I have a different thought. I can see how it could be scary. What if someone in 1968 was scrawling George Wallace for President? George Wallace, who said that Negroes need to learn two four-letter words: work and soap. And who fought school desegregation. It reflects a point of view that is scary.
I think it is good that some of the students on the school newspaper felt that the students who were traumatized by the chalk writings needed to grow up. Hey, some people grow up and live in a bubble. They are fragile. Not tough. It is sad, frankly.
@brantly, So what if they did? Even people who disagree with the majority are still allowed to speak out loud.
@blankmind I know. I supported the right of the Nazis to march in Skokie in the 1970s. But it is OK to acknowledge that it IS scary.
It is not up to these entitled kids to decide what language can be said on campus. Period. It’s one thing for them to express their opinions, even if they are obnoxious about it, but to get the school administration involved is too much. THAT is where they crossed the line.
the tuition/fees at Emory are $63,000.
these kids might want to focus on setting themselves up to earn money back on that investment, instead of complaining what someone wrote on the ground in chalk.
here is the school paper: http://emorywheel.com/emory-students-express-discontent-with-administrative-response-to-trump-chalkings/
Whether one likes Trump or not, he is a leading candidate running for president. What would have happened if Clinton or Sanders supporters had written in chalk in the same manner? If the response would not have been the same (which, of course, it wouldn’t have), this is crazy! Especially because there weren’t any racial references, etc. ‘Trump’ and ‘Trump 2016’ are fair game.
I don’t know anyone who attends or attended Emory but this doesn’t create a great impression.
@collage1 You are making the mistake of being too logical 
@brantly George Wallace never said that. He made the reference at a campaign rally when referring to some protesters, and given the time and context they were almost certainly white, hippie types. Here is his quote, which I found with Google:
“You come up when I get through and I’ll autograph your sandals for you. That is, if you got any on . . . You need a good haircut. That’s all that’s wrong with you. . . There are two four-letter words I bet you folks don’t know: ‘work’ and ‘soap.’”
brantly your statements are over the top and bizarre.and other than what earl van dorn stated to correct you… surely someone writing a presidential candidate’s name in chalk should not set the special snowflakes into a frenzy and the president of the school acting like a social justice warrior himself. many absurd vile racist, anti semtic, etc …things are said on a daily basis at schools like emory but it is filtered threw the the same lens that the special snowflakes and the majority of professors in the non stem departments(lack of diversity among the professors in beliefs…oh the irony) adhere to…but that is just accepted and ok on college campuses. writing trump 2016 in chalk oooo no the horror… so pathetic is the current crop of administrators, students and professors at most schools in 2016.
From what I’ve gathered from protestors on campus, “Feel the Bern” was written but was almost immediately removed. They’re bothered by the fact that “Build the Wall” and “Trump 2016” were not responded to with the same level of fervor. They’re also receiving death threats because of their decision to exercise their first amendment right. So it’s not just about trump. It’s about protesting for their views to be heard without threats of violence.
I too thought it was a joke at first until I learned more from the students, not the media.
“They’re also receiving death threats because of their decision to exercise their first amendment right. So it’s not just about trump. It’s about protesting for their views to be heard without threats of violence.”…
I doubt that…that sounds more like spin!
@zobroward Well, I’ve spoken to student protesters, so idk what else to tell you.
It is amazing how many people receive “death threats.”
Yet another occasion to be glad that I don’t use twitter.
Oh my, what if a student had a campaign button on a backpack?
This ‘safe space’ argument is getting old real fast.
The problem here is treating anything that makes someone feel uncomfortable as if it is harassment or an attempt to violate or hurt someone. Someone painting a Swaztika on the walls of let’s say the door of the Jewish Student Union is an example over the line, because the intent is to bring up the very real reality of what that symbol stood for. Putting a noose on the door of a black students dorm room is again an obvious example of that. Clarence Thomas, not exactly a big time proponent of being afraid of words making people uncomfortable, tried to convince the other conservative justices that burning a cross was not free speech, that its intent was to harass people, scare them into submission.
Yes, Trump’s rhetoric is disgusting, but simply writing “Trump 16” doesn’t have the kind of weight to it that makes it harassment or intimidation, which is where the line should be drawn. And I would argue that even putting up “Wallace 72” doesn’t have enough to put it over the line, there is a difference between a politician with vile ideas and intent to harass or intimidate someone.
Sometimes that line is not easy to validate, but my take on it is to lean in favor of not restricting speech, but rather encouraging people to fight back what makes them uncomfortable with their own, to talk about how it makes them feel rather than constantly trying to get the speech suppressed.
It is a slipperly slope, and could be used, for example, by some religious kids who think a rainbow flag or a gay pride emblem is intimidation or a mark of hate, since to them being gay is being in league with the Devil trying to destroy our world, to get it removed from anything on campus. Others might find a girl wearing a shirt that says “feminist” on it because to them, feminist means anti male, and so forth.
Where do you draw the line? Something like this happened recently where a composition student wrote a piece for a well known youth orchestra, whose main theme was about the dangers of dicatorships and fascism, and as part of it had snippets of music associated with the old Soviet Union, and similar pieces, and it had a snippet of the Horst Wessel song from Nazi Germany. Someone heard a performance of it, and objected (I don’t know if it was child of a holocaust survivor or a survivor themselves, wasn’t made clear), said it brought back bad memories and made them feel unsafe, and the organization pulled that piece from future programs because of that…and the irony being that the kids intention was about the nature of fascism and dictatorship, wasn’t exactly a paen to Nazi Germany. As John Adams said, when someone objected to what they saw as inflammatory language in the Declaration of Independence “Were in revol, dammit, we are going to have to offend somebody”. If we try and supporess speech because someone finds it obnoxious or scary simply on those grounds, the amount of constructive speech out there will be near zero, because not offending or scaring someone is a lot of people, and you end up with speech constrained by too much and very little is said.
Ralph David Abernathy IIIs untimely death to cancer 2 days before his 57th birthday was bigger news than a bunch of students who have their panties in a wad over some chalk writings of a candidate’s name. There is a funny parody of the Emory “trauma” on comedy central (not sure I can link it so won’t).
Because the truth of what is happening on campus doesn’t get people all riled up and clicking the way exaggeration does.
Over and over again we’ve seen the media report things one way when the truth on campus to be very different.
But it doesn’t stop anyone from starting these “entitled/special snowflake/sjw/touchy kids today” threads.
“Over and over again we’ve seen the media report things one way when the truth on campus to be very different.” which part is dispute?
this is what happens all the time on college campuses and this time the snowflakes and the administration got embarrassed on a national level.
the school has since apparently dropped the creepy big brother response
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/emory-suspects-follow-planned-trump-messages-37909989
Snopes is our friend: