Irony: He’s supposed to judge himself during a discuss in which he complains about repression?
Should there be any words in English that are utterly absurd?
If you’re one of the members of a popular American free speech business, the answer is “no”. especially when the term is used in perspective.
Harvey Silverglate, co-founder of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression ( FIRE), responded this week to Yale University students who were angry about his use of the N-word in a discussion on free speech.
The , Yale Daily News reported that Silverglate ( pictured ) was “met with gasps by the Yale Political Union audience” after uttering the slur:” Sticks and stones can break my bones, but names can never harm me … Ames was called a n*****”, he had said.
( Ames was Silverglate’s college friend. Sticks and stones may break my legs, but N***** does not hurt me, he was actually quoted as saying in the paper. Quite a difference. )
Yale Political Union President Riya Bhargava and AJ Tapia-Wylie, who spoke at the function, told the News , racist slurs are “unacceptable” at the YPU.
According to Bhargava and Tapia-Wylie,” The Union has long been a place for meaningful and challenging conversations on contest, recognizing its strong ties to politics.” ” We draw the line when discourse by any individual listener enters the arena of obviously unproductive profanities or obscenities, and do not accept their use on our ground,” the statement continues.
Black Yale undergrad Miles Kirkpatrick likewise took exception to the FIRE leader, complaining in a venom-filled op-ed that Silverglate “is not Black”, and that if he had only said “N-word” there’s no manner he would have been misunderstood.
” Both Mr. Silverglates ]sic ] usage of the N-word and I suspect his rationale for why its use is okay are offensive, vulgar and unbecoming not only of a prominent attorney but of any decent American”, Kirkpatrick wrote. I’m happy he’s spent so much time arguing our right to say points; I hope he will take some time to consider what is appropriate to say next.
Student Richie George, who’s even dark, called Silverglate’s notes” sickening”, and a “destructive time”.
” Only because he says he could get a slur — mind you, a insult meant for Black people — doesn’t mean people have to bear the brunt of centuries of racism and bright supremacy”, George wrote in the , News. ” Is he expecting free conversation to be some free for all for racist, personal episodes”?
In his comment, Silverglate writes” ]Using the N-word ] was not unwarranted, it was related to the subject of my speak — the transcendent value of complimentary speech”.
Less: Popular black teacher uses n-word in questionable speech to K-12 teachers
Silverglate used the word twice — once ( noted previously ) when also using the anti-Jewish slur “k**e” ( which apparently didn’t upset anybody ), and again when referencing ( black Harvard Law Professor ) Randall Kennedy’s book” N****r: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word”. ( The book’s actual title is not censored. )
” It would have been ironic, however, for me to have used the ambiguous name’ N-word’ in my lecture”, Silverglate says. ” My whole point was that these evasions have reportedly been with us long,” I said. Was I forced to make up my mind as to communicate that same dodging simply because I’m white more than black like my two scholar critics?
He also makes an irony of having to delete himself during a speech about free speech, where he expresses his disapproval of being censored.
” Mx. George piles irony-upon-irony when they say: ‘ I hope, in the future, we continue to foster a place of conversation: talk that pushes past our limits of idea…’ My talk evidently pushed Mx. George’s reduce a bit too much”, he says.
Around the same time as Silverglate’s op-ed, anti-bias/anti-racist trainer Sonja Cherry‑Paul advised teachers in an Education Week article about what to do in case” classic” books geared towards young kids contain the N-word:
— Do NOT diminish, ignore, or deny the effect of this word on Black individuals past and present.
Don’t believe that every Black person is in agreement with the use of the term.
— Do not accept the fact that its inclusion in music or media is a call for usage.
— Do not use the term given how it affects Black citizens today.
— Do replace it ( e. g., N-word ) when reading aloud.
— Do teach the historical perspective.
— Do teach about brightness and white power.
Sure, when it comes to children I have little problem with most of what Cherry-Paul recommends, most mainly replacing the genuine term with “N-word”.
However, neither George nor Kirkpatrick are children. At one of the world’s most prestigious higher education institutions, they are people. who spoke at a community about their own free speech.
Do you want to be treated as children, gentlepeople ( since George uses the gender-neutral honourable” Mx”.)? Or grown-ups?
Choose correctly.
MORE: Black high school students want light teachers fired for using the N-word, and they want the right to use it.
Photo: FIRE
Follow The College Fix on Twitter and Like us on Instagram.
