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Imprimis, On Line -- July, 1992
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Imprimis, meaning "in the first place," is a free
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monthly publication of Hillsdale College (circulation
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360,000 worldwide). Hillsdale College is a liberal arts
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institution known for its defense of free market
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principles and Western culture and its nearly 150-year
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refusal to accept federal funds. Imprimis publishes
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lectures by such well-known figures as Ronald Reagan,
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Jeane Kirkpatrick, Tom Wolfe, Charlton Heston, and many
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more. Permission to reprint is hereby granted, provided
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credit is given to Hillsdale College. Copyright 1992.
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For more information on free print subscriptions or
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back issues, call 1-800-437-2268, or 1-517-439-1524,
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ext. 2319.
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--------------------------------------------------
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"The Ideology of Sensitivity"
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by Charles Sykes, Author, Profscam
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--------------------------------------------------
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Volume 21, Number 7
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Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242
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July 1992
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---------------
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Preview: As readers of Profscam and The Hollow Men
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will know, Charles Sykes has devoted the last several
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years to investigating firsthand what actually goes on
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at American colleges and universities. In this Imprimis
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issue, adapted from his forthcoming book, A Nation of
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Victims (available in September from St. Martin's
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Press), he argues that it is not merely political
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correctness, but "the politics of sensitivity" that has
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overtaken higher education. Mr. Sykes participated in
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Hillsdale's Center for Constructive Alternatives
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February 1992 seminar, "Thought Police on Campus: Is
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Academic Freedom in Danger?"
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---------------
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When Newsweek magazine reported on what it called the
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new "Thought Police" on America's university campuses,
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it described academia's new rage--"political
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correctness"--as "strictly speaking, a totalitarian
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philosophy." Nothing escaped its attention; nothing was
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too trivial for its ministrations; no one was immune.
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From the reading lists peppered with ideologically
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approved Third World writers to a disciplinary
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apparatus poised to stamp out the slightest offense to
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the sensibilities of designated political and ethnic
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groups, campus opinion was smothered in a paternalism
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that would have been the envy of any college chaplain
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of the 19th century. Struggling to place all of this in
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some sort of historical and philosophical context,
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Newsweek reported that politically, "PC is Marxist in
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origin, in the broad sense of attempting to
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redistribute power from the privileged class (white
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males) to the oppressed masses." But even as the
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magazine sought to trace PC's lineage, the inadequacy
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of categories of political philosophy was obvious.
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Despite the usual paraphernalia and rhetoric of
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left-wing politics, the peculiarly claustrophobic
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atmosphere of campus life often seems less like Big
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Brother than Big Nanny. The focus of Big Nanny, after
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all, is on "sensitivity," which is not a political term
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at all, nor one that is terribly helpful in sorting out
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the relationships of various economic classes.
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Instead, "sensitivity" is a transplant from the
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world of culture and psychology, in which taste,
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feelings and emotions are paramount. Political
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correctness turns out to be a form of the larger
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transformation of society reflected in ascendancy of
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psychological over political terminology. What began as
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the attempt to politicize psychology (and psychologize
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politics) had led to the swallowing of each by the
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other and the emergence of a new form of therapeutic
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politics.
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I should clarify here what I mean by the
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therapeutic culture. In general, the term refers to the
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psychologization of modern life profiting therapists,
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support groups, and new ailments du jour. But it has a
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larger implication as well: the substitution of medical
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standards and terminology for what had traditionally
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been moral, ethical and religious questions. As a
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society we have grown far more comfortable with saying
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someone is sick than with saying they have done evil.
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Therapeutic politics is an equally radical
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departure. While it remains ostensibly concerned with
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moral issues, it does not primarily concern itself with
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what is just or unjust; or even with whether something
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is true or untrue. These considerations are not
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irrelevant. But they are overshadowed by concern over
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"self-esteem" and "feelings." In the therapeutic
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culture, all of us are trembling on the verge of
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confusion and anxiety. But for the politics of
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victimization, the new ethos has been a windfall.
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Psychic frailty has replaced class as the focus of a
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new politics.
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Armed with the new political/therapeutic
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categories and heirs to four decades of the endless
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elaboration of grievance and psychological fragility,
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victims could be transformed from capable citizens in
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need of fundamental legal rights into frail
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psychological growths, easily blighted by the slightest
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gesture, facial expression, or word that they might
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find uncongenial. Consider this: If the distinctive
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format of traditional liberal education was the
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patriarchal and phallocentric Socratic dialogue, the
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model for the new order is the therapeutic workshop and
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consciousness-raising session. Such approaches do not
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seek debate or a reasoned balancing of rights, but an
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embracing of victims, often accompanied by the coached
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acknowledgment of guilt.
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The results, predictably, have been dramatic.
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Once "feelings" are established as the barometer
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of acceptable behavior, speech (and by extension,
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thought) becomes only as free as the most sensitive
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group on campus will permit. One of the central dogmas
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of the new victimist politics is that only members of a
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victim group are able to understand their own
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suffering.
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Some postmodern political theorists, including
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Harvard's Judith Shklar, argue that traditional
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conceptions of justice are inadequate because they fail
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to take into account "the victim's version." Shklar
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argues that "the sense of injustice should assume a
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renewed importance" in political thinking, "for it is
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both unfair to ignore personal resentment and imprudent
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to overlook the political anger in which it finds its
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expression."
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But at its extreme, this view turns injustice into
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a subjective experience and denies the validity of
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objective and shared understandings of equity and
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justice to which victim and nonvictim can appeal.
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Abolishing such norms makes contentious issues
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irresolvable, as each group is trapped within its own
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experience and sense of aggrievement. Not only does
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this accelerate the balkanization of ethnic groups, it
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also creates a protective barrier that hermetically
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seals off one group from another.
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Because only a victim could really understand
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their plight, any criticism or questioning from non-
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victims is rejected out-of-hand as an act of disrespect
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and (of course) insensitivity. One direct product was
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what Bard College President Leon Botstein would call
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the "culture of forbidden questions."
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The fear of hurt has trumped the search for truth.
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This is not to suggest, however, that all of the
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concern is misplaced. In particular, the anxiety of
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minority students is very real. Any student going to
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college in a strange town, facing unknown challenges,
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is prey to feelings of self-doubt, loneliness, fear and
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confusion. Minority students are no different, except
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that they face even greater pressures. Many of them
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tend to suffer from feelings of exclusion or
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"competitive rejection" when they arrive on campus, and
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many of them experience considerable anxiety over the
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quality of their academic preparation.
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As colleges and universities have escalated
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affirmative action programs, their dilemma has been
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compounded. While denying that they are practicing
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favoritism, elite schools have in fact admitted
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minority students with substantially lower test scores
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than their white counterparts. For many of those
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eagerly courted minority students--who have been
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repeatedly assured that they have been admitted
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strictly on their merits--the reality of academic life
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often comes as a cruel shock. Roughly two-thirds of
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black students who enter higher education eventually
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drop out before graduating.
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Because it is politically impossible for the
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institutions of higher learning to acknowledge their
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racial sleight of hand--and thus confront the
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educational inequities among their students honestly
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and openly--many have turned instead to symbolic
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politics. It is easier to "celebrate diversity" than to
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admit that their school's academic standards have been
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bent; it is easier to blame "racism" than to reallocate
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scarce resources. Dinesh D'Souza describes the process:
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"Eager to prevent minority frustration and anger from
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directing itself at the president's or dean's office,
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the administration hotly denies the reality of
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preferential treatment and affirms minority students in
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their conviction that the real enemy is latent bigotry
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that everywhere conspires to thwart campus diversity.
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As the Harvard political scientist Harvey Mansfield
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puts it, 'White students must admit their guilt so that
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minority students do not have to admit their
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incapacity.'" This is the climate for the sensitivity
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revolution.
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Mum's the Word
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"Sympathy," remarks essayist Pico Iyer, "cannot be
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legislated any more than kindness can." Iyer obviously
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will never be a college president. Universities and
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colleges have rushed to create new bureaucracies to
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"protect" and shield victims from further
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victimization--whether it be an Indian symbol at
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Dartmouth College, a student who sings "We Shall
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Overcome" in a "sarcastic" manner at Southern Methodist
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University, or expressions of such proscribed attitudes
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as "ageism" ("oppression of the young and old by young
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adults and the middle aged"), "ableism" ("oppression of
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the differently abled by the temporarily abled"), and
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"lookism" (the "construction of a standard of
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beauty/attractiveness") at Smith College.
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The University of Arizona has taken a similarly
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expansive view of sensitivity. Its "Diversity of Action
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Plan" expresses concern over discrimination against
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students on the basis of "age, color, ethnicity,
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gender, physical and mental ability, race, religion,
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sexual orientation, Vietnam-era veteran status,
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socioeconomic background, or individual style." When
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John Leo, a columnist for U.S. News & World Report,
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tried to find out just what the university meant by
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"individual style," he reported that "'diversity
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specialist' Connie Gajewski explained that this
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category would include nerds and people who dress
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differently. 'We didn't want to leave anyone out,' she
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said." Indeed.
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Not to be outdone in their zeal, University of
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Wisconsin-Milwaukee officials have handed out a list of
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49 "Ways to Experience Diversity," which urges students
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to "Hold hands publicly with someone of a different
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race or someone of the same sex as you" and to "Go to a
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toy store and investigate the availability of racially
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diverse dolls."
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The University of Connecticut has banned
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"inappropriately directed laughter"; Duke University's
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president has appointed a watch-dog committee to search
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out "disrespectful facial expressions or body language
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aimed at black students"; while Smith College's
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malediction upon "heterosexism" includes the crime of
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"not acknowledging their [gays'] existence."
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Even that citadel of tradition William & Mary has
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succumbed to the mood of the times. The alma mater of
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Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe has issued guidelines
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to nonsexist language insisting that terms such as
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"kingpin" be changed to "key person."
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At Harvard, sensitive professors at a re-education
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seminar have joined in a chorus of therapeutic concern
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for the sensibilities of their students. One professor
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has argued that faculty members should never "introduce
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any sort of thing that might hurt a group." He
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recognized the implications of his comments for a
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professor's freedom to teach, but "the pain that racial
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insensitivity can create is more important," he
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insists, "than a professor's academic freedom." Or, he
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could have added, a student's.
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At the University of Michigan, students have faced
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discipline for suggesting that women are not as
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qualified as men in any given field; one student was
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actually brought up on charges of sexual harassment for
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suggesting that he could develop "a counseling plan for
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helping gays become straight."
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Officials at New York University Law School
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recently bowed to pressure and cancelled a moot court
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hearing on the question of custody rights for lesbians,
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after PC cadres complained that "Writing arguments
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[against the right of lesbians to win custody] is
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hurtful to a group of people and this is hurtful to all
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of us."
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At times, this new paternalism has gratuitously
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extended the status of victimhood to individuals who
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feel they are doing quite all right without being
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liberated or otherwise protected. At the University of
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Minnesota, for example, cheerleaders have been banned
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from performing at UM games on the grounds that it
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fosters "sexual stereotypes" demeaning to the dancers.
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Said one of the cheerleaders: "We feel we're
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intelligent enough to know when we're considered
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objects." The sensitivity police did not agree in their
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conviction that the real enemy is latent bigotry that
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everywhere conspires to thwart campus diversity.
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In part, this shift from substance to form can be
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traced to the civil rights movement's shift in emphasis
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from combatting discrimination to fighting "racism."
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Although apparently a subtle shift in nomenclature, the
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new focus on racism abolished the distinction between
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private and public acts and between conduct and
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attitudes. It meant, according to Julius Lester, "in
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effect, that the opinions, feelings, and prejudices of
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private individuals were a legitimate target of
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political action. This was dangerous in the extreme,
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because such a formulation is merely a new statement of
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totalitarianism, the effort to control not only the
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behavior of citizens, but the thoughts and feelings of
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persons." But the shift in civil rights cannot fully
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account for the new politics of "sensitivity" and the
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metastasis of offended groups. For that we need to look
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to a broader cultural shift.
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Ego Uber Alles: Self Over All
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On one level, the push for sensitivity is little more
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than the age-old fight for human dignity, the demand
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that all individuals be treated with respect and
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rational sympathy. To be against sensitivity is thus to
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risk being against good manners or hostile to an
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attitude of "caring." The opposite of sensitivity,
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after all, is boorishness. So the arguments in favor of
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"sensitivity" have moral weight and they deserve to be
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taken seriously. But it is the nature--and the tragedy-
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-of victimism to take legitimate concerns and distort
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them for self-indulgent ends.
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The victimist distortion of "sensitivity" is the
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insistence that it is not enough to behave correctly--
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one must be attuned to the feelings of others, and
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adapt oneself to the kaleidoscopic shades of grievance,
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injury and ego that make up the subjective
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sensibilities of the "victim." The relationship between
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individuals and groups is not mediated by mutual
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respect or principles of justice, but must now be
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recast solely in therapeutic terms--the avoidance of
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injury and offense, the need to sacrifice for the self-
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esteem of the other. Superficially, this resembles
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Christian charity, but as a series of demands and
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mandatory obeisances it is something else altogether.
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The essence of naked egotism is imposing one's
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likes and dislikes and the subtle prejudices and
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whining annoyances of the self on others. Society
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exists to put limits on the desire of the ego to make
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itself the center of the universe; and maturity could
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once be defined as the child's gradual recognition that
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his or her emotions, demands and sensitivities are no
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longer absolute.
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"Sensitivity," however, (and please note the
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quotation marks here) transforms the self--especially
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the aggrieved self--into the imperial arbiter of
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behavior. Everyone now must accommodate themselves to
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the sensitivities of the self, whose power is based not
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on force or even shared ideology, but on changeable and
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perhaps arbitrary and exaggerated "feelings." This is
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the historic (if not logical) culmination of the
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development of inner-directed man into anxiety-ridden
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other-directed man and later into psychological man.
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David Riesman had written that inner-directed man had
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relied on an internal gyroscope, other-directed man had
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taken his lead from emotional radar. But the
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mechanistic metaphors are now obsolete. Sensitive man
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is neither a gyroscope nor a radar. He is a raw nerve,
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frequently inflamed.
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Big Nanny Is Watching
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Despite its psychological pedigree, "sensitivity" has
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proven to be a powerful political weapon. By redefining
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ideology in non-ideological terms, it has provided a
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pretext for sweeping changes in American universities,
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but also in the larger society, by radically changing
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the standards of equity and evidence. Here again, Brown
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University has set the pace. All minority students have
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been assigned to the school's Third World Transition
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Program (a rather eccentric name for a program designed
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for black students from New Jersey). In a description
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of the program, journalist Pete Hamill notes that "It
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is race-driven; it assumes that non-whites are indeed
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different from other Americans, mere bundles of
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pathologies, permanent residents in the society of
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victims, and therefore require special help. 'They're
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made to feel separate from the first day they arrive,'
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and 'they stay separate for the next four years.'"
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In this atmosphere the scope of victim-protections
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goes far beyond simply punishing undergraduates who
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yell "nigger" in the dormitory. Few schools have so
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eagerly embraced the metaphysics of victimism and the
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therapeutic ethos of stamping out "insensitivity" as
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has Brown, which has hired sensitivity "experts" and
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consultants to minister to the prejudices of its
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unenlightened undergraduates.
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One consultant hired by Brown is Donald Kao, who
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openly acknowledges that his goal is to convince his
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audience that America is a racist society in which
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"privileged" whites have established arbitrary norms of
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acceptable behavior. Nor is his goal merely to
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encourage tolerance. Kao's "standard of gauging one's
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behavior" is far more demanding. "If you are feeling
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comfortable or normal," he insists, then you are
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probably oppressing someone, whether that person is a
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woman or a gay or whatever. We probably won't rid our
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society of racism until everyone strives to be
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abnormal."
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Having acculturated minorities to their oppressed
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status, Brown insists on preternatural alertness for
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signs of racism--which, by definition, is everywhere.
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"It is both subtle and overt," a university publication
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announces. "Racism is encountered through our language,
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actions, non-verbal communications, institutions,
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access to privilege and educational processes." No one
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at Brown, it declares, is "immune." But, like guilt,
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potential victimhood is also an equal opportunity
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affair. Individuals are protected against slurs on the
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basis of such characteristics as "race, religion,
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gender, handicap, economic status, sexual orientation,
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ethnicity, national origin, or on the basis of position
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or function." (It is unclear whether the ban on
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ridicule "on the basis of position or function" applies
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to jokes about "dumb jocks" or rich frat boys.)
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Significantly, Brown's policy has not been framed
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as a ban on improper activity; it is cast in the form
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of a right of victims "to live in an environment free
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from harassment." The importance of this distinction
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lies in the fact that the right to be free of
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"harassment" can be enforced even when there is no
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intent to harass or demean. Banned activities include,
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"inappropriate verbal attention, name calling, using
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racial/ethnic epithets, vandalism and pranks." More
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explicitly, students are warned: "If the purpose of
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your behavior, language, or gesture is to harass, harm,
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cause psychological stress or make someone the focus of
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your joke, you are engaged in a harassing manner. It
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may be intentional or unintentional and still
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constitute harassment." [Emphasis added.]
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It is not, I think, an exercise in over-scrupulous
|
|
legalism to point out the inherent contradictions in
|
|
that statement. In one sentence harassment is described
|
|
as the purposeful infliction of harm ("If the purpose
|
|
of your behavior...is to...cause..."): but the very
|
|
next sentence renders it meaningless by declaring that
|
|
even "unintentional" acts may constitute harassment as
|
|
well.
|
|
|
|
Brown's administrators have unintentionally but
|
|
graphically revealed the slippery nature of such
|
|
policies and the near-impossibility of crafting
|
|
equitable policies that are grounded on purely
|
|
subjective judgments. This becomes even more pointed
|
|
when Brown describes the "effects" of harassment in
|
|
purely therapeutic terms. In almost every case the
|
|
alleged damage is purely subjective--a matter of
|
|
"feelings" and impressions--rather than a matter of
|
|
actual or demonstrable harm. The listed effects
|
|
include: "Loss of self-esteem"; "a vague sense of
|
|
danger" (rather than actual danger); "a feeling that
|
|
one's personal security and dignity have been
|
|
undermined"; "denial of opportunity, privilege or
|
|
right"; "feelings of impotence, anger and
|
|
disenfranchisement"; "withdrawal"; "fear"; "anxiety";
|
|
"depression"; "a sense of embarrassment from being
|
|
ridiculed." Almost by definition there is little or no
|
|
defense to a charge of such harassment. If the victim
|
|
insists that he or she experienced "anxiety" or
|
|
"embarrassment" because of something someone said,
|
|
proof is beside the point. Lack of intention is no
|
|
defense. Sensitivity demands belief.
|
|
|
|
In the late 1980s, the University of Michigan
|
|
adopted a sweeping "speech code" aimed at wiping out
|
|
racist, sexist, homophobic, and ethnocentric slurs.
|
|
Students were warned that they could be suspended or
|
|
expelled for any act "verbal or physical, that
|
|
stigmatizes or victimizes an individual on the basis of
|
|
race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation,
|
|
creed, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status,
|
|
handicap, or Vietnam-era veteran status." Because the
|
|
policy was so broad--and vague--it raised the obvious
|
|
question of how it would be enforced. How would
|
|
students know exactly what stigmatized someone on the
|
|
basis of, say; "Vietnam-era status" or "ancestry"? Most
|
|
important of all, what sort of proof would be needed?
|
|
The university's answer was direct: None. (It also
|
|
raised questions of how it could be reconciled with the
|
|
First Amendment. A federal judge later invalidated the
|
|
policy.)
|
|
|
|
"Experience at the university," a university
|
|
publication explained, "has been that people almost
|
|
never make false complaints about discrimination."
|
|
[Emphasis added.] That specifically included any
|
|
alleged incident for which there were no witnesses, the
|
|
school said. If it was one student's word against
|
|
another's, the accused was presumed guilty. Michigan's
|
|
policy did more than simply invert normal standards
|
|
that require accusers to shoulder the burden of proof.
|
|
It enshrined the doctrine that issues of victimism
|
|
could and should be judged on radically new terms--
|
|
further breaking down the distinction between fact and
|
|
fabrication.
|
|
|
|
In March 1990 a black student at Emory University
|
|
reported that she had been the object of a campaign of
|
|
racial harassment. The nineteen-year-old freshman
|
|
reported that her room had been ransacked, racial slurs
|
|
written on the walls, and said that she had received
|
|
death threats. Her allegations received national media
|
|
attention after she reportedly curled up in the fetal
|
|
position and refused to speak.
|
|
|
|
Emory's president--the episode clearly on his
|
|
mind--penned an article for The New York Times
|
|
denouncing "renascent bigotry," and using the incident
|
|
as a justification for his schools' sweeping ban on any
|
|
"conduct (oral, written, graphic or physical) directed
|
|
against any person or group...that has the purpose or
|
|
reasonably foreseeable effect of creating an offensive,
|
|
demeaning, intimidating, or hostile environment."
|
|
|
|
But the episode of "renascent bigotry" never
|
|
happened.
|
|
|
|
After investigating the allegations, officials
|
|
determined the episode was an elaborate hoax on the
|
|
student's part, designed to divert attention from her
|
|
alleged cheating on a chemistry test. When asked for
|
|
his reaction, however, the head of the Atlanta NAACP
|
|
said: "It doesn't matter...whether she did it or not,
|
|
because of all the pressure these black students are
|
|
under at these predominantly white schools. If this
|
|
will highlight it, if it will bring it to the attention
|
|
of the public, I have no problem with that."
|
|
|
|
At Emory, the metaphysics of victimization finally
|
|
transcended the mundane world of reality and fact.
|
|
|
|
But if "sensitivity" demanded belief, it also
|
|
demanded the opposite, depending on the racial or
|
|
gender identity of the perpetrator. It turns out that
|
|
insensitivity is not always insensitivity; and only
|
|
someone with a reliable and up-to-date political
|
|
scorecard can tell for sure.
|
|
|
|
Gayatri Spivak, a professor of English and
|
|
cultural studies at the University of Pittsburgh,
|
|
argued, for example, that it is unreasonable to expect
|
|
minorities to practice the sort of tolerance demanded
|
|
of white students. "Tolerance is a loaded virtue," he
|
|
explained, "because you have to have a base of power to
|
|
practice it. You cannot ask a certain people to
|
|
'tolerate' a culture that has historically ignored them
|
|
at the same time their children are indoctrinated into
|
|
it." His position was echoed by a group of professors
|
|
at the University of Michigan who declared: "Behavior
|
|
which constitutes racist oppression when engaged in by
|
|
whites does not have this character when undertaken by
|
|
people of color."
|
|
|
|
Similarly, one of the authors of Stanford's speech
|
|
code argued that its ban on offensive language would
|
|
not apply to black students. By definition, they were
|
|
incapable of "insensitivity." In the same way that the
|
|
guilt of whites as universal racists was simply
|
|
assumed, the innocence of blacks was axiomatic.
|
|
|
|
According to Professor Robert Rabin, whites did
|
|
not need any protection from abusive language because
|
|
they did not have a history of being discriminated
|
|
against. Only those who have been victims of oppression
|
|
needed to be shielded from offensive words, he said.
|
|
Calling a white a "honky" is not the same as calling a
|
|
black a "nigger." This was essentially the same
|
|
argument advanced by Stanford Law Professor Mari
|
|
Matsuda in a 1989 law review article in which she
|
|
argued for anti-racist speech bans because freedom of
|
|
speech should be understood as an instrument to help
|
|
members of powerless groups. The emphasis on group
|
|
rather than individual rights is crucial because it
|
|
locates constitutional protections not in one's
|
|
citizenship, but in one's status on the victim
|
|
hierarchy. Under Matsuda's doctrine, critic David Rieff
|
|
noted, "a rich woman would presumably be protected by
|
|
the First Amendment but a poor white man (unless gay,
|
|
or disabled, or otherwise 'disenfranchised') would
|
|
not."
|
|
|
|
As interpreted in the light of victimist politics,
|
|
the Stanford policy embodied what Nat Hentoff called a
|
|
"new sliding scale of permissible expression" that was
|
|
completely dependent on comparative victimhood. Given
|
|
their history of oppression, Hentoff wondered,
|
|
shouldn't Native Americans get even more protection
|
|
than blacks? Was a slur against an Italian-American to
|
|
be punished more harshly than being offensive to a
|
|
Presbyterian? Given the history of anti-Semitism,
|
|
Hentoff wondered whether Jews would "get special
|
|
leniency when they insult members of other religions?"
|
|
|
|
The question was not entirely frivolous.
|
|
|
|
Once status was determined by the degree of one's
|
|
victimhood, every nuance of oppression became crucial--
|
|
one's rights now depended on the constantly shifting
|
|
scorecard of aggrievement. This is not a trivial
|
|
distinction; there is a vast difference between basing
|
|
rights upon respect and linking rights to personal
|
|
inadequacy.
|
|
|
|
Restoring Common Sense
|
|
|
|
This is a distinction that most Americans can
|
|
understand. And this brings us to the fourth and final
|
|
point in our attack on the politics of victimization:
|
|
Common sense. It is always a mistake to underestimate
|
|
the reservoirs of good sense that have survived the
|
|
various attacks of political, cultural and therapeutic
|
|
elites. Simple native good sense has already
|
|
experienced a modest comeback of sorts on college
|
|
campuses, where the more lugubrious and heavy-handed
|
|
aspects of political correctness have foundered on
|
|
their own absurdity.
|
|
|
|
Common sense can certainly go a long way toward
|
|
making distinctions between a bungled pass and an act
|
|
of rape; between greed and "compulsive shopping
|
|
syndrome"; between victims of racial discrimination and
|
|
victims of "motorism," or "sizeism"; between the
|
|
genuinely handicapped and the "chronically late"; and
|
|
between bad luck and acts of social victimization.
|
|
|
|
In short, Americans need to lighten up.
|
|
|
|
The politicized culture of victimization often
|
|
confuses mere difference with inequity and oppression,
|
|
while common sense reminds that difference is, well,
|
|
often just being different. Most of us can tell the
|
|
difference between making a mistake and being
|
|
victimized; between excelling and oppressing someone.
|
|
All of us experience unfairness and injustice, but that
|
|
does not mean we need to turn them into all-purpose
|
|
alibis.
|
|
|
|
Most important of all, our common sense and the
|
|
human tradition it reflects reminds us that we are all
|
|
fallible, all beset with human foibles and limitations.
|
|
At some level of our being, we all know that something
|
|
is required of us, however much we may try to shake it
|
|
off. Instinctively and rationally we know our
|
|
responsibilities; we know that we are not sick when we
|
|
are merely weak; we know that others are not to blame
|
|
when we have erred; we know that the world does not
|
|
exist to make us happy.
|
|
|
|
At the end of one of his novels, Saul Bellow has
|
|
his character Arthur Sammler, survivor of the
|
|
concentration camps and eternal witness to the follies
|
|
of his fellow man, sum up the life of a dead friend by
|
|
declaring that in the end, "he did meet the terms of
|
|
his contract. The terms which, in his innermost heart
|
|
each man knows. As I know mine. As all know. For that
|
|
is the truth of it--that we all know, God, that we
|
|
know, we know, we know."
|
|
|
|
------------------------
|
|
|
|
Charles J. Sykes' best-selling book, Profscam:
|
|
Professors and the Demise of Higher Education (Regnery
|
|
Gateway, 1988), won critical praise from the New York
|
|
Times, the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal.
|
|
Mr. Sykes followed up with a second volume, The Hollow
|
|
Men: Politics and Corruption in Higher Education
|
|
(Regnery Gateway) in 1990. He has also co-edited The
|
|
National Review College Guide (National Review Books,
|
|
1991) and is editor of WI: Wisconsin Interest. He is
|
|
currently a senior fellow of the Wisconsin Policy
|
|
Research Institute.
|
|
|
|
###
|
|
|
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|
|
End of this issue of Imprimis, On Line; Information
|
|
about the electronic publisher, Applied Foresight,
|
|
Inc., is in the file, IMPR_BY.TXT
|
|
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
|