Quartz Defends Emphatic Correctness

Many criticize the rise of emphatic correctness which is s sort of radical mutation of political correctness. President Obama has, many liberals have. I did earlier this morning.

http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2015/12/jerelyn-luther-is-not-liberal.html

To be sure EC also has its defenders. It's argued taht this is a legitimate refusal on the part of African-American students to any longer accept racism.

"Campus political correctness is no threat, it’s a wish for a better future."

"The zeal with which students have called for these changes—and their surprising success—is reminiscent of the debate over the Confederate flag in the wake of the Charleston shootings this summer. Initial calls to ban the flag were met with resistance, but were quickly overcome by a swelling tide of voices both online and in real life demanding the flag be outlawed and removed."

"The rhetoric of student protesters across the country this fall has taken on the life or death tenor befitting such an endeavor."

"It is the same tone that characterized the fight to ban the Confederate flag this summer, only this time it has resulted in the protesters being characterized as hyperbolic, naïve “social justice warriors.” In a column for New York Magazine, Jonathan Chait warned against the threat student protesters’ “hypersensitivity” poses to “free speech,” and Conor Friedersdorf has condemned students’ preoccupation with ideology in the Atlantic."

"In the case of the debate over the Confederate flag, no one could say its dramatic tone was misplaced: nine deaths in Charleston preceded it. But in the case of the events at Yale, for example, it was a seemingly well-intentioned letter to a college of students that precipitated the eruption of what has turned into a bitter argument over cultural sensitivity and exclusion. This has led to critics labeling the students as immature. For those unfamiliar with what happened at Yale in October, Freidersdorf’s article offers a nice recap. He rightly characterizes the letter written by Erika Christakis (who has decided not to teach next year) as “level-headed,” but misunderstands the students who reacted to it."

http://qz.com/568047/campus-political-correctness-is-no-threat-its-a-move-for-a-better-future/

It's here that Quartz loses me. To put the Confederate flag flying in the SC capital with that teacher's email just shows a case of gross disproportion. I think there are many liberals like me who were totally for the CF being taken down who feel like maybe we don't' know what planet we're on when such an innocent well-meaning letter leads to such violent recriminations and demands for immediate terminations.

And what's further shocking is that these students like Jerelyn Luther won. Even after Erika Christakis' husband was forced to apologize he was still forced out for a 'sabbatical' and his wife as fired. Ok, they say resigned' but surely she was asked to.

It's hard to see a world where students have this power to just destroy anyone they want is a better world. The asymmetric response is what is so disquieting. When a well meant email is treated as if its writer is a KKK member, there's something skewed.

Then there are all the demands for striking the names of this or that historical figure off of this or that building. I admit the question of whether Woodrow Wilson should continue to be on the building at Yale is a matter of opinion.

For me the calculus is that the Confederate Flag was a racist symbol, full stop. It might be different if it really was a part of SC tradition since the Civil War but it actually was put up just in 1962 so it clearly was a protest against civil rights.

So my sense of rough justice is that the purpose of the CF was racist. Woodrow Wilson on the other hand isn't honored or remembered because he was a racist and even if in his bid to keep the Southern Democrats of his time he had rolled back racial progress in some very unfortunate ways you have to weigh against this all the positive contributions he made to Yale, to the progressive movement and to the country.

A lot of important aspects of modern liberalism begun under Wilson-the Federal Reserve, the income tax, progressive taxation.

To say all that is simply erased by his admittedly problematic racial record I disagree with or at least it's not to me nearly the open and shut case that the CF is.