2008 Woodie Awards
How tolerant are we, really?
By: Amy Ledig, Opinion Editor
Issue date: 11/2/07 Section: Opinion
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Where's this "tolerance" we speak of? So much is made of the Macalester environment, and the willingness, nay, eagerness to hear a broad array of opinions and encourage stimulating, free discourse. I'm now well into my second year here and I have yet to be convinced. We're not fooling anyone.
There are a number of issues on this campus where dissent from the acceptable Macalester-liberal line is suppressed. Looking back on the beginning of this year, the Mellon Fellowship discussion and the drama over the gender-blind bathrooms are the two that come most readily to mind.
There was plenty of debate over the bathrooms, although on second thought, it can't really be called a debate if only one side feels free to speak. During the controversy, it was essentially only the students who wanted the bathrooms in Kirk to be gender-blind who were heard. Some of the pieces in this section boiled down to the idea that if you were for gendered bathrooms, you were automatically heteronormative, trying to actively oppress those wrestling with gender-identity issues, and a terrible person. Is this really how we have a discussion about important campus issues? With a few exceptions, I only know a couple of individuals who were willing to say anything in favor of the gender-designated bathrooms, and that was only in groups of friends, not in a larger setting.
I was initially surprised that there weren't more responses submitted to the Opinion section about the "Historians and Critical Race Theory" course. However, race is one of the issues we say we're open to discussing, and actually aren't. The student who lodged the complaint about what she felt was a prohibition on white students taking the history course didn't feel that she could openly discuss a serious issue, despite the supposedly open and inviting atmosphere here.
"The student, a senior, said she did not want to be identified in this article because 'at a small school like Macalester I don't want to be the only dissenting voice on a sensitive issue.'" ("History class' admission questioned on racial grounds," 10/19/2007).
There are a number of issues on this campus where dissent from the acceptable Macalester-liberal line is suppressed. Looking back on the beginning of this year, the Mellon Fellowship discussion and the drama over the gender-blind bathrooms are the two that come most readily to mind.
There was plenty of debate over the bathrooms, although on second thought, it can't really be called a debate if only one side feels free to speak. During the controversy, it was essentially only the students who wanted the bathrooms in Kirk to be gender-blind who were heard. Some of the pieces in this section boiled down to the idea that if you were for gendered bathrooms, you were automatically heteronormative, trying to actively oppress those wrestling with gender-identity issues, and a terrible person. Is this really how we have a discussion about important campus issues? With a few exceptions, I only know a couple of individuals who were willing to say anything in favor of the gender-designated bathrooms, and that was only in groups of friends, not in a larger setting.
I was initially surprised that there weren't more responses submitted to the Opinion section about the "Historians and Critical Race Theory" course. However, race is one of the issues we say we're open to discussing, and actually aren't. The student who lodged the complaint about what she felt was a prohibition on white students taking the history course didn't feel that she could openly discuss a serious issue, despite the supposedly open and inviting atmosphere here.
"The student, a senior, said she did not want to be identified in this article because 'at a small school like Macalester I don't want to be the only dissenting voice on a sensitive issue.'" ("History class' admission questioned on racial grounds," 10/19/2007).
Viewing Comments 1 - 5 of 5
Adam
posted 11/08/07 @ 9:02 AM CST
"Reign of terror"? Where are you all living? Do you watch the news? Do you realize there is an actual war going on? Have you ever cracked a textbook? Did you know that the actual Reign of Terror involved a lot more guillotines than I think are presently in operation on the Macalester campus?
Every year since the birth of God a Macalester sophomore has to discover this "issue" and make a big public play about how the campus is intolerant to conservatives and "my isn't that ironic, liberals being conservative. (Continued…)
Nick
posted 11/09/07 @ 10:00 AM CST
Adam, if you disagree with Amy, then provide a constructive counter-argument. I agree with everything she says, and just because "every year since God a Macalester sophomore" comments on the hypocrisy of Macalester liberal elitism doesn't make her points any less valid. (Continued…)
Adam
posted 11/09/07 @ 11:56 AM CST
What was her argument again? Why do I have to produce one if she doesn't?
Tom
posted 11/11/07 @ 8:59 AM CST
I am the parent of a Mac alum, so I have witnessed but have not lived with the issue of (in)tolerance that Amy described. I would like to interject a view of personal ideology and free expression that expands on this topic. (Continued…)
Adam
posted 11/12/07 @ 11:20 AM CST
Could someone please explain to me how professors and students have contributed to this liberal "reign of terror"? I honestly do not see it, and perhaps if I could understand the mechanisms by which it is produced, I might be able to engage more productive with the point. (Continued…)
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