I see. Then, on the post itself, there are two things being deliberately confused: speech codes and pedagogy. The aim of speech codes is to diminish the use of hate words on campus, the n word being the most obvious. Whether speech codes are the best way to go about that is a very debatable proposition. But that hate words should not be used and students should learn to respect one another seems to me a beginning premise for all this that is hard to debate. If someone disagrees with that, it's hard for me to see how I could debate these issues with them.
There is a second issue which has to do with pedagogy, whether the aim of certain kinds of teaching, good teaching, is meant to make students uncomfortable. Of course, it is. But hate words not only are not related to that exercise, they compromise it, completely. Universities aim to expand student's horizons, expose them to ideas, places, etc., they don't know about. Some of that is going to make them uncomfortable.
But pedagogy and hate speech are more distinct than the proverbial apples and oranges. |
