Safe Spaces

[wufan]

Are safe spaces a violation of free speech or a measure against harassment?

[Dave Stalwart]

Interesting. I'll have to think about that for a while. I do know of one really good safe space for anyone needing one: the basketball forum on shockernet.

[jdshock]

I think many safe spaces go too far. I think echo chambers are counterproductive. I also think safe spaces can be appropriate.

I'm not sure I've heard of an instance that I thought violated free speech rights. I don't have the speech rights to go to a kindergarten classroom and talk about violent rape.

I do think we should keep political posts out of the basketball forum. "snit-fit" suggests that the protests don't have any legitimacy. That type of post doesn't belong over there. Maybe that's a safe space... But really it's probably just so we don't alienate folks who want to talk about basketball.

[MoValley John]

Who is "snit fit" and when did "snit fit" suggest that protests don't have legitimacy?

In my opinion, some protests are very much needed, others are not. Sometimes protesting is a great way to bring a cause or injustice to the forecront, other times, protesting is a waste of time, leading to violence and property damage. Protesting can lead to change, but protesting the wrong message at the wrong time can also damage a cause.

[wufan]

I'm certainly not talking about a person overtaking kindergarteners and spouting hate speech. Here's some examples of when safe spaces might infringe on free speech:

I’m old enough to remember a time when college students objected to providing a platform to certain speakers because they were deemed politically unacceptable. Now students worry whether acts of speech or pieces of writing may put them in emotional peril. Two weeks ago, students at Northwestern University marched to protest an article by Laura Kipnis, a professor in the university’s School of Communication. Professor Kipnis had criticized — O.K., ridiculed — what she called the sexual paranoia pervading campus life.

The protesters carried mattresses and demanded that the administration condemn the essay. One student complained that Professor Kipnis was “erasing the very traumatic experience” of victims who spoke out. An organizer of the demonstration said, “we need to be setting aside spaces to talk” about “victim-blaming.” Last Wednesday, Northwestern’s president, Morton O. Schapiro, wrote an op-ed article in The Wall Street Journal affirming his commitment to academic freedom. But plenty of others at universities are willing to dignify students’ fears, citing threats to their stability as reasons to cancel debates, disinvite commencement speakers and apologize for so-called mistakes.

At Oxford University’s Christ Church college in November, the college censors (a “censor” being more or less the Oxford equivalent of an undergraduate dean) canceled a debate on abortion after campus feminists threatened to disrupt it because both would-be debaters were men. “I’m relieved the censors have made this decision,” said the treasurer of Christ Church’s student union, who had pressed for the cancellation. “It clearly makes the most sense for the safety — both physical and mental — of the students who live and work in Christ Church.”

A year and a half ago, a Hampshire College student group disinvited an Afrofunk band that had been attacked on social media for having too many white musicians; the vitriolic discussion had made students feel “unsafe.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/22/opinion/sunday/judith-shulevitz-hiding-from-scary-ideas.html?_r=0

[MoValley John]

On topic, I don't have much of an issue with safe spaces. Those marginalized should have a place where they can safely group.

As a violation of free speech, that depends. If an entire university is a safe space, that is a huge violation. Common areas should not be safe spaces unless all political discussion is off limits. Making a food court a safe space, yet allowing the lgbtq organization to hold a rally, but not the college christians to hold a simmilar rally at the food court would then become problematic.

[jdshock]

On topic, I don't have much of an issue with safe spaces. Those marginalized should have a place where they can safely group.

As a violation of free speech, that depends. If an entire university is a safe space, that is a huge violation. Common areas should not be safe spaces unless all political discussion is off limits. Making a food court a safe space, yet allowing the lgbtq organization to hold a rally, but not the college christians to hold a simmilar rally at the food court would then become problematic.

I don't think there's a word of this I disagree with.

[SB Shock]

[I_Vector_Wu]

Safe Spaces for 18-22 year olds ...... circa 1944



Tell me again how traumatized you are by certain speakers at your college.

[ShockdaWorld]

If the snit-fit post bothered you, you probably need a safe space, far away from anything that isn't rainbows, butterflies, and the occasional unicorn.

[ShockingButTrue]

[ShockingButTrue]

It was a Unicorn that did it!!!

[atlwsu]

What is snit-fit?

[jdshock]

Someone referred to the protests as a "snit fit" in the basketball forum. Someone else pointed out that is the type of political statement that should not be posted in the basketball forum. Someone else suggested people need to lighten up because that's not a very political statement.

Dave's post here was saying the basketball forum is a safe space. My post was just clarifying my support for removing those types of posts from the basketball forum.

[wufan]

What is snit-fit?

I had to look it up. Hissy fit, or Sh!t fit.