Ugly incident at CSU Fullerton commencement
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/05/24/commencement-speaker-gets-booed-after-speaking-briefly-in-spanish-and-criticizing-trump/
Was it inappropriate for Salinas to reach out to non-engish speaking Hispanic parents? CS Fullerton has a sizable hispanic student body.
What about bringing up Donald Trump?
Were the hecklers just plain racist?
“Was it inappropriate for Salinas to reach out to non-english speaking Hispanic parents? CS Fullerton has a sizable hispanic student body.”
No, in general. Without knowing how long she spoke in spanish solely, its hard to know whether she might have crossed the line in taking it too far/too long.
“What about bringing up Donald Trump?”
Seems fair to me. If we invite people to speak, we should dictate what they speak about. I think it is a relevant issue for a journalism school made up of a large base of hispanics.
“Were the hecklers just plain racist?”
“Trash” sounds pretty racist to me. The ugly politics in our country has led to people being more willing to voice their racist and bigoted tendencies, IMO. Not a good time for our country.
It was reported that:
Should journalism students be taught to rebut political figures? What does it say about journalistic objectivity in reporting ANY KIND of news?
Would it have been appropriate for Salinas to endorse a presidential candidate in her commencement speech? What is the difference?
It seems like she gave a bilingual speech to a bilingual crowd. Good for her. We could benefit from more bilingualism in this country.
GOOD! I’m glad someone is speaking out about this. Journalists especially this time around are disgusting and normalizing a racist, misogynistic campaign. Journalists should do their job and call out politicians who are lying. They’re not doing that.
Personally, I don’t believe in heckling in a setting like this. I think a far more appropriate response is to silently turn your back on the speaker or silently leave the ceremony. This is something many grads have done with people they disagree with and I think it’s a far more powerful protest than shouting “trash.”
Maybe once she started delivering a commencement speech at an American public university in Spanish some people were offended. CSU has a sizable American student body after all.
If the audience included taxpayers of a bankrupt state (CA) they might have been stewing about CSU-Fullerton opening a new center to support the more than 800 illegal aliens that are students there. The center also assists the illegal aliens in obtaining access to financial aid. Raw nerves grate easily.
My post #1 should have stated: Seems fair to me. If we invite people to speak, we should NOT dictate what they speak about.
it would be helpful to have a transcript of what she actually said rather than a reporters brief summary of her comments.
It should be highlighted:
A few words in Spanish is not inappropriate - if they were repetitions of what was said in English.
Journalism should not be agenda driven. That is the wrong message to send to students. Journalism should treat all sides equally and go after facts.
Speaking in Spanish for part, fine. Going political, conservative or liberal, should be avoided.
Attended Elon University graduation this past Saturday - commencement speaker David Gergen announced he was forgoing giving trite advice and dedicated his entire address to the need to save NC from the road it is going down with HB2 and extreme politics. I agreed with his concepts and I understand his concern with NC heading in a wrong direction politically - but not sure it was an appropriate commencement speech. My son, however, thought it would be memorable, unlike most graduation speeches.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/david-gergen-elon-commencement_us_57430c37e4b045cc9a716a63
I wouldn’t like it if spanish spoken is more than a few words. All hispanic students speak english and some or most of their parents understand english while only a small fraction of non-hispanics may understand spanish. I am against bringing in politics but it seems to be the trend nowadays.
They encouraged a Few Words in Spanish. Completely appropriate but should have had a large screen with English translation for the non Spanish speaking who were present. Vice versa for having Spanish translation during the English portion of the speech. This would then be all inclusive.
Politics has ABSOLUTELY no place in a commencement speech toward any major, especially journalism. I lose all respect for journalists who interject opinion. . We are a diverse country and that iINCLUDES diversity in our politics and beliefs. Our country has become so divided over politics why would anyone want to encourage divisiveness.
(Disclosure: I think Donald AND Hillary are despicable)
How much of the College of Communication speech as in Spanish? Greater than 50% would be inappropriate. I assume that there are other majors in that College beside journalism. They were excluded. It would be like a business school speaker only addressing accounting majors.
I think Commencement speakers should be able to speak to graduates about anything they feel is important to students going out into the real world - that is why they get invited.
Good on both Salinas and Gergan.
“Should journalism students be taught to rebut political figures? What does it say about journalistic objectivity in reporting ANY KIND of news?”
Oh course they should be taught that. It’s important that journalists not only question but call out politicians on their statements and policies and rebut their version of the facts when necessary.
No, we could benefit from every resident of this country being able to speak English.
I strongly believe that commencement speeches should not be used to espouse any speaker’s personal platform/interests etc. The best commencement speeches focus on congratulations and some advice for the graduates.
The article says that her speech to the College of Communications congratulated only Latino graduates and had a large chunk of it in Spanish - That is NOT appropriate. To ignore the other students is highly inappropriate.
I also think the commencement speech should be about the students and not about politics.
Yes, a political speech is not inclusive of all the graduates.
@emilybee wrote
You say that because you agree with the politics of the speakers. My head would spin at how fast your tune would change if the commencement speaker made some Right-leaning speech…