[Sixstrings]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]University introduces website to report microaggressions

In a campus-wide email sent Tuesday afternoon (and shared with the Washington Examiner), UM-Flint staff announced the new website and encouraged students, faculty and staff to begin reporting. ...

The entire community was called upon to report incidents of bias they witness, even if they weren't the recipient of the alleged bias. Adding in that reports can be done anonymously, UM-Flint could predictably become a hotbed of politically and personally motivated revenge reports.
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/university-introduces-website-to-report-microaggressions/article/2584111

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]University introduces website to report microaggressions

[careinke]

I think the entire microaggression reporting program is in itself a microaggression against white males.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', ' ')given the kangaroo court nature of much of the university punishment of things like "microaggressions", according to books I've read, this can't be a good thing.

[Shaved Monkey]

Just wondering Plant does everything horrible come from Obama in your mind ?
Will the world be perfect when he is gone?

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Shaved Monkey', 'J')ust wondering Plant does everything horrible come from Obama .... ?

[SeaGypsy]

We don't have such formalized crap in Australia, but the culture is here too. I just did a year at Uni to complete a community services course. During my placements some serious maladministration came up & I reported it- in house- resulting in the shifting around of a couple of department managers deck chairs. Their response was to use information from a client I became Facebook friends with to paint me as a radical chain smoker of cannabis, slander me all over the sector & to my professors. The sector is one where dunderhead females get masters degrees & employ out gays & racial minorities with no tendency to critique their job performance. My lecturers warned me not to use these idiots as referees.

In fact I rarely take cannabis at all these days as I drive trucks for a living & can't risk failing a drug test. I am not shy in my advocacy for cannabis as folks here are aware- I see it as far preferable to many of the legal options & consider the laws against it to be culture war of the worst kind.

Anyway I am staying out of the communities sector, as I am a white male heterosexual & therefore have no future there. JIT transport is bliss to work in by comparison, no politics, grateful customers, lots of gruff straight talking men- & funny enough some of them are not white, some are gay & there's even a few chicks in the gig.

[Cog]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I') think the entire microaggression reporting program is in itself a microaggression against white males.

[careinke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Cog', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('careinke', 'I') think the entire microaggression reporting program is in itself a microaggression against white males.

[SeaGypsy]

Absurd isn't it. At least we white hetro males can call these namby pamby maggots whatever we like here at po.com.

[Cog]

This thread triggers me.

[Sixstrings]

The whole thing about a "microaggression reporting form" and how it's all worded is that it seems to go overboard into *encouraging* a "reporting culture."

And one doesn't want that kind of thing going too far. Taken to extremes, that's actually socialism and communism. That's how things are in North Korea -- someone says one wrong thing out of line with the State, and they get reported. Could be the coworker next to them, a neighbor, a stranger -- even family, or a husband and wife.

Not to go too far out with an analogy, but I'm just sayin'.

In the context of academia -- I think administrators and educators are losing some common sense that a parent would have. Think of it in that context, say you've got two kids -- does a parent ENCOURAGE them to tattle on each other and constantly report on the other? I suppose some do, but is that really good parenting? And what does that sort of thing lead to, a lot of bogus / revenge reporting, no?

I remember growing up. My sis was horrible to our brother. She just made things up, just to get him trouble, for the fun of it. She'd trick him into doing things she could then tattle on him for .

So anyhow, that's kids and kids are kids. But the point is that in good parenting / teaching there should be a line between knowing what's going on and that kids aren't bullied, but you also can't be running a Communist Reporting State either. Because the latter is unnatural.

In the context of the workplace -- if management overly ENCOURAGES employees reporting on each other, then it's the same thing as with raising kids. We all know how office politics is and how petty people can be; if this kind of "complaint culture" / "I'm offended culture" / "reporting culture" is encouraged, then people could just report things out of sheer boredom.

If there's a big flashing shiny form there saying "report all the microaggressions against you," then people will sit there and start thinking up microaggressions to report, right? (how many times have we seen from some on this forum in the past, "I've reported you to the mods!!!!!" ).

My issue with microagressions is that, from what I can understand of it, it includes things that are honestly unintentional / unknowing. A student just having a make america great again ballcap, or a Trump bumper sticker on their laptop or a Trump tshirt -- could all be deemed microaggressions.

To the person with the Trump shirt on, most likely they're just honestly a Republican. But to someone else looking at that shirt, they could interpret it some other way and then are offended and it's deemed a microaggression -- unintentional causing of offense.

I'm surprised that serious people in academia and education, don't see that point.

People being nice and acting civilized and humane is one thing, just being decent and having manners, but a socialist police state rooting out offenses that the offender doesn't even understand -- that's another thing, entirely.

So in essence, an OVERLY SENSITIVE person can actually be the abusive one, to the person sitting next to them that's just walking on eggshells not even knowing what they did to offend.

P.S. I didn't need to write a long post. Long story short -- the very word "microaggression" is just ridiculous. It's a new madeup word that didn't exist before. What is that word really, just simple passive aggressive? Well, wouldn't it be silly to have a passive aggressive reporting form?

[Sixstrings]

Some other recent microaggression news:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '�')��When Free Speech Becomes a Problem’ — Ben Shapiro Live Protest from CSULA
http://www.breitbart.com/video/2016/02/25/watch-live-when-free-speech-becomes-a-problem-ben-shapiro-live-protest-from-csula/

[SeaGypsy]

This whole bandwagon definitely empowers passive aggressives in a big way. Your line about the silliness of a reporting form for passive aggression- woah... The least understood, most subtle form of abuse, most used by women- can destroy people's careers, education, families, can be extremely damaging & difficult if not impossible to pin down to specifics. If you punch someone in the face- that is assault, no question about it. But if you open someone's Facebook profile & show around a school or a workplace something not PC in that environment, you will almost certainly get away with it while perhaps ruining that person's future. Which is worse- a fat lip & a loose tooth, or losing your career? Passive aggressives know all about this & there are many of them doing it basically as a power trip & for kicks.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', '
')
In the context of the workplace -- if management overly ENCOURAGES employees reporting on each other, then it's the same thing as with raising kids. We all know how office politics is and how petty people can be; if this kind of "complaint culture" / "I'm offended culture" / "reporting culture" is encouraged, then people could just report things out of sheer boredom.

If there's a big flashing shiny form there saying "report all the microaggressions against you," then people will sit there and start thinking up microaggressions to report, right? (how many times have we seen from some on this forum in the past, "I've reported you to the mods!!!!!" ).

.....

I'm surprised that serious people in academia and education, don't see that point.

[Outcast_Searcher]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Plantagenet', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Outcast_Searcher', ' ')given the kangaroo court nature of much of the university punishment of things like "microaggressions", according to books I've read, this can't be a good thing.

[ROCKMAN]

Maybe some already made this point: anonymous. IOW every racist, homophone, liberal, conservative, etc. can flood the system with countless reports against whoever they want. Thus anonymous reports will quickly become useless. Next step: non-anonymous reports. Do I need to go over all the different ways that system can quickly go sideways? And in particular hurting various groups it's trying to protect.

But I'm sure the school administrators will get high marks during their yearly reviews. LOL.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ROCKMAN', 'M')aybe some already made this point: anonymous. IOW every racist, homophone, liberal, conservative, etc. can flood the system with countless reports against whoever they want. Thus anonymous reports will quickly become useless. Next step: non-anonymous reports. Do I need to go over all the different ways that system can quickly go sideways? And in particular hurting various groups it's trying to protect.

But I'm sure the school administrators will get high marks during their yearly reviews. LOL.

[JV153]

Macroaggression is more like what happened in Iraq (the event is still ongoing).

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JV153', 'M')acroaggression is more like what happened in Iraq (the event is still ongoing).