Rutgers: to avoid microaggressions, only speak when 'necessary'

[Damajin]

Oh shit, this brings back memories of my grandparents telling me and my siblings to only speak when spoken to. Grats Rutgers, you're taking college kids back to the lifestyle us in the 30+ bracket lived when we were 6, bravo. I'm also cracking up at the line I bolded, all those kids getting flu and fever at school it's not from tons of kids living in close proximity in typically clusterfucked and dirty dorm environments it's microaggressions that are doing it. Pretty soon that'll be justification for disability pay.

http://www.campusreform.org/?ID=8081

•Students in at least one Rutgers University residence hall are being encouraged to use only language that is “helpful” and “necessary” to avoid committing microaggressions.

•The display, which is part of the school's "Language Matters" campaign, also includes hand-written definitions of the three types of microaggressions, as well as a flyer listing potentially-offensive words and phrases.

Students in at least one Rutgers University residence hall are being encouraged to use only language that is “helpful” and “necessary” to avoid committing microaggressions.

The display, photos of which were obtained by Campus Reform, is titled “Language Matters: Think,” and was placed in the College Avenue Apartments by a resident assistant, according to a current resident of the building who does not wish to be identified.

Victims of microaggressions are “more at risk for illness & decreased immune system.”

Erected as part of the university’s “Language Matters” campaign, the bulletin board instructs students to ask themselves whether their choice of words is “true,” “helpful,” “inspiring,” “necessary,” and “kind” before speaking out, and also includes a list of potentially-offensive terms, such as “retarded” and “illegal aliens.”

The board warns students that failing to follow these guidelines could lead them to commit a microaggression, which include “microassaults,” “microinsults,” and “microinvalidations.”

Also included on the bulletin board is a flyer from the “Language Matters” campaign, an initiative launched by the Center for Social Justice Education and LGBT Communities some time during the 2015 fall semester.

The flyer, which was adapted from the University of Maryland’s “Inclusive Language Campaign,” lists various terms that some people might find offensive, presenting scenarios such as saying “he looks like a terrorist” to someone who is “a United States veteran;” using the phrase “that’s so ghetto” around someone who “grew up in poverty;” and commenting that an “exam just raped me” in the presence of “a survivor of sexual assault.”

The “Language Matters” website includes a presentation similar in nature to the flyer, outlining the “big impact” of “little things” and providing examples of the three types of microaggressions.

A microassault may include “avoiding someone,” for instance, while an example of a microinsult is telling someone they are strong for a girl. A microinvalidation, meanwhile, could involve asking an Asian or Latino person where they are from.

Simply avoiding offensive language, however, is not enough according to Rutgers, which claims that microaggressions can also be “nonverbal” and “environmental,” but fails to elaborate further.

Rutgers also has a Bias Prevention Education Team that handles reports of microaggressions and other “bias incidents,” which experienced a surge of reports after alt-right commentator Milo Yiannopoulos visited campus last semester, the anonymous student claimed. Liberal students memorably protested the event by covering themselves in fake blood, but still complained vehemently that the university had tolerated what they deemed “hate speech.”

Rutgers president Robert Bachi defended Yiannopoulos’ right to speak on campus despite expressing views that may be considered offensive, but the “Language Matters” campaign contradicts that message through 60- to 90-minute workshops examining how “negatively charged words...create a damaging environment for all of society,” during which presenters seek “to demonstrate how microagressions hinder our ability to have a diverse and inclusive society/community."

The bulletin board in the College Avenue Apartments building admits that so-called microaggressions are often unintentional, but preemptively rejects the notion that promoting inclusive language is “making a big deal out of nothing.”

According to the display, even though microaggressions are “not the same thing as hate crimes or overt bigotry,” they still affect victims “physically, emotionally, [and] behaviorally,” placing them “more at risk for illness & decreased immune system.”

Representatives for Rutgers are currently looking into the matter for Campus Reform, and have promised to provide additional details about the "Language Matters" bulletin board. This article will be updated once that information is received.

[Incredibale]

So it's just another step in censoring normal people: meaning people who don't identify as purple monkey dishwashers (or non-cisgendered, etc). The scum who come up with these social justice ideas really do know how to up-end society.

[nextormento]

I'm not sure the summation of all my microconcerns amounts to much :/
But people shutting up more often is welcomed. Particularly those that you, yes you, are thinking about.

[Jinpachi]

Time for the silent majority to slap the shit out of some people...verbally, of course. Wouldn't want to give anyone PTSD for chokin' a gender neutral bitch

[Belize]

Hey, dude, like, man come on, listen darling... How about...

No.

[nextormento]

If my Christian education made a convinced atheist out of me, I can see a future plagued with microscumbags among these students.

[Dhrizzle]

[Fincayra]

Whether you think it's hilarious or not, living in a stressful environment DOES compromise your immune system.

[Pipboi]

Best teacher I ever had frequently shouted the ears off students who stepped out of line.
One kid fell asleep in between a row of seats (lecture hall, so it was like a theater) and the teacher spent the entire 30 minute class yelling at him in front of everybody.

After the class I saw him give the kid a hug and apologize. He was a good man who cared, he just knew how to discipline young, stupid high school seniors. That's something that's severely lacking now days, because you're not allowed to yell at somebody else kid anymore. Unfortunately, their own parents are too lazy to do it themselves.

[Belize]

Whether you think it's hilarious or not, living in a stressful environment DOES compromise your immune system.

How... uh... How about teaching them to not stress out about meaningless bullshit?

Like, slap them and tell them the world isn't out to get them, then slap them again and tell them microaggressions are all madu up in their heads.

Boom. No one is stressed about anything other than academic success. Wasn't that easy.

[Gamdwelf]

More like Buttgers amirite?

[Stop Pretending]

Whether you think it's hilarious or not, living in a stressful environment DOES compromise your immune system.

Who's going to coddle these kids when they hit the real world? This is a stupid precedent.

[Mistame]

I hereby declare that the term "Microagression" be defined as "Please punch me in the face."

Whether you think it's hilarious or not, living in a stressful environment DOES compromise your immune system.

And coddling your immune system, even by proxy, will kill you when you get into the real world.

[IIamaKing]

Whoa, whoa....Lets not be too hasty here. Lets embrace this, less dumb asses talking is a GOOD thing.

[GennGreymane]

Is this one of those things that students just delete at the end of the day in their email? I got a ton of politically active friends there and this is the first I am hearing of this.

[Gmollster11]

If college kids today werent such pansies, they would push back on this BS.

[Damajin]

Whoa, whoa....Lets not be too hasty here. Lets embrace this, less dumb asses talking is a GOOD thing.

Fair point, now I am conflicted.

- - - Updated - - -

Is this one of those things that students just delete at the end of the day in their email? I got a ton of politically active friends there and this is the first I am hearing of this.

Probably, and that's actually a problem since it let's it slide under the radar of general awareness till it is used as the backdrop for some type of action against a student(s).

[dextersmith]

As if people aren't antisocial enough.

Simply avoiding offensive language, however, is not enough according to Rutgers, which claims that microaggressions can also be “nonverbal” and “environmental,” but fails to elaborate further.

Just shut down the school and make it online only.

[chrisnumbers]

It just hit me.
The government is holding young people back intellectually to keep them from growing up and making their own decisions. If they're too stupid to be adults, the government can make them do whatever they want.
I guess that's called brainwashing. Rutgers and many other universities/colleges are brainwashing their students to keep them childish. Children need to be controlled, adults don't.

RIP free world

[Sunseeker]

Great, we can assault a person by trying to not be around them.