symbol of the degradation of society and culture. You are unfit to be employed around grown-ups and you are better-suited for being a welfare queen. If you and the other leftist filth on this thread are representative of the quality of today's Ivy League, then the future is bleak.
Well stated but too mild.
Please tell me this was a brilliant satire and not meant seriously. Please!
You use the word "bigot" like you know what it means. Or maybe you do, but you misuse it anyway because that's what real bigots do these days. Unable to refute any of the points in the post you were responding to with facts and logic, you resort to recycling tired old cliche's about the "oppression" of the increasingly useless but vocal woe-is-me class. Talk about hypocrisy.
Can someone please explain how Ovid's depictions of rape are somehow more threatening than Toni Morrison's? Especially when she openly discusses how she wants the reader to feel like they are complicit in a scene in the "Bluest Eye" where there is a 1st person account of a father raping his daughter.
Hey now, such a reasonable comment triggered me. Happily it just triggered some light giggles. Come on, someone answer the question!
Excellent point, Kat!
I feel bad for people who feel like the fact they were born a certain race or sexual orientation is the most defining characteristic of their personality. You are a person, not a category.
Race and sexual orientation are more than just arbitrary categories in America. While it is a nice idea that we might be able to come together someday, ignoring that these categories exist and have been used to discriminate and to justify acts of violence against these communities aren't going to bring us any closer to that day. America was built on dehumanizing people because they fell into these categories. It continues to dehumanize people who fall into these categories every single day. Thus, race and/or sexual orientation does play a large role in the lives of people and any history book (or even current events) will tell you this. Denying the fact that these categories are important means completely ignoring American history and how institutions like Columbia came to be.
I think there is more dehumanizing done in the name of advertising than in any other way. They think of one as a "consumer," and sex and race come in second and third, trailing. They want to sell things.
"Race and sexual orientation are more than just arbitrary categories in America." Only to the left. And then, in the height of hypocrisy, they appropriate the term "liberal" to describe themselves.
your remark screams ignorance. Maybe ask a patient person of color why, because lord knows you're gonna need someone patient & calm to explain to you & the other 1,000 ignorant folk why your lack of compassion is incredibly ignorant. If you ACTUALLY tried to put yourself in the shoes & everyday life of someone who has to undergo constant "accidentally" subtle racist remarks every day, you would see that the world would look just a little different when you don't live in your ivy tower.
Oh Precious! Precious? My precious little snowflake, speaking as a black man who has been around the block more than a few times, all of you need to grow up and get over it. You re not the center of the universe, none of us has a right to not be offended in a democracy and if you can’t handle it repair to your padded room with your lollipops, Valium and whatever other pacifier makes you happy or better still make an appointment with a shrink. We are all always going to be offended by something. Using ‘feeling safe’, ‘respect’, and ’trigger-warnings’ are just treads in a rope to lynch free speech.
What you wrote is fabulous!
I've been a 1st generation Hispanic immigrant in the U.S. for most of my 36 year old life and have had to endure extremely bigoted treatment after moving to the mid-west in my 20s.
I don't need to be coddled nor protected from bigotry. I get the strength to deal with it from myself, not from other people empathizing with how I feel whenever someone says something disparaging about me because of the color of my skin or birth place.
My black, Mexican, and Jewish friends don't need the pity of anyone or the understanding of anyone to have the strength to go about my business and we don't need everyone, especially "1,000 ignorant (you mistyped what you meant, come out and say it, "white") folk, to know how it feels to be in my shoes.
You whine about subtle racism while people who suffer overt, blatant racism like I have work around it and DEAL with it. Grow some skin and stop being translucent, exposing your weaknesses to the world by blasting it over a megaphone. If you have a problem with your ability to handle the world, that's your personal problem and it doesn't give you the right to demand everyone live their life around you and your egocentric self.
A few questions for the authors that I think may help further explore possibilities:
What do you think is the PURPOSE of Lithum, at present? What are we supposed to walk away with? Do you think his is a "good" or "useful" purpose? If yes, which texts would you like to incorporate into that methodology and to those PARTICULAR ends? And if not, what do you think SHOULD be the function of the course, and how/with what texts do you propose to change it?
The article gestures toward some answers, but I think it's pedagogically important to come up with more concrete ones.
To clarify, I mean something beyond professor training. I'm with you 100% on the professor training part. I personally had one bizarrely insensitive professor who allowed lots of weird racist comments to go unchecked (like some girl who claimed that indigenous peoples of South America were "savage cannibals" I just could not believe that anyone had said it and that she let that go I just I can't oh my god sorry I'm having CC flashbacks). It's really really obvious that a lot of professors, especially in CC, are living in some strange Victorian universe. I'm more interested in the syllabus-oriented half of the authors' argument.
So you would not describe the Inca's ritualistic cannibalism as savage? What world would you use? How about the wonderful rituals of pulling out the hearts of living people as a sacrifice that the Aztec's practiced? It would seem to me that the professor let those "racist" words be used because they were not racist, but perfectly descriptive.
"How about the wonderful rituals of pulling out the hearts of living people as a sacrifice that the Aztec's practiced?"
They invented heart transplants! Or, half of it.
Lordy. The Aztecs were NORTH AMERICANS.
"The Aztec's heartfelt rituals brought them into closer communion with their neighbors."
Brings a whole new meaning to "eat your heart out!"
So many young people are just so pathetically weak these days. You say that sitting in a classroom reading a book makes you feel "unsafe" which makes me wonder if you've ever actually been in an unsafe situation in your life. A large number of students taking core classes have been in a fucking war being shot at and shooting people but cry babies like these can't even read a book without feeling unsafe. It's time to grow up kids.
Why do you think issues of sexual assault only exist in Western literature? There's something quietly racist (to non-Western cultures) about assuming that everything non-Western is perfect just by virtue of not being Western.
This op-ed is riddled with hypocrisies that I don't understand how the authors could not see when they wrote this. All you people are saying is that if someone disagrees with my opinion the teacher should shut them down, but my opinion should be heard. I read Morrison in LitHum, sure it was a decent read, but it came at the cost of Crime and Punishment because my teacher wanted to add in more diverse readings. While Morrison's works are decent, just because she is black does not make her books more worth reading than the books of someone of any other race. The fact that you are even implying this should be the case is incredibly racist and all the authors should look at themselves and ask if they are part of the problem because I think they are just as guilty as the people who say only whites should be read in the core. NO! The answer is that the best BOOKS should be read in the core regardless of author and if the case is that all authors are white then we should accept this as the case. No one here can make a real argument that "A Mercy" is a better text for LitHum than Crime and Punishment based off the book itself without bringing race into it
It's not just the quality of the work itself, but the value of the themes. Taking an intimate look at the black experience in the U.S. is super valuable to students
And this is why you are illiterate.
As an alum, I must agree Crime and Punishment absolutely belong on the LitHum syllabus.
Just want to point out that it's quite disingenuous to categorize this as "Dialogue". For an individual to use his/her status as a survivor to justify the removal of "triggering" texts is just throwing one's weight around and putting an end to discussion. This is not making a good point, this is making it impossible for anyone with a hint of manners to respond (who wants to talk back to a survivor? ).
It's entirely possible to come up with good arguments against certain aspects of the Core, but if you want us to take you guys seriously, stop appealing to your own identity. If you make an argument as X/survivor/chicano/african-american, people will respond to your arguments as if they were made by an X/survivor/etc, instead of taking them seriously.
...is full of triggering events.
Like encountering liars and calumnists... those things trigger me. Yet Columbia celebrates those people and their slanders.
Sometimes the culture of phony victimization goes so far sometimes that you can't tell if you are reading parody or not. This is one of those times.
A lot of it has been well covered, but I'm going to just leave with a few questions:
If it is not acceptable to teach controversies about race, sexual orientation, socioeconomic gaps in society, or gender, how are we ever supposed to confront and overcome those issues as adults in society?
If we cannot talk about them using characters in fiction, how can we even begin to discuss what really happens in the world?
If you expect to treat college students as such children that they cannot handle being exposed to uncomfortable concepts, when in life are we supposed to grow up enough to deal with an uncomfortable world?
It disturbs me that people think that talking about subjects they find uncomfortable means that they are "not safe" in the classroom.
"Not safe" is being a female student in Afghanistan, not being made uncomfortable by statements you disagree with or even statements you find offensive. The solution to what you think is bad speech is more speech, not the suppression of ideas.
If you can't handle people who disagree with you you're going to have a tough time getting through life.
You are completely and totally right.
"Unsafe" is Columbine or LoneStar College in Houston.
Students need to be challenged in the classroom, not wrapped up in soundproof cotton wool. We are not talking about children, despite the recent display of kindergarten histrionics at Oberon.
Perhaps, you will suggest a safe room with cookies, colouring books and a video of frolicking puppies next.
Treating minorities as some sort of special class requiring kid gloves is downright insulting, not to mention bigoted. Next, there will be suggestions that they should be segregated into separate classes to allow for their special needs.
Grow the hell up and maybe the students will follow suit. I am embarrassed on your behalf.
It used to be the blacks and lesbians who sought to destroy western culture, but now the asians have joined.
PS what kind of name is Tanika
"Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Western Civ has got to go!'
-- Call at protest of Stanford University about their curriculum, led by Jesse Jackson in 1998.
I've been around long enough to hear this song before.
Wow -- I could not disagree more with this article and everything it stands for and suggests and demands. Life doesn't come with built in trigger warnings, and great literature channels life's complexity, including its distasteful aspects, and even its horror. If your professor refused to entertain your comments about the disturbing sexual ethic of Metamorphoses because she was so swept up with its imagery, then she's not doing her job as a facilitator and you have a valid complaint. But it seems to me that you find the entire idea of reading Ovid or other 'canonical' texts distasteful, and are offended by the very concept of a western canon.
Well, you can have that view. But just in case no one has told you this yet: it's simplistic, it's myopic, and it's intellectually lazy. The cultures that produced most of the texts we read in lit hum dont share your cultural sensibilities. In fact, their values systems are foreign to the extreme. Sometimes we focus too much on universalizing, but putting yourself into the mind of an Ancient Greek or a medieval European monk might as well be entering the brain of an alien. Old white men? Try explaining that concept to Vergil or Augustine or whoever -- your method of filtering your experience through lenses of privilege and marginalization would seem as kooky to them as Aquinas and his hierarchies of divine law and creation probably seemed to you (if you did the reading). Sifting through All this is the thought exercise the core, at its best, is supposed to structure. I think it's great to suggest texts that are nuanced and sophisticated enough to add to the core, and to represent alternative viewpoints. But the underlying idea that classic texts can do violence in the classroom simply because of their content, and that the instructor's job is thus to shelter rather than expose? That's some pretty twisted dystopian thinking right there.
"The cultures that produced most of the texts we read in lit hum dont share your cultural sensibilities."
.
OUR culture doesn't share your cultural sensibilities.
.
As George Clinton once said, "Free your mind and your ass will follow!"
And people wonder why the US is sliding down the toilet. If students are that socially/psychologically crippled, they shouldn't leave their homes unsupervised without their case worker.
Ok, this is an article from "The Onion", right?
Ok, this is an article from "The Onion", right?
It's a good thing Toni Morrison wasn't so squeamish about engaging with the Western canon as these students or she wouldn't have been able to base Beloved on a rather 'triggering' myth about a woman who cut up both her brother and her enemies' father, before killing her own small children.
SHH PLOT SPOILER
Another excellent comment!
This essay triggered my fears of political correctness undermining the value of a Columbia education. Where's my safe space?
this article is just beyond ridiculous...beyond a caricature of ridiculous really.
How dare anything challenge my worldview? I can, of course, challenge other worldviews as much as I like, because they aren't mine!
Toni Morrison's novels are "founding texts of the Western canon"? So, um, the Western canon entered into existence in the late twentieth century? "Foundational," perhaps. "Founding," no way.
I'm worried about the state of a Columbia education, and not on account of its potentially triggering subject-matter.
So, you noticed that too? It doesn't make any sense to claim that Toni Morrison novels are founding texts of the Western canon, unless Columbia University believes that the Western canon didn't begin until the twentieth century! I would consider Ovid's works to be much better described as founding texts of the Western canon.
I wonder if Columbia University MAAB is redefining Western civilization in order to fit MAAB's view of racially and politically sanctioned ideology.
The person who wrote this article probably wasn't proud of Western civilization until Toni Morrison wrote about it.
If you had read the Metamorphoses carefully, you would see that Ovid has an incredibly nuanced view of sexual assault for the time. He is in fact criticizing the gods for their horrible actions, a motif that reappears throughout his oevre, such as in the Ars Amatoria.
Nuance and careful reading are racist tools of the white patriarchy and must be destroyed.
this is hilarious
It is true most read Many Morrison works in H.S. A great alternative would be Butterfly Burning or anything else by Yvonne Vera, a literary genius from Zimbabwe. Also of course the achingly beautiful Breath, Eyes, Memory or anything else by genius Edwige Danticat.
Ovid is worth it for the beauty alone.
Ovid is worth it for the beauty alone.
To me the most infuriating thing about this article is the fact that they are trying to use someone's experience of sexual assault to promote their argument for the existence of and solution to racism in the CC syllabus. I agree with the views seemingly held by the majority of commenters on free speech and challenging class discourse, but even if I didn't, I would still find it totally absurd to use the example of a victim of sexual assault having experienced triggering to promote your views on what is racist and what should or should not be in Contemporary Civilizations. If it were my experience of rape being used for this article, I would feel that it had been degraded and belittled. Your stance on sensitivity is hypocritical in the extreme.
Some aspects/definitions of a safe space don't sit quite right with me...but one thing that seems really DANGEROUS in the lithum classroom is learning important things WRONG. So when a student tries to break down racist propositions and sees that they won't be able to carry their point (maybe it's just wrong, but maybe the prof is racist, MAYBE they're just too worn out by explaining this position for the hundredth time and get overwhelmed and choose to leave), that can be very scary--they are watching the re-education of the ideas that are hurting our society. In this case, that fear is not of primary concern--the fear is a symptom of a problem we need to address.
If you think you felt uncomfortable, imagine how uncomfortable the rapists (read: men) in your class felt...
Toni Morrison's extremely insensitive and indeed triggering view of rape should be entered into the public record as a data point in this debate. I quote from her introduction to Birth of a Nation’hood: Gaze, Script, and Spectacle in the O. J. Simpson Case:
"Another issue the official story both exposed and blanketed is the matter of domestic abuse, by which is meant the physical harm males do to females–the reverse being rare, warranted, a joke or all three. There are patently excessive responses to these claims. A six-year-old boy was suspended for kissing a girl classmate on the cheek (prompting the question of whether expulsion would have been the consequence if she had kissed him). And there are undoubtedly some fabrications, abuse being the easiest and most effective claim in divorce settlements. But the more recent understandings of the law and the unassailable argument of men and women who trying to get the general population and the courts to take this issue seriously lead toward one conclusion: a female must not be physically accosted by a male under any circumstances–excepting a demonstrable threat to his or somebody’s life. That means whatever the reasons, there are no excuses. If she curses him, humiliates him or degrades him, he must not hit her. If she betrays him with another sexual partner, he must not hit her. If she abuses his children or burns his supper; wrecks his car or chops off his penis; whether he is shooting up, messing up or cleaning up, he must not hit her. Why? Because he is stronger. The power relationship is unequal. (Except when she is armed.)
"As for sexual assault, the thinking is similar. Rape is a criminal act whatever the circumstances. A woman riding the subway nude may be guilty of indecency but she may not be raped. If she invites or even sells sex at 10:00 and refuses it at 10:45, the partner who disregards her refusal and forces sex is guilty of rape. If she is drunk, asleep, mentally defective, paralyzed or dead, she must not be raped. Why? Because sexual congress must be by consent. And males are stronger.
"Trying to ensure that view has been difficult partly because the masculinist side of the debate (She was “asking” for it) still pervades, but also because in the negotiation of power, the physical strength and the allegedly uncontrollable sexual hunger of males are seen as unequalizing factors. The popular counterargument that concerns female responsibility in these matters of power is a subversive, almost treasonable one. Men must be retrained and socialized into non-aggressive, respectful behavior. But women, whose historically repressive social education has been ruthless and whose self-esteem has been systematically plundered, are understood to have no responsibility. As long as the wildly irresponsible claim of “It doesn’t matter what she does” is the answer to the helpless idiocy of “She made me do it,” the complicity in power/abuse relationships will be unaddressed. It does matter what she does. And she can't make you."
Morrison says of a hypothetical rape victim, "It does matter what she does." Can an author with such views enable the creation of a safe space in Lit Hum?
This is extraordinary psychosis and the campus administrators and professors who enable this mass hysteria should not only a deep sense of shame, they should get a lot more pushback than they do from the media, parents and even governments. Of course the White House emphasis on dealing with campus rape without due process or the rule of law, instead of having the police deal with it, under fear of losing funding, is part of what drives this cultism.
I also can't help wondering if the reading was the story about the Prophet and Ayesha and the Battle of Karbala that suddenly, it might be blessed as beautiful and not a trigger at all but a blow for freedom against the oppressive White Man.
Toni Morrison won a Nobel prize in literature, however, Ovid's works should be valued as "founding texts of the Western canon".
Oh my God, you're right! Virtually no one on the Lit Hum syllabus has won a Nobel Prize! Homer didn't win one! Vergil didn't win one! Neither did Jane Austen or Virginia Woolf! Quick, somebody get some Mikhail Sholokhov and Rudyard Kipling on the list!
(Which is not to say that Morrison isn't a great writer.)
I presume this is a statement of fact and not intended as a misguided challenge on an almost 2000 year old text that remains an insightful view of the human psyche as well as brilliant satire to this very day.
I'm not familiar with the format of Columbia's Literature Humanities classes, but do they generally include fiction as contemporary as Morrison's? Most of her books are only 30 or 40 years old and surely their place in any kind of 'canon' is not yet assured. In my opinion it takes many decades, centuries sometimes, for the value of most works of fiction to become clear.
This is what happens when "college is for everyone." It isn't college anymore, but pre-K circle time. Do you want an education, or do you want an ego massage?
Yes, let's burn every copy of Ovid and while we're at it let's pretend Toni Morrison's Affirmative Action Nobel Prize was even remotely legitimate. Hey, let's go all the way and declare "Doctor" Maya Angelou (the only "Doctor" not to finish high school!) the greatest poet in the Western Canon.
This is absolutely horrifying.
I can't wait to take Dr. Emma Sulkowicz's (that's right Sen. Gillibrand pulled some strings and forced Columbia to award her an instant Ph.D!) seminar next fall: Trigger Warnings, Rape Culture, Regrets, and YOU. I hear a live rapist will be dissected onstage at the first lecture.
Just fire the instructor and drop the greek classics from program. Teach Dr Seuss. You will get as much from studying his work than the old world stuff.
Most of these comments should be added to the western canon.
Reading Toni Morrison's biography, I wonder what she would have to say. I doubt she'd agree with this article.
Grow-Up! The thought that the current generation of college students will be in positions of powers some day soon is horrifying.
this entire article is a load of horseshit. Everyone is so easily offended these days and can't learn to get over things. All we end up with are students that are less and less capable of making any headway in the world because they never gave any real tests of character in university.
Keep it up, you're doing two things:
1. Ensuring people like me, in the work force already have ever greater job security
2. Continuing to show corporate America that universities are more useless every day, reducing the value of them in favor of iq testing
Good work.
As a woman, I find other women who can't take a literature class without swooning because of upsetting material embarrassing. That's why they didn't let women read the newspapers back in the 19th century, because it might disturb their delicate psyches. The pathetic state of higher education makes me ill.
Yes, let's keep old Ovid, who has been entertaining people for 2000 years) out of the class because a poor little snowflake was offended by some bad words. I suppose Shakespeare (ie Titus Andronicus) will be banned next.
Quit making women look like such weak & cowardly pussies.
Shakespeare was just another white male oppressor. How about reading some works by women, people of color and transsexuals?
But Tracy Wang lists him as one of her favorite authors.
Damn you internalized misogyny!
Well any advice from a clear bigot must be sound... Tell me more about how white men are the source of all the worlds problems.. Or maybe admit your pseudo science beliefs are garbage, your accomplishments garbage, and that in reality feminism really is the radical notion that women need special treatment. Sorry real women, these feminists are now more your problem than for men. Lol
"Students need to feel safe in the classroom"
No, students need to be challenged in the classroom, they need to be shown opinions and material that will test them, that will make them think and yes in many cases offend them.
College is designed to prep these people for the real world, these are our future leaders, the people that will decide the course of the world after most of us are long dead and thus far, we are creating a legion of children that will crumble and collapse at the first sign of trouble, we keep coddling people like this, we are going to get run over by anyone who only has conflict and war on their minds.
This is so pathetic. Where do they get all this? Do incoming students go through a course on how to use buzzwords to sound like a victim? And I thought the ad nauseum repetition of "hegemonic" and "phallo-centric" in the '90s was bad.
These "trigger students" need to toughen up, like all males are expected to do.
Farewell western civilization, drowned in a sea of cowardness and self pity. Oh boy!
This must be satire. There is simply no way anyone can be this crazy.
These women are like a baby watching a movie and thinking the monster is going to come out of the screen and get them. These days colleges infantilize women and encourage them to be helpless babies. 'Trigger warnings' are nonsense. If you need trigger warnings then you need to stay in a nursery with the other babies. An adult is a person who has learned the lesson, "Why do we fall? So we can learn to get up!"
This genuine act of intellectual cowardice has to be some form of belated April fools joke. If not then the professor did the right thi ng and dismissed her. Oh he shouldn't ignore her. Instead he need to try to get her expelled. She clearly doesn't meet the standards required of a functional adult needed for one to be in college in the first place.
Students do not need to feel "safe" in the classroom. They need to be intellectually challenged. When students need to feel "safe" in the classroom that is the death of intellectual growth. Learning is uncomfortable. The idea that a "trigger" should stifle intellectual discourse is utterly antithetical to the academic environment. Shame on Columbia for having students that need such coddling.
Slave morality, ressentiment
Speaking of lit classes, do schools still require students to read The Crucible? I think the authors of this piece should read The Crucible. Pay particular attention to the shrieking nonsense of the girls any time they need silence others or divert attention.
Going to be wary when hiring anyone from here from now on...
It would be wrong to judge a whole generation because of the opinion of a small group of people.
The best thing I can say about Columbia, is that the College has maintained the integrity of LitHum and CC for all these years.
It is a shame that a Columbia education is occasionally wasted on
students such as the authors of this article.
Let's not get that far. They are entitled to their opinion, and the community has the right to answer them. That's all. It would be terrible if people couldn't express themselves.
Ha, i get it, because they want to stifle the expression of others. Classic.
Did America go from a the greatest generation to the lamest generation?
Read more authors like Ovid and you'll be able to graduate from high school literature like Toni Morrison.
These girls parents need a refund.
"Students need to feel safe in the classroom, and that requires a learning environment that recognizes the multiplicity of their identities."
Sheer lunacy! I'm appalled that any Columbia professor would coddle students such as this, like precious little painted eggs. Look out -- four of them have shattered!
Reading these selfish and self-centered screeds makes me ashamed to be of the female gender (and yes, Dear Snowflakes, there are only two).
Why are your feelings more important than any other student's in the classroom? Why do you feel you deserve special treatment? Is it because your parents spoiled you and told you that you were the most important thing in the world? Is it because you have grown up immersed in social media platforms that amplify your narcissism? Both, I assume.
You believe you are owed the world. You believe you are owed a world that caters to your feelings and predilections, no matter how fringe or psychotic. I am absolutely ashamed to share a generation with you.
"Our vision for this training is not to infringe upon the instructors’ academic freedom in teaching the material."
This may be your vision, but I'm far more concerned with what this looks like in practice.
There are over 7 billion unique identities on this planet, 196 countries, and over 6,500 spoken languages. No core curriculum will ever represent the diversity of the human experience.
Can efforts be made to increase opportunities to seminar? Can students be encouraged to share their perspectives and relate the core curriculum to their experience? Absolutely. Should the core curriculum be modified to reflect your unique identity? No. The sun does not revolve around the earth, and entire institutions do not revolve around you.
You deserve emotional support and recognition, and that can be found within social networks, among advocacy organizations, your family, the internet, literature of your choosing, or therapy.
I value challenges to tradition, but we're not merely talking about an evolutionary step. What's suggested is an extreme accommodation for individual needs, and you're attempting to externalize those concerns by imposing your unique identity politics on an entire institution.
Gets the nuances exactly right, IMO.
How are these orchids ever going to survive outside the hot house?
"She did not feel safe in the class."
She doubted her safety because of a college lecture??
Sounds like she should be institutionalized until she is sane enough to function in society.
Well this is a load of tripe. You're supposed to be blooming adults, not intellectual cravens that are to be coddled the moment your personal bogeyman shows up in whatever nuanced format you see him/her/it in. Sometimes (always) the alphabet soup spelling odd sentences and phrases is purely coincidence and not actually a direct attack on your personal experiences and mental baggage and hangups. "Metamorphosus" is indeed a staple of literature and yes it depicts a NUMBER of things that can be otherwise unsavory... but if you can't be enough of an adult to handle that then you shouldn't be in college at all studying higher subjects with the grace and maturity expected of you. Should I be triggered by Swift's "Modest Proposal" if I've witnessed the deaths of young children or been subject to poverty? Absolutely not, and if I have some personal hangup with the subject presented, then it is MY RESPONSIBILITY to deal with that hangup and move forward. It isn't on the professor to adjust the curriculum so I can avoid dealing with it, it isn't on the students to be directed to avoid talking to me or bothering me about a subject I am personally sensitive to... it is entirely on me. I mean c'mon... you actually cited an example of these insensitive and triggering events with a student treating a single author with dismissal because they personally had already read enough about that subject... REALLY? Would you say the same if someone suggested Hawthorne or Frost and someone groaned at redoing it?
You're an adult, act like one, not some coddled spoiled child. Grow up.
If you are unable to read the classics, or indeed any work which offends you, you have a simple solution: drop out of college. College is not for you if you cannot handle new and possible offensive ideas. Expecting college to be dumbed down for you is, well, it's dumb.
You feminists describe yourself as "strong" and "powerful". And then you are frightened by some texts? Come one, this is ridiculous.
I don't think you know what the word 'safe' means.
This really was a load of drivel.
I'll be sure to add the authors to my ever-growing list of people to avoid hiring in the future.
Wait, this article is a parody, right? It's got to be. I think everyone who took this piece seriously got taken in.
This piece is a brilliant satirical joke, right?
Columbia students such as the authors of this editorial have become a national punchline, emblematic of a whining, solipsistic Millennial generation that prizes personal coddling over academic freedom. The supposed maxim that students must “feel safe” at all time in class is ludicrous. The world is filled with scary, upsetting ideas. Out there in the real world, people will not be so eager to stoop and pat you on the head whenever you are upset. The sooner that young people realize that, the better off they’ll be. So, by all means, let challenging, and possibly upsetting, experiences begin in the college classroom.
Columbia College students of today, please stop embarrassing the larger university community by this outrageous overreach of political correctness.
Sincerely,
Benjamin Ryan
CC’01
Spectator features writer, 1998-2000
Unsafe in an Ivy League classroom?
Oh get a grip young America.
Columbia is home to an international body of students. What an offense to people who really come from places where physical survival is a daily challenge.
People who use the term "triggered" to mean "felt uncomfortable" seriously go away, go the fuck away. I've been triggered before, and let me tell you, PTSD is incredibly serious. It is not however, as that student described it, a feeling of being "unsafe" and felt that she need to disengage for self-preservation. If I could simply just "disengage" from a conservation as to prevent my panic attack from happening, believe you me I would and please please someone teach me this trick.
I want people to understand that when you have a panic, no only can you not control it in the slightest, you react very violently. You feel your throat close up and your chest on fire and you're not really aware of what on earth is going on around you. You start shaking and you feel dizzy. THERE IS NO TEACHER IN THE WORLD WHO WOULD KEEP LECTURING IF YOU ACTUALLY WERE TRIGGERED.
Let us be clear. If you felt like you were about to cry because talking about rape is emotionally painful for you, then that is really bad. Perhaps people should talk to their professors about it in that respect. Tell someone instead of "this material may be triggering" which has been a bastardized term because literally no one understands how serious it is and uses it incorrectly, talk to the professor about how this make you emotionally upset and ask for some consideration. In my experience, very few professors say no and will help. There are very few pure assholes in this university, like some of these articles would have you believe.
This story (above) is the same as this one: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/alabama-lawmaker-my-bill-protects-kids-from-learning-they-came-from-a-monkey/
A warning can be ignored (or not), nobody's banning Ovid; canon-worshipers should just chill.
Trigger warnings have nothing to do with politics, it's a considerate thing to do for those afflicted with PTSD; people offended via the progressive agenda assumption could consider this: 15% of Vietnam vets came home with PTSD, Iraq was 11%-20%. [numbers from ptsd.va.gov]
PTSD: The gluten allergy of 2015.
A warning can be ignored (or not), nobody's banning Ovid; canon-worshipers should just chill.
Trigger warnings have nothing to do with politics, it's a considerate thing to do for those afflicted with PTSD; people offended via the progressive agenda assumption could consider this: 15% of Vietnam vets came home with PTSD, Iraq was 11%-20%. [numbers from ptsd.va.gov]
safety in class is vital. Why, I once saw an advanced calculus text book actually jump up on its spine and assault someone in a most vicious manner. It was horrible. Every time someone starts calculating a derivative, I get triggered.
my college professors tried to push me out of my comfort zone. How dare they? I think it's pretty outrageous that people with ideas I've never considered before get to espouse them in a University. A college should serve to just reenforce my own preconceptions. Same for art, for that matter. Why are all these artists and writers, especially the Western European ones, trying to equip me to think new thoughts?
Toni Morrison... the African Diaspora ? Really? What friggin tribe was she born into?
Shame.
It looks like the comments already left address the fundamental issue, though perhaps more harshly than necessary. Rape is a horrific and dehumanizing act, just as murder and war. And, just like these dehumanizing aggressions and others (slavery, for example), they have been present in societies and nations for thousands of years. But if we cannot discuss the atrocities mankind inflicts on itself, we cannot discuss history or morality; we can't discuss what people have done and we can't discuss ways in which we can become better. We couldn't discuss war, we couldn't discuss suffering itself.
Being sensitive to suffering because one has suffered is not a bad thing-- if it causes some people to want to avoid all mention of the suffering they have endured, it is also probably the foundation of compassion-- the desire to reduce or eliminate the suffering of others so that they don't have to repeat our experience.
If mention of a trauma that one has endured is too painful, then one ought to ask to be excused from the discussion, not ask that discussion itself be eliminated.
It seems unlikely that the authors of this op ed actually did the reading either. The descriptions of the assaults on Daphne and Proserpina are basically PG. The fact that they call the latter "Persephone," which Ovid does only once (as opposed to "Proserpina," which is her usual Roman name) is no doubt just a lapse due to the common confusion that all educated people sometimes experience when code switching between Latin and Greek.
Social justice warriors are completely ruining Columbia. They have been for a long time. This is just another step in that decline.
Social justice warriors are completely ruining Columbia. They have been for a long time. This is just another step in that decline.
"Students at the forum expressed that they have felt that Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization’s curricula are often presented as a set of universal, venerated, incontestable principles and texts that have founded Western society."
First, shouldn't we try to distinguish between what students "felt" and how the texts were actually presented? Should professors and curricula really by judged by how students "feel" about them? This is RateMyProfessors.com in place of professional evaluation.
Second, there's a big difference between respecting and promoting a book and respecting and promoting a principle. Good books are full of contested, competing principles and shifting, paradoxical meanings. Do the authors of this piece understand the difference between "principles" and "text"?
Also, could we please have a lucid discussion of this "triggering" phenomenon and the new prominence of "triggering" discourse in academia? People criticize the ethics of shielding students from material that they find difficult -- rightly, I think -- but what's going on for these students, psychologically? And assuming that something serious and difficult is going on, couldn't professors try to help them through, rather than censoring it? If so, how? Maybe a discussion like that could bring together those who scoff at "triggering" and those who are inclined to take it seriously.
i fought in a war. you morons don't know what the word 'unsafe' means. you can't handle a book by ovid? shut up and deal with it. then grow up and stop making all of us listen to you insufferable children.
This op-ed triggered me. I wish never to see it or anything like it again. Thank you.
What a bunch of sissy whiners, with no skills or ability to prepare for the real world. And people scratch their heads and wonder why many millennials are considered worthless. Take it from me kids, outside of the cozy bubble of academia, life is little more than a series of struggles, getting up after getting knocked down, being offended (yet still holding your tongue), and being "triggered." Teachers and school officials need to start ignoring these losers. They're not doing them any favors by giving in to their demands. If people can't stand hearing a story from mythology, for Christ sakes, how can they possible stand to succeed in managing people, starting their own company, or at the very least, working in a team environment? It's never too late to grow a thick skin, kids.
When did feeling mildly uncomfortable begin to be conflated with feeling "unsafe"? Grow the eff up. No one is going to continue treating you like a child in the real world. They'll just fire you when they figure out that you do not have the emotional maturity to work effectively with others.
People who feel "triggered" need to suck-start a cactus while being beaten with a rubber hose.
Time for a good, old-fashioned book burning!
- MAAB
If I wasn't nearly done with my program I'd transfer to a different school specifically because of intellectual cowardice and weakness here. It's a dark and scary world and if you can't handle a bloody nose you should stay home instead of expecting others to coddle your continued failure to adapt.
Eat the weak, feed the strong.
Grow up idiots, the world is a big, scary place, not at all like the Sesame Street version you have in your immature minds.
Seems like they need to dispense Pampers at the classroom door for all the pants wetting going on here. You folks won't last 5 minutes in the real world.
This is silly. If a student is feeling detected from a book because of the subjext, unless said books subject matter is the subject of the class -- which Ovid is not. Ignore the subject and look at the lines out of context. The core is set for historic reading as one side of a many sided coin. There is an anthropology class the describes itself as lothum/cc of the East. There is a history class that describes itself as the lit hum/cc of slavery. The school demands you read authors of historic note and legendary caliber from Western cultural thought because those books teach specific material on how to think critically in a manner that Columbia is known for. Columbia is forthcoming about its expectations in the core before you apply. If you do not wish to read one or more books on said list or with to read other book, you need not apply. Columbia clearly states that they want students here to want to learn the core. Nothing else. So we should stop changing to core, and tell student who wish not to participate in the core not to apply and to transfer if here
While the rest of the world struggles for food and water, we lament over hurt feelings spurned by millennia-old literature. All of this identity politics is getting ridiculous.
If you're offended by this in anyway, I suggest you drop out and make room for people who want to work/produce. You might as well give in to what is undoubtedly a darwinistic inevitability.
These books with triggers need to banned. Think of the children. We need to burn all these books for the children. It is not far now, so nicely along the way.
This is a joke right?
If I recall that particular story doesn't even have rape in it, it's a title, and there is dedicated paintings to it, but it's actually more of a kidnapping, eating food that traps her there for a period of time every year and later on a marriage. It never directly talks about rape or a sexual act and it does not glorify the kidnapper. It's just an explanation for the changing of seasons.
But let's say that it did. SO WHAT? It's historical literature! And to bring "western literature" as disengaging, have they read eastern? You think violence against women in classical western is bad, they haven't read anything yet! Hell African literature has rape and violence too! I've taken multi-cultural history, to say this is an exclusive western trait is both ignorant and moronic!
What a witless piece! The authors encourage ignorance. And Toni Morrison is third rate at best -- hardly worthy inclusion in the canon.
Exactly which world are these students being prepared to live in? The one I live in, doesn't have a trigger warning on everything.
Some of these colleges and universities are training the young to fail at life.
"multiple identities"?
"facilitations"?
"African Diaspora"?
It's all very strange.
You make me embarrassed to be a student at this school.
I honestly don't know why you folks are in school.
It seems you have nothing to learn and no one to learn it from. Surely this is a waste of your time and money!?
Why not go directly to:
a) teaching high school or college
b) becoming the community activists you wish to be
c) serving me coffee
Ok you little, pathetic losers, let me introduce myself; My name is Dave. I'm 46 years old, a successful businessman and I have something you will want someday - jobs.
I also know lots of rich people who also have jobs.
Let us, collectively, tell you something - you're a pathetic lot of whiny, thin-skinned losers.
"Triggers." "Microaggression" - are you kidding me?
Toughen up, the real world is a BITCH and if you start acting like the sniviling bunch of idiot that you portray yourselves to be, you don't stand a chance.
If you believe in the crap written above, don't come to any of us for jobs, cause the real world is full of "triggers"
Grow up!
This is the same university that features that mattress-carrying idiot who make up the fake story about rape that didn't occur, right? The university that engaged in the witch-hunt against the poor fellow who was wrongfully accused?
Yes, it's the same university.
But is anyone surprised by this OP-ed? Obviously something called the "Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board" could not possibly produce anything but laughable stuff like this.
Apparently the only thing more worthless than a Columbia education is a Columbia student.
You are idiots. All of you. That you escaped from high school is embarrassment enough. That you got into Columbia is an error of cosmic proportions.
The kid needs a psychologist. Bunch of snowflakes being raised today will have a shock when they bump into the real world of people that don't give a damn about their special feelings.
The kid needs a psychologist. Bunch of snowflakes being raised today will have a shock when they bump into the real world of people that don't give a damn about their special feelings.
This is dumb.
Leave Columbia and don't come back. You are too weak to live in the real world, never mind perform well in the college environment, and there are tons of highly qualified students who are emotionally mature enough to deal with Mythology, as well as real world issues, unlike you incompetent, weak special-snowflakes who should have your spot.
Pumpkin, let me break the news to you: the big bad world out there is not going to be as obliging in making you feel "safe." If you haven't gotten to this point in your life able to handle a little uncomfortable reading, you're not going to do very well after college. And I'm guessing you watch things on television like "The Sopranos," "Game of Thrones," and other television shows and movies that contain profanity, violence, even -- gasp -- rape! And you somehow survive. Are you able to distinguish between fiction and reality? Yes? Good for you. No? Seek some professional help. You don't belong in college, let alone the real world.
How in the world will you delicate flowers LIVE in the world, the great rough world where your sensitivities will be trampled on daily; where people say what they think and in terms you haven't the stomach to handle? Your notion of what you're entitled to in terms of "feeling safe" is childish Nanny State-ism at its absurd worst. Good luck with real life.
Please, please, please let this be a late April Fool's joke. Or there's no hope for our society.
Isn't Toni Morrison's work pretty triggering? Descriptions of rape and sexual assault and so on?
You people are not ready to participate in adult society at any level or in any capacity.
Life tip: The world is not "welcoming and safe." The world, reality, is utterly and completely indifferent.
Your fellow humans, the people you will have to share this planet with, do not care in the slightest degree about your life drama. Until you force them, us, to care. And once you do that, be prepared for our response to be unrelentingly hostile because you forced us to pay attention to your trivial soap opera lives when we had more important things to attend to.
The girl who was 'triggered' needs to see a psychiatrist, she's mentally ill and needs help. Any sane person, not these four flibbertigibbet's who wrote this screed, would have seen this student's reaction as a psychological problem in need of attention, not as a means to control what is taught in the classroom.
I leave a little musical ditty for all the snowflakes at the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxCSy7tpUME
That one author's last name is "Wang". In the same spirit of this article I'm unsure whether I should find "Wang" offensive. Or hilarious.
Kai Johnson's kinda funny too if you're into that whole British wang-word.
Tanika...well, that's just a silly name. Stupid, really. Though "Tanika Wang" would be pretty damn awesome. Sounds like some pomegranate and whisky concoction one could order in southern Seoul.
"I'll have a tanika wang, my good man!"
Now, Tanika Johnson isn't so great but it would still probably work in Seoul too. But it would be something you would request of a Korean lady of the night. One would simply walk down any back alley yelling "TANIKA WANG!!!...TANIKA WANG!!!" You keep yelling until some fine little hottie accommodates and tanikas your wang. For a price.
You're shitting us, right? This is a joke?
University life is suppose to prepare a student for life. Does the Columbia Multicultural whatever board think that daily life post college is not filled with potential triggers? If the mere mentioning of rape or violence in an ancient script sets you off, what will happen when you watch the news and read about people being killed and raped today, in your own town? Will the former student fall to the ground and cry?
My own kids will be going off to college soon and I will damn sure make certain they do not attend a school that coddles them every minute of the day. Life is not easy or always pleasant. One must learn to deal with it.
Their was no physical danger to the student.
It was all emotional.
The woman has an entrenched victim mentality.
Mere books will set her off.
She needs therapy.
I mean this constructively and caringly for the student.
Attempting to "regulate" literature (or anything) to protect this student's feelings is B.S.
There is no legal self defense from mere words.
And I write this as a very well trained (legally and tactically) concealed handgun holder that believes 100% in a woman's right to use legally articulated deadly force to stop rape/sexual assault/aggravated sexual assault.
Is this Columbia Middle School?
If you don't want to be exposed to challenging ideas, ideas that make you feel uncomfortable, even unsafe in your thoughts, you are not ready for a meaningful education.
Buck up, buttercups.
Can not keep the coffee down thinking that these immature ignoramuses are too emotionally undeveloped that they can not handle literature which the Bronte sisters and other Victorian ladies studied by the age of 15.
A generation ago, these buttercups' grandfathers were storming across Europe waging destruction against one of the worst tyrants in history, yet these fools poop in their panties by reading a fictional story on a freaking piece of paper.
Progressive universities are as bad at preparing people for life as progressives are at governance and everything else.
Send these fools back to another round of kindergarten, they aren't ready for adulthood.
I'm curious to see how the inclusion of Toni Morrison's work, which includes graphic depictions of sexual violence, would shake out in terms of being triggering for survivors of same.
Sigh - this article is all over the right-wing blogosphere, completely out of context, so you're reading the results of a bunch of the usual combo of paranoia, superiority and racism that comes out of the closet there on a daily basis. Your call to sensitivity and open discussion about how to present texts that may open emotional wounds has turned in their minds into a nasty attempt by the libtards to erase all vestiges of the existing white patriarchy through indoctrination at the University level. Don't expect nuance here, because it's all black and white. Glad to see that they have no issue attacking one of the authors because of her Asian surname. It'll get much worse later today.
Your "sensitivity" allows you to *globally* tag a collection of people who irritate you as paranoid? I see. How long has this been going on? How does talking about it make you feel?
You forgot the word "heteronormative."
Actually I came in and read the article because I thought that the article had been taken out of context. After I read the entire article, I found that the article had been portrayed pretty accurately (at least at Reason Magazine).
also, there were maybe two posts out of 100 making fun of her name (sorry if that triggers you)
If you don't read some of the Greek and Roman classics; you aren't educated
That is just a fact
No, having reviewed the load of clap trap above, it is not been taken out of context. True learning involves uncomfortable situations, discussion, and exploration of disturbing topics. The only other way to learn is direct experience. That to me evokes images of a potentially "unsafe" learning environment. You want a trigger? Try a back-firing car that sends a veteran running for cover diving on top of his wife. Try the sound of the cafeteria door opening suddenly at Columbine high school. Try a domestic violence victim suddenly faced with an enraged male liberal screaming that he has to be right. Real LIFE!
Real life seldom has actual triggers. In real life you suck it up and learn from the things around you. University is supposed to prepare you for life, not coddle you like some overly delicate painted egg.
Considering that 99.9% of the commenters here agree that the authors are basically nuts I wonder how "safe" they feel now? At the very least I'm sure they feel this comment section needs a trigger warning - you know - to protect them from the braying hounds. I'm also pretty sure they are all now curled up in little balls sucking their thumbs in the campus puppy room.
The authoratative all-knowing-about-all-things-cultural trope in which this manifesto is written is matched only by Wagner's essay, "Das Judenthum in der Musik ".
No, seriously, it's all over. Too many generations have been trained by the thought police on this stuff. It goes all the way up to the President of the United States, the UN, EU, NGOs everywhere. Too late. Too big. Too fast. Too wrong. Not enough rudder to make the turn before hitting the ice. Not enough life boats.
The fact that my son will be competing against the author for a real-world job someday suddenly makes me feel much more confident about his future.
What a load of hog wash! Reading about difficult topics, looking at upsetting images, experiencing difficult situations is all part of everyday life, something that university is supposed to be preparing students for. Were there books, stories, and materials I found difficult during my studies, yes. Did exposure collapse my world and send me cowering to the psychiatrist? No. Wouldn't that same student after graduation whilst sitting in a movie be equally "traumatized" by a rape scene playing out on the screen? Do you then demand that all film producers never again create similar images or scenes?
The point is that a successful life is not based on how well you shield and isolate yourself from every single perceived slight but rather how you deal with the contact, it's resultant emotions, and then grow stronger from the experience.
Darrell you are completely right. But these folks aren'r really concerned about the pain or oppression of the victims they've appointed themselves to defend. They are concerned with the unassailably-righteous cause for which they've signed up to be the police. It's power that they are after. As PC takes hold at all levels of the society, even the White House now, it becomes a set of levers and cues that one excercises on the way up to management authority. The fact that it is based on a void, a bubble, is their miscalculation. Alread Russia and China are effortlessly boxing USA into the corners. The "pivot to Asia" will actually be a terrible realization moment, when anti-realism crumbles, and like Col. Nicholson in "Bridge on the River Kwai" they are reduced to scratching their collective heads in a swoon: "What have I done?"
Gotta say that the majority of comments here make me hopeful that this pc insanity will run its course and one day we'll all look back, laugh, and wonder how people could ever be so stupid.
On second thought, I've changed my mind. We're screwed.
I'm not clear why these four fuming chunks of feces have been allowed to bring their foul gases to these pages. Can't they just be flushed?
As one commentator on this piece says: "Apparently this discussion of Ovid was so threatening it was a matter of self-preservation to ignore it. If that's really true—if the mere discussion of rape causes this student to feel panicked and physically unsafe—than she needs help treating severe post-traumatic stress disorder, not a fucking trigger warning."
But that's not the most offensive thing. This is. "These texts, wrought with histories and narratives of exclusion and oppression, can be difficult to read and discuss as a survivor, a person of color, or a student from a low-income background."
I can understand how, theoretically, a classical poem describing rape could be distrurbing to someone who's been sexually assaulted. But I can't for the life of me see how it's more likely *peer se* to trigger "a person of color, or a student from a low-income background". That seems to be saying that people of colour or low income *automatically* are emotionally fragile and need to be protected.
While I've long campaigned for the mental health needs of disadvantaged people and know perfectly well that some of them have higher rates of poor mental health...isn't that to say the least patronising, not to say racist?
I'm a 59-year-old white gay man who is HIV+ and a survivor of AIDS. I belong to a population with disproportionately high levels of poor mental health, which is highly socially stigmatised and criminalised, and has demonstrably lower income and emplyment levels, though I've no idea if in the view of the writers my white male privilege would cancel out any other disadvantages I may have. If someone told me I needed 'protection' from the views of Westbro Baptist church, Ann Coulter, or the President of Gamiba, let alone Ovid, I'd tell them to get lost and stop keeping me in ignorance of my enemies.
Is this satire? I mean, we're talking Columbia University, right? The Ivy League one? And you people seriously think that a work by Ovid requires a "trigger warning?" If so, you're ridiculous. And BTW, go back to using the word "area" instead of "space." Because you're really starting to sound pretentious and lame.
This is a joke, right?
If I were you I would quit going to college and return to preschool. And this time, pay attention.
Is this article another Alan Sokal prank?
This girl makes the rest of us look bad. Grow a pair and suck it up or take basket weaving or something less "triggering", if that's possible. I don't know how she leaves her bed in the morning clutching her binky, the world is a harsh place and it will get harsher after college, and this girl is ill-suited to live in it.
I think you people are emotionally-weak and extremely thin-skinned.
The authors should be put on involuntary mental health holds until they can be assessed for suitability to attend university.
Cry moar
These SJW retards need to drop LitHum and start taking lithium. It won't cure their atrophied ideology, but it may make them seem smarter.
I am a an alum of CUSSW/2001 and question if these individuals are ever referred to out CAPS services for mental health treatment? If literature is triggering of past trauma it is a clear indication that treatment is warranted. Avoidance of symptoms and isolating your world from ALL possible triggers is not healthy nor effective for managing these issues.
I sincerely hope the four authors of this insufferable piece have been fully triggered by the comments it engendered. The one certain destiny for a snowflake is its melting point.
This OpEd triggered my bullshit detector.
There's a lesson here, young ladies: DON'T READ BOOKS! Books are filled with scary ideas and scary people doing scary things. The weaker sex is simply too fragile for stories about war, oppression and men doing manly things, which is why ladies should focus their time on keeping house and raising children, not filling their minds with silly ideas. Let the menfolk worry about all that.
Well, perhaps you could peruse a cookbook or two.
I'm triggered by the fact that there are people in class who are clearly severely mentally unstable.
I'm an ethnic minority and a woman. I would like to see "minority groups" using their power and their voices for real issues. If reading a classic that vividly describes rape (or the brutalities of slavery, for instance) triggers someone, then this person needs to seek counseling.
Let us not become so politically correct so as to force shut the mouths and eyes of everyone else so we can feel constantly safe in our safe bubble of only happy thoughts and cat videos.
STOP THE NONSENSE.
Columbia University provides student health services for psychiatric emergencies.
If a student falsely convicted student goes into a fugue state while reading The Trial EMS will be called.
Columbia University provides student health services for psychiatric emergencies.
If a student falsely convicted student goes into a fugue state while reading The Trial EMS will be called.
If these people can't handle the topics of a university education, maybe they should just stay home where they can be safe all the time.
Also leave it to these nut-jobs to claim that people of color as a group are unable to handle western literature. In other words, they think that POC are simply not up to snuff with Whites, no? A bit racist in my opinion.
A Student who feels threatened by the examination of mythological events from thousands of years in the past needs therapy.
If merely reading a book can cause this kind of reaction, has she sought treatment for PTSD?
I'm curious how any of the writers of this piece got into Columbia without ever having studied Greek mythology. My kids were studying it in 7th grade or even earlier. Must be affirmative action admissions at work...
Oh, they probably encountered Grek mythology in high school. But they hadn't learned how to pretend they were triggered by it. That took the intellectual fraud of a college level conceit.
Could this be serious?
You morally and intellectually bankrupt liars. None of the material you cite is triggering; your use of "triggering" is vapid appropriation.
You do not feel unsafe; if anything you feel safe in using this political correctness babble to get out of intellectual rigor and a requirement to think and learn.
You're working hard to extirpate intellectual reward from your classes. You shallow, pretentious dolts.
That a young adult can listen to the hypersexualized, misogynistic bathroom graffiti that passes itself off as contemporary pop music, and at the same time find classical mythology "triggering," without the least hint of scruple, implies to me that the concept, as applied, is just an excuse to avoid taking courses on stodgy old subjects.
It also implies to me that today's youth don't grasp the concepts of irony or hypocrisy half as well as they claim to.
Columbia University's "Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board" is a body of navel-gazing snowflakes who - in a low and cunning way - figured out EXACTLY how the game is played and are lining themselves up for a permanent sinecure at alumni and student-loan expense.
gvi
Wow. I always thought Columbia was a university, a place where they teach students to THINK. Apparently not.
I don't think that one can find, by modern standards, "vivid depictions of rape and sexual assault" in Ovid. Bernini's marbles are a different matter.
I cannot think of a way to make the University safe from triggers as they are idiosyncratic.
For example, as a differently abled individual, born with congenital variations, the trigger value of the story of the Minotaur cannot be overemphasized. Imagine the impact of being born with congenital anomalies, and then imprisoned in solitary confinement in a maze, and finally viciously murdered by the ancient Greek equivalent of the offensive line.
My ethnic origins lead me to I feel alienated and distressed whenever subjected to Le Corbusier, van der Rohe, or modern "walkable" urban planning. In fact, due to my cultural sensitivities, I am completely alienated by those who admire views from concrete oversized tenements that masquerade as "urban housing" that differ only from their grandmother's view of the tenement next door by being at a higher altitude.
I am also very offended and triggered by the concept of animal abuse. Biology, organic chemistry, bacteriology, and biochemistry all remind me of the enormous numbers of animals who suffered and died to give us useless ideas that simply trigger people.
Mythology is no different; Phrixus riding the sheep with the golden fleece is nothing other than the cruel sport of "sheep busting" in Classical Greek costume. Lia and the story of the Cretan Bull - first sexually exploited by Pasiphae, and then brutally maltreated by Heracles and Theseus.
Obviously, the situation is to stop teaching any and all triggering subjects and to encourage universal illiteracy to protect delicate sensibilities. A brief study of those triggered leads to the inescapable conclusion that this is overwhelmingly a serious problem of women, and almost never of men. Universal female illiteracy would spare us all the horrors of being triggered.
I cannot think of a way to make the University safe from triggers as they are idiosyncratic.
For example, as a differently abled individual, born with congenital variations, the trigger value of the story of the Minotaur cannot be overemphasized. Imagine the impact of being born with congenital anomalies, and then imprisoned in solitary confinement in a maze, and finally viciously murdered by the ancient Greek equivalent of the offensive line.
My ethnic origins lead me to I feel alienated and distressed whenever subjected to Le Corbusier, van der Rohe, or modern "walkable" urban planning. In fact, due to my cultural sensitivities, I am completely alienated by those who admire views from concrete oversized tenements that masquerade as "urban housing" that differ only from their grandmother's view of the tenement next door by being at a higher altitude.
I am also very offended and triggered by the concept of animal abuse. Biology, organic chemistry, bacteriology, and biochemistry all remind me of the enormous numbers of animals who suffered and died to give us useless ideas that simply trigger people.
Mythology is no different; Phrixus riding the sheep with the golden fleece is nothing other than the cruel sport of "sheep busting" in Classical Greek costume. Lia and the story of the Cretan Bull - first sexually exploited by Pasiphae, and then brutally maltreated by Heracles and Theseus.
Obviously, the situation is to stop teaching any and all triggering subjects and to encourage universal illiteracy to protect delicate sensibilities. A brief study of those triggered leads to the inescapable conclusion that this is overwhelmingly a serious problem of women, and almost never of men. Universal female illiteracy would spare us all the horrors of being triggered.
Seriously, Daphne is NOT ACTUALLY RAPED in Ovid. Or anywhere else. Apollo's attempt fails. She turns into a tree. Full text of Proserpine/Persephone's abduction/rape: "she was seen, beloved, and carried off by Pluto—such the haste of sudden love. The goddess, in great fear, called on her mother and on all her friends; and, in her frenzy, as her robe was rent, down from the upper edge, her gathered flowers fell from her loosened tunic.—This mishap, so perfect was her childish innocence, increased her virgin grief.—The ravisher urged on his chariot, and inspired his steeds; called each by name, and on their necks and manes shook the black-rusted reins. They hastened through deep lakes, and through the pools of Palici, which boiling upward from the ruptured earth smell of strong sulphur." That's not that vivid and detailed. Sorry.
Yeah, but if they have an imagination (which they don't), Ovid might trigger some.., oh, you know, something, and the tender-hearted students might feel bad.
No. If you can't handle reading an ancient work of literature, you need psychological help. Get it now.
This op-ed is disturbing, for it represents a near complete failure of education in delivering the tools of critical thinking to the authors.
Modern critical studies, with extremely powerful analytical techniques at its disposal, is made to devour its own tail through grotesque exercises such as this article.
I'll tell ya, I'm worried.
haha you fucking idiots. columbia has always been hell but at least in my time you guys knew to shut the fuck up
That there are students at Columbia, of all places, who are so thin-skinned they cannot read Ovid without feeling their identity, or feelings, are somehow harmed, is, well, just plain pathetic. Trigger crap talk like this is an utterly ludicrous way to think about an education. If these students knew a little 20th-century history, they'd understand they are doubly pathetic for sounding just like Maoists.
Any work of art that's powerful, moving and morally complex is capable of offending anyone who approaches it without empathy for the "form and pressure" (Hamlet's words--oops, sorry, these will trigger hurt in any student whose mother helped murder his father) of the historical moment in which it was written.
That Columbia's core texts--its idea of the "Western canon," as it were--must always be adjusted and expanded goes without saying. Yet this doesn't obviate the need to continue to include all ancient texts that deeply informed our culture. Ovid's Metamorphosis is one of those texts.
As for Ovid and his story of the rape of Persephone, ha! My darling scaredy-cat authors, if you really want to get upset, take a look at Rubens and Rembrandt's paintings of the subject. And while you're at it, you really need to take a look at what's taught in art history. That will get your knickers in a knot!
Dear Columbia
These students are clearly not mature enough for college life or capable of interacting with society. Please expel as a matter of urgency.
yours
A Future Employer, one that will not be tolerating safe space or trigger culture.
"As a survivor of sexual assault, the student described being triggered while reading such detailed accounts of rape throughout the work."
Possibly
"However, the student said her professor focused on the beauty of the language and the splendor of the imagery when lecturing on the text. As a result, the student completely disengaged from the class discussion as a means of self-preservation. She did not feel safe in the class.
Sorry, snowflake. If you can't read Ovid without being threatened, you'll never be able to function in any type of complex job. May as well drop out now and become an accountant. Numbers are neutral.
"can be difficult to read and discuss as a survivor, a person of color, or a student from a low-income background."
Possibly. But therefore they are necessary.
"The student’s remark regarding Toni Morrison was not merely insensitive, but also revealing of larger ideological divides. This would have been an opportune moment for the professor to intervene."
Actually, not. Toni Morrison, Ovid. You can't deify one credibly while discounting the other. That's irrational.
"Students need to feel safe in the classroom"
No, they don't. They need to feel CHALLENGED in a classroom, and challenge goes hand in hand with stepping out of one's intellectual comfort zone.
"The MAAB..... critically about how the Core Curriculum is framed for their students."
Well, sure, if that makes you happy.
Our vision for this training is not to infringe upon the instructors’ academic freedom in teaching the material.
Eh? Go reread what you wrote about Ovid.
"instructors should more consistently acknowledge during class discussions that many of these same principles have created an unjust, unequal, and oppressive existence for many, as Professor Montás has suggested during our forums."
I would think that that is simply restating the obvious. If Columbia has students that need that explicitly stated to them, I'd say they need to refine their recruiting.
I couldn't agree more with this editorial. I get anxious whenever I have to take a math exam. I want triggers placed on all math exams and I want to be excused from having to complete all exams. I think it's only fair that I receive an "A" for having the courage to take the class in the first place. I'm also going to ask future employers to put trigger warnings on job interviews, presentations, report writing, etc. In fact, I'm going to demand a trigger warning on all future employment. I demand that I collect a six-figure salary for staying home - it's just too scary out there.
How will these poor sweet little bunnies ever survive in the real world?
Your dream is a lie.
This article reflects the sort of kneejerk reaction of modern spokespersons of so-called progressivism. Where can we even begin to respond to such a mediocre argument?
Let us begin with Ovid himself and may the muses breathe on my argument to bring it seamlessly from the ether to the civic sphere. To imply that the Metamorphoses contains "histories and narratives or exclusion" seems to indicate that the proponents of this argument have, at best, read class readings of the poem, in no more than one translation. Furthermore, their exposure to anything approximating intelligent thought doesn't appear to transcend Edward Said and, perhaps, Noam Chomsky and Michel Foucault. True, these are conservative caricatures of liberals, but it appears that these students seem to be determined to preserve the stereotype. Ovid, if anything, is always sympathetic towards the female perspective--a remarkable departure from a masculine age. This worldview contributed, in large part, to his falling-from-grace in the eyes of the emperor Augustus.
Secondly, Ovid wrote in an age where race didn't exist. In fact, the Roman Empire was one of the most culturally-mixed political entities. Terence and Apuleius, two prominent writers in the Roman canon were African berbers. It is possible, however, that sections of the Metamorphoses contain triggers regarding the experiences of Gauls and Germans. Since then, however, the descendants of both cultures have established empires of their own and enslaved other populations before departing their colonies and continuing to govern using puppet governments and financial institutions.
The arguments of this article belong in the public sphere. However to use them as a foundation for academia itself would be a step backward and continue the slide of the modern university into mediocrity.
Finally, I would like to beseech the writers of such articles to read these "canonical" instead of automatically assuming that they contain structures of oppression.
You are foolish children. If you are so damaged by exposure to great works of literature that thousands if not millions of other students at all levels of education have been reading for quite literally centuries, then you are too fragile to exist. You need intensive psychological help so that you can function at even a remedial level in the world beyond campus, and even THAT is probably too much to expect for you. You will be lucky to find steady employment as anything more than 3rd shift janitorial staff at a 24 hour CVS with this kind of inane, hysterical temperament. I pity any company that dares employ a single one of you, because they are dooming themselves to headaches, frustration, and potential bankruptcy from every hissy fit, childish tantrum, and painfully tortious lawsuit you will file when your delicate sensibilities are challenged.
I would actually recommend that any company, large or small, refrain from hiring a person who puts "Columbia Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board member" on their resume as though it were a GOOD thing, and not a painfully embarrassing lapse of good judgment.
Go buy yourself some fainting couches and smelling salts, you tedious children, because the real world is going to BLOW. YOUR. MINDS.
What a neurotic, infantile sense of privilege the whole notion of "trigger warnings" encodes. The coddling of extreme psychological weakness is not the job of a classics instructor; such students are not ready to go outside without a mommy to hold their hands; they are certainly not ready for authentic education.
I didn’t realize how unsafe Columbia students were in literature classes. A student who had been falsely accused of a crime in the past could be “triggered” during a discussion of Kafka’s The Trial. Black students could suffer mass episodes of vertigo if assigned Mark Twain. These works require warning labels and the Professors should obtain signed informed consent documents from each student undergoing exposure to these subject matters.
Of course, Barnard students, being mostly women, require special care. Their identities include multiple gender identities, states of victimhood, victimization; they have all been raped whether they can remember it or not; special care needs to be taken before displaying the Rape of the Sabine Women in an Art History class.
The very notion of having to subject oneself to the patriarchal, hence fallocentric, system of receiving a grade is a form of dominance or, if you will, rape.