“As an instructor, you shouldn’t discriminate between your students because of anything pertaining to their beliefs or origin. All of the students should have the right to learn and interact in class without being worried about how the instructor will treat them.”

So I don’t really agree with this. Surely if someone was seriously arguing that Hitler was justified in his genocidal efforts, it would be appropriate to ask them to leave? Or how do you handle a christian saying something like “The Bible says homosexuals will burn in Hell”? Have any homosexuals in the room been emotionally attacked? Does admonishing the christian constitute an emotional attack on them? Where’s the line?

Thank you for the post!

I agree there seems to be a growing culture of victim hood and people confusing Freedom of Speech with a Right to be Heard or even a Right to not be Criticized. Not that a diversity of voices isn’t important – it is essential to the vitality and function of our democracy – but we continuing to frame the discussion in terms of victims and oppressors isn’t very productive because it perpetuates a sense of conflict.

“I feel like arguing with a child.”
“I feel like arguing with a Democrat.”
“I feel like arguing with a philosopher (or a business person).”
“I feel like arguing with a Brit.”
etc.

Do you find any of the above statements offensive? There is nothing wrong with having preferences in a world of diversity. Our distastes are going to mix as much as our preferences and its foolish to think otherwise. I think you’re right that shielding children from stereotypes would do them s a disservice. They should see the world as it is so that they may evaluate it critically.

This is a really thoughtful post; it gives me a lot to think about in terms of the way we talk about justice relates to the way we achieve justice. Even though there is a difference in your approach I like how both you and Dr. Nelson described in different contexts that there is no one-to-one correlation between our intentions/speech and our impact, and we need to own both. And I agree with you that giving platform to people with ideas with which we disagree cannot be separated out from the issue of equality. You can’t have the latter without the former. Though I’ll be honest, right about now I am wishing Trump got a whole lot less of a platform…. That said, even there I any group trying to take that matter into their own hands, assuming it is not actually there platform to offer or to take away has to be careful or is at high risk of doing something counter productive.

A phrase I have used to describe situations like this (both literal and ideological “battles”) is that sometimes we fight so hard we forget what we are fighting for.

I think in a way the question is, do you have to believe in the equal validity of all ideas in order to promote equality for people adhering to them. I may be biased because I do NOT believe in the equal validity of all ideas, but I think the answer is no. I can’t pass up the perhaps bad pun of referencing the “other” Augustine: the often quoted line “with love for mankind and hatred of sins.” Obviously his language is specifically religious, but it is interesting to see how long the idea “no idea is above scrutiny, no people are below dignity” has been in play.

I wonder how conversation between people with really different, even contradicting viewpoints can be facilitated? I think one tactic is to try to avoid certain topics (like politics and religion) but I think that approach can only get us so far. Thoughts?

I think that that sentiment “I don’t want you in my class” is what students are hearing every time a student gets asked if they’re lost in their own classroom. Thank you, also, for sharing that video. It made such a powerful point.

Thank you for the quotes from the Quran. A related one from the Bible that they made me think of is from the book of Revelation which I do not begin to claim to understand:
“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages”
Revelation 7:9

It is wonderful that our religions both point to the beauty of diversity. May we learn to celebrate diversity together.

Thank you for sharing your experiences and perspectives! And also thank you for being so caring to your students. Speaking from experience as a woman, it can sometimes be intimidating or uncomfortable to be in an all (or mostly)-male setting and I’m sure that your efforts to make everyone feel included are appreciated by your students! As teachers, it is our job to educate ALL of our students to the best of our ability, and being totally blind to things that may be affecting their learning isn’t helpful.

This is such a beautiful post! Thank you for sharing! I love your quote:

“Solutions for our mutual problems will not come in isolation, but in celebration of diversity.”
That is my view as well. There are two directions we can take from this point of tension. We can run from it and hide among a homogeneous group, or we can learn to celebrate diversity and value it. This is where we need to go from here.

And the comment by Anonymous (is that Homero?) is absolutely wonderful. I wish everyone had your son’s view on life. That’s what racial reconciliation is all about.

Great post! Thank you so much for sharing Erin! Your post has definitely given me a lot to think about…

I very much like how your moderating the interactions in your class and creating a healthy learning environment….

I guess my main question is how can we create an environment where we can discus some of these issues and how should we frame these discussions…?

Timely debate from last night:

http://intelligencesquaredus.org/debates/upcoming-debates/item/1500-free-speech-is-threatened-on-campus

Thanks to everyone here for the honest comments, I think this is a great example of the notion of controversy with civility that Arao & Clemens were promoting. I have to say, I was very uncomfortable with your position that you don’t care about people’s feelings in “an intellectual debate.” As someone in the social sciences, I see connections between people’s lived experiences and nearly any debate as important. So, I agree with Erin that even in engineering solutions for “technical” problems becomes about engineering solutions for people problems. I also feel very strongly that any one of us that intends to create a learning environment (or if you prefer teach), we must include the human aspects of how our subject matter relates to the world around us. In doing so, consideration must be given to a diverse set of lived experiences and to the lived experiences of the people we encounter in that space.