November 7, 2015

Some Yale students are hopping mad at 2 faculty members who didn't see the exquisite importance of repressing Halloween costumery.

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education explains the multilayered outrage.

This email from Associate Master of Silliman College Erika Christakis is the main source of irritation. She had the nerve to address Yale students as intellectuals, drawing on her expertise — she teaches a class on "The Concept of the Problem Child" — and saying things like:
At the first link there's video of Yale students yelling at Erika Christakis's husband Nicholas:
“As your position as master, it is your job to create a place of comfort and home for the students that live in Silliman,” one student says. “You have not done that. By sending out that email, that goes against your position as master. Do you understand that?”

When Christakis disagreed, the student proceeded to yell at him. “Who the fuck hired you?” she asked, arguing that Christakis should “step down” because being master is “not about creating an intellectual space,” but rather “creating a home.”
To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made to the students it lured into matriculating. Was a "safe space" promised? Part of the "marketplace of ideas" that the Christakises champion is the marketplace of colleges where students get their choice. What did the Yale packaging say? I can't really judge the anger and the urgency of these students without knowing what other offers they had and what they were led to think they were buying when they picked Yale. A vibrant "intellectual space" sounds exciting to me, but is that what they were told they'd get if they came to Yale? Maybe some other schools offered a challenging intellectual environment and they passed on it, preferring a caring, nurturing setting. Were they deceived?

There's a lot that could be said here, but I'll just say one more thing. Halloween is childish fun. If you're grimly serious about it, you've aged out. Maybe some of your classmates are still playing around, vacationing from their daily worries, indulging in this annual childishness. If you're too adult to join them, then do the adult thing and stay home and read. Complaining to the authorities is another form of indulgence in childishness — not childish fun but childish whining and tattling.

125 comments:

mezzrow said...

You always hurt the one you love, the one you shouldn't hurt at all...

Bay Area Guy said...

A generation of over-educated, Beta-Males at Yale.

pious agnostic said...

Man, that's a lot of tags.

chickelit said...

To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made to the students it lured into matriculating. Was a "safe space" promised?

Caveat empty

The "girl" was completely out of line addressing anyone like that. I'm glad it was memorialized and widely circulated. She looks like Professor Bland but she's just an understudy.

YoungHegelian said...

Does everyone involved in this not understand what they're doing to the Yale "brand"?

Who really gets hurt by this "brand diminution" is not the children of well-connected families, because the upper-crust have their own ways of recognizing their own. Besides, no matter how stupid & fucked up you are, if you're from the elite, mummy & daddy will somehow pull your ass out of the fire and set things right (They always do. Right, Chelsea?)

No, it'll be the up & comer kid who struggled to make something of him or herself when they got their big break at an Ivy League school, who'll then walk unawares into a cold interview. If the interviewer gets even the slightest whiff that he's interviewing one of these porcelain princes or princesses with a hair-trigger "I'm taking offense" button, that'll be all she wrote.

Etienne said...
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Etienne said...
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traditionalguy said...

The message is clear: Yale should be shut down for terrorizing the students with harsh freedom. To much freedom destroys community where innocent youth can be eternally protected forever and ever, or we will riot on your ass you sucker..

the gold digger said...

Maybe some other schools offered a challenging intellectual environment and they passed on it, preferring a caring, nurturing setting. Were they deceived?

Here is what is says on their website: "Yale College provides a liberal arts education that fosters intellectual curiosity, independent thinking, and leadership skills."

Doesn't look like they are achieving their goal.

Martha said...

The student screaming the F word to the Master of Silliman College should be reprimanded.
That behavior would not be tolerated in a preschool.
The student would learn quite a bit if she engaged the object of her wrath, Nicholas Christakis, in a civil conversation instead of demanding he SHUT THE F UP.
Dr. Christakis has an M.D. from Harvard Medical School, an MPH from Harvard, and a Ph.D in Sociology from University of Pennsyvania.

According to Wikipedia, in 2009, he was named to Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in the world and in 2009 and again in 2010, Christakis was named by Foreign Policy magazine to its list of top global thinkers.

He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 2006, and he was named a Fellow at the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2010.

But then the student does not want an intellectual exchange. She wants to feel safe and at home, unchallenged.

Ann Althouse said...

I'm sure the black students were heavily recruited, in person, so what's on the website is a small part of what matters. Yale needs and dearly wants these students for its own "diversity" agenda, and the students have good reason to notice how they are being manipulated and used.

Freeman Hunt said...

What sort of students are being admitted to Yale?

n.n said...

I won. Now sit down and shut up. That sounds vaguely familiar.

Denigrate individual dignity. That too sounds like a political strategy.

Then there is rejection of intrinsic value. Realization of the slippery slope.

I wonder who the student considers to be her role model.

Anonymous said...

I read that the offended students were mostly minorities. It seems to me that when students with lower SATs are admitted into into elite schools they are likely to be traumatized at some point by the pace of instruction. They made the mistake of transferring their hurt and anger onto politically incorrect Halloween costumes. They should have blamed the admissions committee for letting them into a school with which they could not cope.

Wilbur said...

I don't think it matters who Christakis is or what degrees she holds or what she thinks about Halloween. In fact I would find this even more offensive if directed at someone of lesser position.

The behavior was just unacceptably rude and childish. An apology is required here. A full apology or expulsion.

But they won't ask me.

Jay Vogt said...

Who was it that said of academia, "the fights are so viscous because the stakes are so small"?

Insightful guy or gal.

Rob said...

Christakis's apology for "causing pain" is considered insufficient by the protesters. (Personally, I think it would have been better if she'd said she was sorry they were hurt, rather than taking responsibility for causing their pain. The cause of their pain is their over-sensitivity, not anything she did.) It would be swell if she refuses to make any other concessions to political correctness. However, my guess is that the Intercultural Affairs Committee will weigh in against her, and she'll make a more abject apology. I hope I'm wrong.

Jay Vogt said...

And I don't reference that insight lightly. Soon enough the offended/slighted will learn that if an issue matters that much to you, then you need to go about securing a solution with considerably more care, energy and precision.

Rae said...

It'll be heaven on earth when these students graduate and enter the workforce.

"I'll have a fish taco"

"That's cultural appropriation you insensitive clod! As a white male you are restricted to potatoes."

"Give me my taco you loon."

"I have a degree from Yale, I'll have you know."

David said...

Jay Vogt said...
Who was it that said of academia, "the fights are so viscous because the stakes are so small"?


Kissinger.

He might not believe that anymore. Someone should ask him. Seems to me the stakes are whether we are educating our so called elites to be hectoring totalitarians.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

It seems pretty clear to me that these people are useless for any actual productive work.

David said...

"As a white male you are restricted to potatoes."

Only the Irish white males. Serves them right.

Etienne said...
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virgil xenophon said...

I've said for years that a certificate of completion from ANY welding school has more intellectual heft than an undergrad degree from ANY of the Ivies..

Bob Ellison said...

To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made to the students it lured into matriculating. Was a "safe space" promised?

Come, let us not be stupid. Yale made no such promise.

n.n said...

no one around campus seems overly concerned about the offense taken by religiously conservative folks
-- Erika Christakis

It sounds like so-called "liberals", especially social activists, have yet to understand the implications of the class diversity they push. Sometimes... Frequently, they are wrong and that is a bitter pill to swallow.

Oh, well. Political games with normalization will get you burned and worse. I don't think the American left appreciate the corruption and dysfunction they have promoted in their haste to gain control of this society and nation.

Chris N said...

Where is this behavior acceptable, admirable, reasonable, and worthy of respect?

Only amongst other true believers and ideologues whipping themselves into a mob and looking for some villain and purpose in life.

Say no now, before such people attain genuine positions of power and responsiblity with such childish and puerile notions.

Sorry...nope...I don't agree...go away...tough shit.

Bob Ellison said...

I do not understand the motivations of leftists. It used to be easy to assume that they merely want power. But why would they want power?

For money? That would explain Hillary Clinton.

But assuming, as I do, that leftists are mostly atheistic, how can we explain their motivations?

Bob Ellison said...

Young leftists are pretty easy to understand. They're just idiots. We get them coming and going. Never run out of them.

But what about old leftists?

Steve M. Galbraith said...

If I understand the complaint of the students it's not that their "safe space" was violated but that someone (Associate Master Christakis) expressed the view that "safe spaces" are antithetical to the university experience. That is, that students should be able to be a bit heterodox and obnoxious and to express heretical views and that other students need to develop the maturity and strength to withstand being exposed to such views.

So, simply expressing the idea that a safe space is odds with what a university should be about cannot be allowed.





Bob Ellison said...

SMGalbraith, it has nothing to do with this "safe space" garbage. That's a new lefty thing. They don't give a crap about it. What are they, liddle kitty-cats who can't get out of their litter boxes?

No. This is just a stupid argument, a part of the narrative, alas. The widdle cutie-pies making the argument are not as dumb as the people buying the argument.

elcee said...

Bob Ellison:
"I do not understand the motivations of leftists. It used to be easy to assume that they merely want power. But why would they want power?"

That's like asking why someone wants money.

What are the leftists doing and what can they do with power? What have leftists historically done with power?

Don’t Buy It said...

If you're 18+ and still need a "safe place" where your ideas are never challenged, you've failed at childhood, and don't belong in college; and you certainly haven't earned the right to be treated like an adult. Yale should quite literally flog these brats publicly and send them back to the parents.

rhhardin said...

What they're wrong about is the moral high ground.

Hagar said...

Shouldn't "Silliman" be spelled with a "y"?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I like how you put that Althouse.

Van Wallach said...

The competition with Harvard Law and Columbia is fierce, but it is becoming obvious Yale is leading the race to be crowned the Westboro Baptist Church of the Ivy League.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Joyce Carol Oates ‏@JoyceCarolOates 10 hours ago

"Concept of "safe place" seems to have been taken from vocabulary of battered women's shelters. Now applied generally, has lost meaning."

Fernandinande said...

David said...
Jay Vogt said...
'Who was it that said of academia, "the fights are so viscous because the stakes are so small"?'

Kissinger.


No, Kissinger said the fights were "vicious", not that the fights had relatively high resistance to flow.


"Uncle Hank, Aunt Peggy, I have terrible news. Halloween is a Satanic holiday! It was invented by the Druish!" -- Luanne

Spiros Pappas said...

It's not like Bob Jones and Liberty aren't "safe spaces" for crazy, right-wing teenagers! These poor kids are just as insular and surly. All of science, from evolution to the incredible age of the universe to whatever, is some sort of insult to Christians!

ALL of these kids are surly and thin-skinned and entitled.

sean said...

Once again, Prof. Althouse is first to deride students, first to excuse administrators and faculty who encourage them. It's kind of the reverse of Nuremburg, Prof. Althouse is after the foot soldiers.

JAORE said...

Please tell me someone is compiling a data base of all the spoiled little brats like yelling girl. And let it include her name, school, major and a link to that video. I have a family member in HR. I'm sure she would appreciate such a resource.

buwaya said...

Power is its own motive.
See 1984.
Anyway, the objective here isn't to protect anyone from anything, but to grab and hold power. They win, even a silly thing like halloween costumes, and they have control of everything else that's said or done. Actually, it seems they already have substantial control, this is just a little enforcement action.
The Godfather explains it all. You just have to peel away the costume of intellectuality and class.
Hey, who said costumes are childish ?

Phil 314 said...

Didn't Liberty invite Bernie Sanders to speak?

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Ann Althouse said... To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made to the students it lured into matriculating. Was a "safe space" promised? Part of the "marketplace of ideas" that the Christakises champion is the marketplace of colleges where students get their choice. What did the Yale packaging say?
/
I'm sure the black students were heavily recruited, in person, so what's on the website is a small part of what matters.



Professor: I see what you're saying but it seems like this is just pure speculation, no? Are the students themselves claiming that they were told the would be given a "safe space" and not an "intellectual environment"? If they aren't claiming that, why would we just assume that's likely? Are you assuming Yale made promises to their prospective minority students that they didn't make to their prospective non-minority students?
I haven't heard any of the students phrase their complaints in terms of "we were promised X and you're delivering Y." It's fair to ask WHY these particular students seem so (unreasonably, ridiculously) sensitive, but I don't know what evidence you have that would make you think the answer is more likely to be "because of Yale's specific misrepresentations" than "because they're overly-coddled, unbelievably PC wimps who've been told all their lives that they're special and deserve special protection and consideration from the world and thus have laughably thin skin and harmfully large chips on their shoulders." I mean, if I had to place a bet...



I encourage everyone to watch the videos; these people bitching about the lack of a safe space for their feelings sure don't seem to mind surrounding & seemingly trying to intimidate/nearly bully someone with whom they disagree. Safe spaces for me but not for thee, I guess. The students variously shout at him to speak up, then not to shout, then to look at on person, etc. Imagine tying to deal with such people in your life, in your working environment.

Video 2
Video 3
Video 4

Birches said...

Althouse has a point that these minority kids were probably heavily recruited to Yale, so they think they deserve something more. I just want to know where they found so many aggrieved minorities. I don't see any of my friends (or myself) acting this way, though I guess perhaps the new generation is more into peddling outrage and shame. I guess Clarence Thomas was right about the worth of a Yale degree...

Joe said...

"I didn't come to college to learn, I came to be comforted!"

Hagar said...

Part of my motivation for emigrating to America was its reputation for being a bit of a rough place and wanting to match wits with that.

rcocean said...

This is like a fight between Trotsky and Stalin. Can both sides Lose?

rcocean said...

What's the tuition at Yale now? $60,000/year?

We need more of this, so people will understand their universities have been taken over by PC Left-wing clowns.

PB said...

In a more enlightened time, that student who screamed at the "master" would be suspended and sent hope for the rest of the term.

After all, if you don't shoot an admiral from time to time, how are you going to encourage the others?

PB said...

Just imagine what the workplace is like as these kids filter into real adult life (as if they had any marketable skills).

jr565 said...

THe SJW's poison everything they touch. Rather than producing strong individuals the left produces babies who need safe spaces and are perennially victimized. Is anyone surprised this is taking place at Yale?

Jim Gust said...

Someone else said it first, but it is worth repeating. We have reached peak PC.

theo said...

When I was that age had some one addressed me that way they would have landed themselves in an emergency room.

I grew up in a rather tough area but people generally showed respect for each other and disagreements were mostly settled with quiet words. The reason for that is that addressing someone the way that shrieking harridan did would most times get your a$$ kicked across the quad.

Unless some one wanted to get a whoopin' they would at least be somewhat civil.

Perhaps it is time for the Ivies to recruit from my old neighborhood in order to keep the piece on campus.

College used to be fun but it now seems to be a training ground for limp wristed fascists in training.

theo said...

err "peace"

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

PROHIBITED COSTUMES:
..TX Gov. Greg Abbott
..Stevie Wonder
..Kim Kardashian

REQUIRED FOR COURSE CREDIT IN SOCSCI 102 "DIVERSITY EMPATHY": SPEND A FULL DAY ON CAMPUS (PICK ONE):
..in a wheel chair
..blindfolded
..with 9lb strap-on baby bump

rcocean said...

Buckley wrote "Man and God at Yale" 60 years ago. Its been downhill since then. People seem to think that Yale is some elite WASPY uber adult place that's training the Great men - and women - who will lead America. Yeah, like its 1948.

Yale *is* full of super-sharp people. But if you think they're all Americans or they give a crap about the USA and the average person you're a fool.

Birches said...

But let's also not forget even if Yale promised "Safe Spaces," how is an email, which asks the administration to consider its tone and policing unsafe? It was a hypothetical offensive costume these kids are freaking out about. Yikes.

jr565 said...

I am left speechless. Im sure that the guy getting raked over the coals is actually a do gooder liberal who espouses most of what these primadonnas believe in. He simply adheres to an "old fashioned" notion of freedom of speech clearly lost on this new breed of harpies.
And when he defends that argument and tries to reason with the mob they view it as hate speech.
That is a pure example of a closed mind. Liberals that are on althouse. Do you not realize that this is what you've wrought with your constant victimology routine? someone should take a shit in your mouth and make you chew on it for a while.

eddie willers said...

Eric Cartman has a Safe Space with Bully Proof windows.

"In My Safe Space"

chuck said...

"What did the Yale packaging say?"

Well, there is sex week. That alone might be worth $65,725 a year, but personally I think that they could have thrown in a crib with rubber sheets and a couple of rattles to keep folks happy for the rest of the year.

Jimmy said...

Leaving aside all the comments possible here... I enjoyed the use of the word 'hopping' to describe their anger. Can we have a tag for 'hopping mad' ? the phrase seems very 1950's, which is the last time I heard an adult use it. But it fits here.

Robert Cook said...

These infants should have learned by now that freedom of speech and expression do not--in fact, cannot--guarantee freedom from being offended or having one's feelings hurt, given that freedom of speech will almost certainly, if done right, offend someone.

jr565 said...

"It is not about creating an intellectual space, the students claim; it’s about creating safe spaces."

Fuck you, lady. Is she open to creating safe spaces for Christians, or people who dont' accept global warming is manmade? Or who espouse conservative views/ Or question that a man who thinks he is a woman is necessarily a woman. Or that rape culture is being exaggerated?
She is free to express her views and doenst' care that that creates an unsafe space for those she criticizes. Who are necessarily evil.
But god forbid any of her assertions gets questioned. Then its not about creating an intellectual space. does she think that people who can't speak their minds around her for fear of losing their jobs or being accused of being evil racists might not view her Yale as home?
I hope that when she turns 40 she looks back on her actions right here and great shame over comes her when she realizes what a horrible human being she was to this man. But, I doubt it. If she had the ability to self reflect, she would have exhibited it before she got to Yale.
Enjoy your safe space.

Tari said...

What good little Maoist children. They would have done well during the Cultural Revolution.

MayBee said...

What sort of students are being admitted to Yale?

People whose parents have protected them too much.

MayBee said...

and really? Yale is recruiting black students in person?

ajf said...

That little cunt is appropriating the culture of caucasians by speaking English, using electricity, wearing clothing, attending a university and not starving to death...

Bob Boyd said...

They don't want to feel safe. They want to feel self-righteous.

Sebastian said...

"To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made"

You're so sweet sometimes.

Actually, this kind of "fairness" is misguided. You know perfectly well how universities "represent" themselves. You know perfectly well what's going on here. "Fairness" means standing up for your unfairly maligned distant colleagues, who dared to express actually liberal thoughts. Fairness demands solidarity, not mealymouthed "I'd like to know more" wishy-washiness.

MayBee said...

There's no way Yale is advertising itself as "safe". That would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"I am left speechless."

Well if you find the miserable cunt who wrote the shit after you were unable to form any words because of the level of dumbfounded befuddlement you experienced, please take the time to put some soap in his mouth for me, and thank you in advance.

I applaud the student as trying to become an alpha top dog, someone-Teddy-would-have-and-in-fact-did-write-about. The longest journeys start with but a single step, of foremostly coursely. The problem I see is only one committed student and swarms of good-time rock-and-rolling wannabe débutantes and bull-dykes. I want and demand men and women in full.

http://mentalfloss.com/article/63389/roosevelts-man-arena

The idea this will, net net, hurt the student is ludicrous, as it depends on the people's viewpoint who express this prediction, often in a manner best described as baseless substantively yet as strident fact rhetorically, and not the world of billionaires or slightly less than that Leftists who celebrate their own, especially their Ivy-leaguers, with charisma and aplomb abounding into a tentatively perfect end-game solution.

TL;DR Don't play* with fire, as you might get burned.

*If you call your play "work" you might sneak into the fabled cat-bird seat cattily speaking, but then you may also, too, not.

Jupiter said...

"To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made to the students it lured into matriculating."

Well, for one thing, it pretended to believe that they had the intelligence to do well at an Ivy League college. Even though their SATs proved conclusively that they did not.

Steve M. Galbraith said...

Where exactly did these young men and women - people who probably scored 1500+ on their SATS and had 4.0 grades in high school - come up with the idea that another person cannot express an opinion or view that "hurts" them or that they are somehow emotionally injured by it?

What is the source of this thinking? From where does it come?

Not only do they say they cannot be "hurt" or that their "safe spaces" must not be violated, they express this "hurt" over the mildest of statements. And statements not directed at them personally but some group that must be protected. Someone, then, dressing up as an Eskimo for Halloween injures them and violates the "safe spaces" even though they are not Eskimos.

It is bizarre. How can one even begin to have a conversation with such people? It's hopeless.

n.n said...
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n.n said...

It's understandable that she wants to protect other people's feelings, but it would be more credible if it was done as a matter of principle. I think her great offense was triggered by a suggestion of bigotry.

I wonder if anyone came dressed as #CecileTheCannibal. Scary!

hawkeyedjb said...

The notion that a university should be a "place of comfort" has to be one of the worst ideas of the 21st century.

Ambrose said...

Forget it Jake, It's Silliman.


MayBee said...

What is the source of this thinking? From where does it come?

A combination of participation trophies (you showed up!), zero tolerance policies (eliminates judgement), and over emphasis on the aggrieved (you can't say Merry Christmas, you can't question why someone has a "support" ferret)

Achilles said...

These are not little children who are too weak to be insulted. These are little fascists who are trying to take power. They will try to do the same thing socialists always do when they take power. They will kill as many people as they have to to shut up those that disagree. Just like Stalin, Hitler, Mao.

They are not to be pitied. They first goal is Australian style confiscation of guns. Just like Stalin, Hitler, and Mao. Make no mistake what they will do if allowed. They should be treated like the threat to freedom they are.

Anonymous said...

I don't know how true to life it was but in movies like Paper Chase the comfort of the students was sure not a factor.

Jupiter said...

SMGalbraith said...
"Where exactly did these young men and women - people who probably scored 1500+ on their SATS and had 4.0 grades in high school - come up with the idea that another person cannot express an opinion or view that "hurts" them or that they are somehow emotionally injured by it?"


Where do you get the idea that this hellcow scored well on her SATs, or had good grades in high school? Does she look Chinese?

Quayle said...

I sense real deep-seated emotional pain in the student. I don't hear a cry of political outrage or posturing, or exasperation at other's unwillingness to go along, or even of simple anger in an attempt to coerce them through intimidation.

I thought I heard a cry of pretty deep pain - as deep as her soul maybe, and of anger from the resulting scars

Such pain is likely to only have originated in one place - her home.

I'm clearly now speculating, but I'd guess that unless someone can get to her heart and comfort the injured child portion of her character, she is going to range and roam the world, trying to control and compel others to line them up and say exactly what she thinks will comfort her, and rage at anyone who touches the pain.

And likely - I'm guessing - but likely the people around her will get tired of being to her a mere cypher - nothing but impersonal-functionaries with no discernible feelings of their own, existing for her only for the purpose of being moved and shoved and cajoled into feeding her endless emotional need.

John henry said...

She looks like Professor Bland but she's just an understudy.

Who is professor Bland?

John Henry

Bay Area Guy said...

At age 11, I dressed up as a hobo for Halloween. Probably, the word "homeless" had not been coined yet, but they are very similar class of forlorn individuals.

Several decades later, I hereby apologize to the hobo community and their self-appointed defenders at Yale University (tuition $65,000/year) for my adolescent insensitivity.

What do I win?

chickelit said...

@John Henry:

Professor Dorothy Bland. Not to be confused with Sandra Bland.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"It is bizarre. How can one even begin to have a conversation with such people? It's hopeless."

Don't, or didn't as it were, the Jews say "where there is life, there's hope" or were Johnny Turturo and the Coen's pulling some wool over my balls consisting of eye?

How can one begin to have a conversation with someone who can't, not figure out a workable solution lengthening civilization, but indeed merely attempt to start the process of figuring out, how to begin to have a conversation with someone who thinks in ways unsimiliar to their own?

To start, one can choose to do so with the teaching and dogma of Jesus Christ consciously near the conversation, or consciously far.

Using words can sometimes help, but as Breitbart taught yet few learned, creations of work I will refer to as art that influence culture can sometimes help too in a greater sense both long and short term.

A sexual partner can start the conversation in other ways nonverbal and sans the creation of physical representations of cosmic ideas.

Farting direction-wise generally is a resort too, leaving little room for doubt among the learned of the intent.

Xmas said...

I think it's sad that people don't know that potatoes are from Central and South America.

Anonymous said...

This is what Robert Cook said:

These infants should have learned by now that freedom of speech and expression do not--in fact, cannot--guarantee freedom from being offended or having one's feelings hurt, given that freedom of speech will almost certainly, if done right, offend someone.

This is what Ann said: I have to see the literature before I know before I judge the outburst of this young girl...

This is why, although I would almost always lean towards Ann's politics over Cookie's - as a conservative, she is probably closer - I would MUCH MUCH rather be ruled by COOKIE than ANN.

Cookie would tell me that my views are wrong, perhaps on the idiotic side, but he would do nothing to shut me down. Let the fool speak!!!

Ann would say, shucks, hate to do this pal, but I have to shut you down. Oh golly gee, don't really want to do it but...

COOKIE for PREZ!

Roughcoat said...
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n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Quayle:

That's an interesting characterization of her psyche. I would add that she is internally conflicted and stressed by an inability to reach a position that is internally, externally, and mutually consistent. The comment from Christakis describing her hypocrisy triggered an emotional response that her juvenile state of development amplified, then forced her to lash out in order to protect her fragile mind.

Anonymous said...

Puritans don't really care to let other people get enjoyment out of life, they mainly care that all public life is grim and pious and proper.

These are also unfortunately the "adults" we are stuck with. Who or what is going to get them to grow up now? Almost certainly not Yale, nor their parents, nor anyone in their social group. It's not impossible, but barring the hope that future spouses/children will bring about maturity, it likely rests on something very jarring that might just as easily destroy them psychologically instead of getting them to mature.

Douglas B. Levene said...

Spoiled brats, every last one of them. They are so overprivileged, attending Yale, which will launch all of them into elite lives and careers, and now they are complaining about what? A memo about Halloween costumes?

But it doesn't matter. What I read today in the Twitterverse is that the Yale administration is caving and crawling and begging forgiveness. My prediction is that the Master and his wife will be forced out, Yale will create a half dozen new "diversity officers" and give them a nice slush fund/budget to spread around to minority student groups, and everyone else will have to attend multiple rounds of Red Guard-style struggle sessions, excuse me, diversity training classes. You read it here first.

Anonymous said...

"What sort of students are being admitted to Yale?"

None.

Anonymous said...

The Christakises had recently been transferred from Sensible College and have not yet fully adapted to how things are done at Silliman, according to Dean of Students Tarquin Fin-Tim-Lim-Bim Ole Biscuitbarrel Bus Stop F'tang F'tang Don't Sleep In The Subway Smith.

Jimmy said...

Best take down of the PC culture I've read in a while.http://www.thefederalistpapers.org/us/professors-epic-class-intro-has-gone-viral-heres-why

Somebody said...
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Somebody said...

Affirmative action is the elephant in this room. If admissions standards at elite colleges were rational, these moronic SJWs would never get in. They know they have immunity from any consequences for their obnoxious conduct because the university would never dare to expel them, Ending AA would solve a lot of problems,

Anonymous said...

"students it lured"

Oh for fuck's sake, lady.

Who gets "lured" to Yale?

Qwinn said...

"Who gets "lured" to Yale?"

"People of Color", because "diversity". Decent grades not required, because "white privilege". Mostly a free ride, because race restricted scholarships. Expelled for bad behavior or anything less than massively failing grades? Short of a major felony or straight F's, ain't gonna happen, because racism.

Whites and Asians have to get perfect grades, and still have to beg to get in, and pay $60,000 for the "privilege", and *they* can get expelled for the sort of behavior exhibited in this story.

Who has the privilege again?

Amadeus 48 said...

This was a starlting display of either the tantrum tatics of an infant or an attempt to intimidate a middle-aged white male by an aggessive person of different ethnicity. See Tom Wolfe's "Mau-mauing the Flak Catchers". Did anyone else think she might hit him when she took off her jacket? Did he think that? Was he supposed to think that? This was an astonishing example of either loss of control or calculated provocation.

Sydney said...

To be fair, I'd like to know more about what representations Yale made to the students it lured into matriculating. Was a "safe space" promised? Part of the "marketplace of ideas" that the Christakises champion is the marketplace of colleges where students get their choice. What did the Yale packaging say? I can't really judge the anger and the urgency of these students without knowing what other offers they had and what they were led to think they were buying when they picked Yale. A vibrant "intellectual space" sounds exciting to me, but is that what they were told they'd get if they came to Yale? Maybe some other schools offered a challenging intellectual environment and they passed on it, preferring a caring, nurturing setting. Were they deceived?

Is that your CYA paragraph to protect you from the militant delicates at your school?

Jon Burack said...

I never realized that old "Children of the Damned" movie from my youth was serious social prophecy.

"It's Them or Us."

Seriously, I think the Atlantic article linked to nails it with the concept of "vindictive protectiveness." I can't accept that it's just because of parental over-protectiveness of recent decades. That parental anxiety has deeper roots - and it's not just because the world out there really is all that more dangerous. Look at one of the earlier manifestations of this spirit - the witch hunt day care center hysteria of the 1980s. Those were totally "safe spaces." The most revealing moment in the clips is when one of these children starts talking about how Yale is no longer the safe home she wants. I cannot imagine my Sixties generation of student ever wanting any such thing. We wanted good grades and to be left alone.

Chris N said...

I'll take Althouse's point: If you're that girl who shouted, it's better to learn some cold, hard facts now, rather than later.

Yale puts a price on having you there, and it's about 'diversity' and the color of your skin to a large extent. They have to. Treat it like a transaction and get the best education you can. Maybe you'll never be 'in the club,' but if you can, win with your smarts and discipline. Cunning if you have to.

Some people really don't feel comfortable around you because you're black, and a cold civility is probably more honest than a forced smile or the white guilt diversity shuffle when the social justice justice violins are played. Lots of bullshit in this world, and plenty from both sides of the race hustle game.

Some of the ideas I presume you've been following because your're in that courtyard shouting at a man you barely know a from within a veil of tears, thise ideas put a price on you as well, aiming to keep you in a little ghetto where other good minds don't really respect you.

There are plenty of useful idiots and bleeding hearts floating around, so take what they can give, but deep down, don't lose sight of these truths.

Welcome to adulthood.

Chris N said...

And don't pull this bullshit on me...

Jon Burack said...

Also, frankly, I think there's a lot of b.s. here about this being all because of blacks and because of the affirmative action pressures on them when they find themselves in schools a bit over their head. I agree that is a problem and it is a profound disservice done them by the entire affirmative action regime. But this same "vindictive protectiveness" is being manifested all over the place by white kids as well - for instance, the entire anti-Semitic BDS movement is replete in many places with angry, shouting, viciously proud pretenders to being among the downtrodden of the earth, or their champions. Something else is at work here, and it is not limited to any "them" among us.

As to how Yale advertised itself to them, it's a good question. Yale is obviously complicit in this budding spirit of fascism. The prof in the video is in many ways the WORST person there. His only response to this mob should have been "Back off or I dail 911 and get the cops in her pronto."

mezzrow said...

Sounds like the Missouri football team has applied the same tactic without the profanity.

They should have more leverage because slavery. Interesting times.

They also have something to withhold that people want to see and that has a direct economic impact on the university. Not that they see any of that money. Well, not legally.

See above for forward-loaded slavery reference, which I suspect has been rolled out by some savvy columnist by now regarding their compensation by the university... Their coaches clearly understand who has all the leverage in this. In an academic setting, anything less than total capitulation will be acceptable.

Stay tuned.

mezzrow said...

gah... (looks for edit button) That's nothing less than total capitulation, of course.

iowan2 said...

Its impossible for me to square my knowledge of the founding of this great nation, the ideals layed out in the constitution, with what this college students want the nation to be.

khesanh0802 said...
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khesanh0802 said...

@MayBee: "What is the source of this thinking? From where does it come?

A combination of participation trophies (you showed up!), zero tolerance policies (eliminates judgement), and over emphasis on the aggrieved (you can't say Merry Christmas, you can't question why someone has a "support" ferret)"

Simple explanation, but perfect.

Gahrie said...

Is that your CYA paragraph to protect you from the militant delicates at your school?

Actually, it appears to be a very thinly veiled passive-aggressive attack on those students, with plausible deniability built in if she gets called on it.

mtrobertslaw said...

What do leftists do when they get power? More often than not, they start killing people whose ideas they find "offensive".

Real American said...

the Ivy League is just a network of day care centers. what a bunch of fucking crybaby losers!

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

The brat could be Marilyn Mosby's little sister. At least she'll have an excuse besides her lack of intelligence when she flunks out.

SGT Ted said...


"Concept of "safe place" seems to have been taken from vocabulary of battered women's shelters. Now applied generally, has lost meaning."

The entire campus leftwing enterprise is composed of terms misappropriated from psychological and psychiatric diagnosis and treatment of the mentally damaged.

Front and center is the misuse of terms surrounding those that have severe PTSD to apply to their political opponents, as well as ordinary dissent in the bald effort to censor and control speech they don't like. "Triggering", etc are directly lifted from the symptoms of severe PTSD. It's all about wielding power and coercing authority to go along with their end game of totalitarian speech controls.

SGT Ted said...

It also caters to the notion of inherent victimhood if you are a woman or non-white skin color, regardless of growing up privileged and with equal rights.

Nurse Rooke said...

At Yale this past Friday more mayhem ensued at a session sponsored by the student-run William F Buckley Jr Program and FIRE on --wait for it-- free speech. The Yale Daily News just came out with a report. http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2015/11/07/students-protest-buckley-talk/ I bet we'll be hearing more about this tomorrow.

Robert Cook said...

"COOKIE for PREZ!"

Thank you, thank you...but I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of any party for any term as President.

Jupiter said...

Quayle said...
"I thought I heard a cry of pretty deep pain - as deep as her soul maybe, ..."

"And remember, that a walk through the depths of most souls would not even get your feet wet."

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...


"Where do you get the idea that this hellcow scored well on her SATs, or had good grades in high school? Does she look Chinese?"

Funny because it's true. Was visiting the boy up at the U-Dub yesterday. Discounting the fans rolling up for the Utah game, the people walking around campus and studying in the libraries were mostly Asians. It was so striking that I started looking for Black folks. I saw four in two hours of walking around campus. Where else would that be possible in Seattle on a Saturday afternoon? Anecdotal, I know.

Like Olympia (and Madison, I imagine), Seattle welcomes Black folks but sure as hell isn't going to let them actually run things.

Rick said...

Maybe some other schools offered a challenging intellectual environment and they passed on it, preferring a caring, nurturing setting. Were they deceived?

Why would this matter? Even if you were promised a nurturing environment it would still be irrational to conclude nurturing precludes Halloween costumes.

This seems like a dodge to avoid a criticism that might endanger your brand.

OGWiseman said...

I'm late to the party here, but as to the expectations that potential students should have had at Yale, this is from the article:

"Recall that Yale is the source of one of the most glowing statements in support of free expression in higher education. The statement, based on the university’s 1975 Woodward Report, demonstrates the need to be free to “think the unthinkable, discuss the unmentionable, and challenge the unchallengeable.” It even goes so far as to inform Yale students that “when you agree to matriculate, you join a community where ‘the provocative, the disturbing, and the unorthodox’ must be tolerated. When you encounter people who think differently than you do, you will be expected to honor their free expression, even when what they have to say seems wrong or offensive to you.”"

So there's that.