{"id":33168,"date":"2024-04-25T10:45:47","date_gmt":"2024-04-25T17:45:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=33168"},"modified":"2024-04-25T10:45:48","modified_gmt":"2024-04-25T17:45:48","slug":"protesting-against-slaughter-as-students-in-the-us-are-doing-isnt-antisemitism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/04\/25\/protesting-against-slaughter-as-students-in-the-us-are-doing-isnt-antisemitism\/","title":{"rendered":"Protesting Against Slaughter \u2013 as Students in the US Are Doing \u2013 Isn\u2019t Antisemitism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Robert Reich\/Guardian UK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ProtestingFormer Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell\/Toronto Star)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

24 april 24<\/strong> (RSN.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Education is all about provocation. Without being provoked even young minds can remain stuck in old tracks<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The most important thing I teach my students is to seek out people who disagree with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because the essence of learning is testing one\u2019s ideas, assumptions and values. And what better place to test ideas, assumptions and values than at a university?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apparently, Columbia University<\/a>\u2019s president, Minouche Shafik, does not share my view. Last week she prostrated herself before House Republicans, promising that she would discipline professors and students for protesting against the ongoing slaughter in Gaza in which some 34,000 people have died, most of them women and children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following day she summoned the New York police department to arrest more than 100 students who were engaging in a peaceful protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can we be clear about a few things? Protesting against this slaughter is not <\/em>expressing antisemitism. It is not <\/em>engaging in hate speech. It is not <\/em>endangering Jewish students. It is doing what should<\/em> be done on a college campus \u2013 taking a stand against a perceived wrong, thereby provoking discussion and debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Education is all about provocation. Without being provoked \u2013 stirred, unsettled, goaded \u2013 even young minds can remain stuck in old tracks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Israel-Hamas war is horrifying. The atrocities committed by both sides illustrate the capacities of human beings for inhumanity and show the vile consequences of hate. For these reasons, it presents an opportunity for students to re-examine their preconceptions and learn from one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Columbia or any other university now roiled by student protests were doing what it should be doing, it would be a hotbed of debate about the war. Disagreement would be welcome; demonstrations accepted; argument invited; differences examined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mission of a university is to coach students in how to learn, not tell them what to think. It is to invite debate, not suppress it. Truth is a process and method \u2013 more verb than noun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I love it when my students take issue with something that I or another student has said, starting with \u201cI disagree!\u201d and then explaining why. Disagreeing is not being disagreeable. Disagreement engenders thought and discussion. It challenges students to reconsider their positions and investigate more deeply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which is why universities should encourage and protect unpopular views. It\u2019s why unpopular speakers should be invited and welcomed to campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also why students should not be shielded from what are often carelessly termed \u201cmicro-aggressions\u201d. To be riled up is to be attentive, open to new ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And why peaceful demonstrations should be encouraged, not shut down. It is never appropriate to call in armed police to arrest peaceful student demonstrators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, it\u2019s why universities should go out of their way to tolerate expression that may make some people uncomfortable. To tar all offensive speech \u201chate speech\u201d and ban it removes a central pillar of education. Of course, it\u2019s offensive. It is designed<\/em> to offend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a limit, of course. Expression that targets specific students, \u201cdoxes\u201d them, or otherwise aims to hurt them as individuals doesn\u2019t invite learning. It is a form of intimidation. It should not be allowed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m old enough, and have been a professor long enough, to have seen campuses explode in rage \u2013 at bigots like George Wallace when he ran for president, at the horrors of the Vietnam war, at university investments in South Africa and at efforts to prevent free speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of these protests were loud. Some caused inconvenience. Some protesters took over university buildings. But most were not violent. Nor did they seek to harm or intimidate individual students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever university presidents have brought in the police, and students have been arrested and suspended, all learning has stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings me to the central role of university faculties<\/em> in protecting free expression on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That role is especially critical now, when the jobs of university presidents and trustees have degenerated mainly into fundraising \u2013 often from wealthy alumni who have their own myopic views about what sorts of speech should be allowed and what should be barred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The faculty of Columbia University has every right \u2013 and, in my view, a duty \u2013 to protect peaceful free expression at Columbia with a vote of no confidence in Shafik\u2019s leadership and seek to have her presidency terminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The faculties of Yale, NYU and other campuses now engulfed in protests about what is occurring in Gaza<\/a> should do everything in their power to use the resulting provocations, inconveniences and discomforts as occasions for learning rather than repression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robert Reich\/Guardian UK Former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich. (photo: Steve Russell\/Toronto Star) 24 april 24 (RSN.org) Education is all about provocation. Without being provoked even young minds can remain stuck in old tracks The most important thing I teach my students is to seek out people who disagree with… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33168"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33169,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33168\/revisions\/33169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}