Smith College Paper Considers the Word 'Crazy' an 'Ableist Slur'
The campus far-left: Ruining the English language for all of us. This story—an argument between the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and Smith College, a women's liberal arts school—is as insane an example of the zeal for self-censorship at college campuses as any.
Here's what happened: Wendy Kaminer, a First Amendment expert and member of FIRE's board of advisors, participated in a discussion about free speech at Smith College in September. Kaminer was unafraid to use the words n*gger and c*nt—instead of their frequent replacements, "the n-word" and "the c-word"—reasoning that saying the words aloud should be perfectly acceptable in an academic context. Hurling insults is one thing; addressing a taboo word in an intellectual setting is quite another, she said.
The usual outrage ensued. Kaminer was accused of committing "an explicit act of racial violence" by a student with a poor grasp of what violence entails. Smith College President Kathleen McCartney was criticized for not denouncing Kaminer—presumably, the muzzlers would have wanted her to yell "shush!" at the first sign of controversy.
But perhaps the most incredible facet of the debacle was the Smith College student newspaper's transcript of the Kaminer discussion, which was prefaced by the mother of all trigger warnings:
Racism/racial slurs, ableist slurs, antisemitic language, anti-Muslim/Islamophobic language, anti-immigrant language, sexist/misogynistic slurs, references to race-based violence, references to antisemitic violence.
You would be forgiven for thinking all this is absolutely crazy. Of course, if you expressed that sentiment at Smith College, you would be censored. Indeed, the word crazy was also deemed offensive. In that very same paper, the transcriber replaced all utterance of the word "crazy" with [ableist slur]. According to FIRE:
This censored transcript is therefore itself an excellent example of how censorship hurts dialogue. All instances of "nigger" are written as "[n-word]." Kaminer's use of the word "cunt"—which she used one time, to clarify a student's reference to "the c-word," was written as "[c-word]," resulting in this line in the transcript:
WK: And by, "the c-word," you mean the word [c-word]?
Clarification was evidently needed, considering that another c-word was also censored from the transcript:
Kathleen McCartney: … We're just wild and [ableist slur], aren't we?
That's right, wild and crazy. It took my colleagues and me a moment to figure that one out (it is audible in the audio recording of the panel). Despite this word apparently being too offensive to reproduce in the transcript, it was spoken by all three of the other panelists besides Kaminer, in addition to President McCartney.
It's impossible to overstate the sickly condition of the free exchange of ideas at the modern college campus. Harvey Silverglate, chairman of FIRE's board, diagnosed the problem excellently in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed titled "Liberals Are Killing the Liberal Arts." Silverglate used a metaphor of which I am also fond: Campus censors are like the cowardly wizards of the Harry Potter universe who are too afraid to speak the name of the dark lord, Voldemort, instead referring to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who. Harry Potter and some of his allies, however, are unafraid to utter his name. They correctly reason that making a word unsayable gives it undue power over their emotions.
If only college students were half as wise.
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These people are retarded.
You are niggardly in your praise, Hugh.
What a maroon…
They’re crazy cunts!
All I heard was [ableist slur] [c-word].
You don’t call retarded people retards. It’s bad taste. You call your friends retards when they’re acting retarded.
“If only college students were half as wise.”
Then they wouldn’t be wasting their time and money at a liberal arts college, would they?
There are still liberal arts colleges
that take the “sciences” part of “liberal arts and sciences” seriously.
And there is nothing wrong with liberal arts studies, per se. There are just too many people studying them for silly reasons, largely due to silly ways of funding education.
Sorry, I should have said “at THIS liberal arts college”.
Smith used to be a fine institution too. I think that remaining an all female institution probably helped to guarantee that it would be run by only the most insane feminists. That’s just a hunch on my part.
Then they wouldn’t be wasting their time and money at a liberal arts college, would they?”
That is a large part of the problem.
In the main it’s not their money and youth sees little value to time.
I sadly agree with you. Even if it is their money, it’s in the form of student loans which won’t even require payments until years after they have graduated with their useless degrees. Then they’ll demand their debts be wiped out.
It’s a bunch of silly girls at a silly girls’s college. Of course they’re crazy! 🙂 ……. Looks around to see if wife is nearby ……..
Racism/racial slurs, ableist slurs, antisemitic language, anti-Muslim/Islamophobic language, anti-immigrant language, sexist/misogynistic slurs, references to race-based violence, references to antisemitic violence.
Not so much a trigger as a starter pistol going off, springing loose the outrage relay team.
That’s just crazy.
*jsut
thank you – Jack Frapp is NOT gonna leik that one bit
This bit is 50 years old. I’ll bet Bruce didn’t think it would still be relevant 50 years later.
What kind of rag-headed crazy motherfucker would even give cunts like this the time of day?
Tariq Ramadan?
Hitler?
They’ve made a huge mistake.
I see what you did there,
I don’t even have words for how retarded and useless these people are. If these people had lived in any other civilization throughout history, they would have gotten themselves killed long ago.
I have to wonder just how crazy the idle classes got in Rome before the barbarians kicked their doors in. Somehow, I’m thinking even the most lead-poisoned uncle fuckers of ancient Rome would look at this shit and say “by Jove, these SJW’s are idiots!”
-jcr
Peak retard.
Yeah, but they jinxed the name “Voldermort” and used it track down the resistance, so what does that tell you, Robby? Huh? Huh?
Good lord, I was in college only 8 years ago, and it was just absurdly easy to get cocaine and pussy. I don’t remember anyone protesting shit, just work, vodka and snatch.
Wop’s up? How’s your dago?
I guess we’re all a minority somehow.
And I guess that makes everything offensive to somebody. I know I find attacks on individual rights highly offensive.
“Wendy Kaminer, a First Amendment expert and member of FIRE’s board of advisors, participated in a discussion about free speech”
I would bet that for half the audience, at least, the presumption was that the First Amendment shouldn’t protect hate speech in any context.
“Hurling insults is one thing; addressing a taboo word in an intellectual setting is quite another, she said.”
She’s right about that. And, presumably, she was referring to the words rather than directing them at anybody.
There’s a big difference.
+1
They’ll often throw “white” in if its on the internets.
Right, sorry. I should have assumed by your WASPy cishet shitlord name.
You don’t have to be white to be a cishet shitlord, but it helps.
My cisphobia, misandry, and heterophobia are completely ironic, obviously. None of those can actually exist because cishet white males are privileged.
In fact, entertaining the possibility that there are contexts where they do exist is just proof that you’re a typical white cishet shitlord. Go back to your mother’s basement and whack off to hentai. No one loves you.
I was called a shitlord in real life by this male-identifying creature named Blue. I burst out laughing. I didn’t realize for some people this is religion.
Please tell me there’s a video.
I guess we’re all a minority somehow
The individual is the smallest minority, but progs have no respect for this minority.
And by, “the c-word,” you mean the word [c-word]?
And by “cunt,” you mean the word “coon”?
(Removing the extraneous comma for the English-deficient transcriber.)
I haz a sad especially because an ACTUAL “liberal arts” course of undergrad study can/used to be hugely valuable prep for MASTERS work in a specific course of study. My undergrad was LA, and we had nearly 100% placement into medical and law schools, 100% into dental…plus all the sciences and “social sciences” masters programs. Key was you had to take science, math, etc and demonstrate proficiency – there was no escape from the “hard sciences”.
But if you think a bachelors in “Gender Studies” or anything like it is sufficient – yeah, you’re gonna have trouble in the real world.
PS I forgot the trigger warning – “contains explicit discussion of difficult academic studies and doesn’t give two shits about your ‘feelings'”
“But if you think a bachelors in “Gender Studies” or anything like it is sufficient – yeah, you’re gonna have trouble in the real world.”
It used to be they could get jobs in, like, book stores and record stores and stuff.
Nowadays, I think they mostly have to work as, like, baristas at Starbucks and stuff.
I’m sure your gender studies degree was key to helping you escape the patriarchy–now get me a chai latte with no soy, and hurry the fuck up, you stupid…
Well, it’s still better than a theater degree.
I disagree. A theater degree actually implies some kind of useful skill.
If you are going into work in the theater.
Things may have changed, but the conventional wisdom used to be that most BA degrees are about equally helpful in the general job market, but certain specialized arts degrees like theater or musical performance were less so.
I’m doubtful that a theater degree is less employable than a gender studies degree.
Maybe you can act competent – big advantage over a gender / race degree.
Nowadays, they are journalists.
It’s pretty strange(or maybe not?) how everything has come full circle…It used to be that the religious/conservative camps were censoring language, sex, art, and music. Now, the progressives are limiting sexual freedom (you can’t consent if you’ve had a drink) and language (examples above).
It’d be funny if it wasn’t happening to a society I lived in. Maybe it’s time to remake Footloose but this time have the progressives outlaw dancing.
YES- because not everyone can dance well. It would be like footloose crossed with Harrison Bergeron- where Kevin Bacon is made to wear ankle shackles.
BRILLIANT!
What would take the place of the Bible-quoting speech? Kevin Bacon being burned at the stake for daring to question the progressive orthodoxy? There is no principled objection that the PC nazis will consider to make them question their ideology.
Some speech delivered by a black woman which said that Kevin Bacon wasn’t entitled to a public voice about the issue, because of his white male privilege.
Re: JEP,
Demonstrations of freedom, however small, are always perceived by authoritarians of every stripe as threatening to an good and ordered society, JEP.
The difference between the two groups is that the conservatives do not control the academic institutions; the chauvinistic Left does.
you can’t consent if you’ve had a drink
…only if you are of the Double-X chromosome persuasion.
Well, remember, New York City has cabaret laws on the books.
Dancing is ableist.
They didn’t list “hypersensitive infants” so I can use that one right?
Wtf ever happened to “sticks and stones may break by bones but words can never hurt me”?
We have lost the desire to achieve toughness and replaced it with the desire to be whiny pussies.
All is lost.
Good luck in the real world, kids.
Working in the library profession, I get this tripe every single day. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.
I want these people to wear buttons that say “trigger warning: likely to incite your rage with my perfect combination of condescending arrogance and horrible ignorance.”
When I was a kid (not that long ago, really) I was taught to respond to mean words with “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” “I am rubber and you are glue; whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you”, and “I know you are, but what am I?” were also useful.
Seriously, what are kids being taught these days?
How long until they demand dictionaries come with trigger warnings, or simply omit harmful words? Newspeak here we come.
I kinda wish that we could separate the act of trying to be considerate of people with mental illnesses, disabilities, or whatever from soft censorship.
Fuck, I was trying to write something the other day about sexual abuse, and I knew my audience well enough to know that a trigger warning would be much appreciated. Yet I can’t do that without implicitly endorsing the mandatory trigger warning posse.
This is going to turn out as well as back when we decided the two options were “be mean to gays” and “charge people with felonies for being mean to gays.”
I wish it were understood among libertarians that the type of voluntary civil society that we advocate to replace coercion ASSUMES a (diverse, federalized, voluntary, emergent) framework of rules that prevent conflicts and help resolve them when they come up. Politeness is one of those frameworks.
It’s not a popular thing to advocate because most of us in the libertarian world got here by not giving a fuck about what other people think is proper. We have a tendency to assume that courtesy is a stalking horse for coercively enforced values–correctly, in many cases, because it often is. But we don’t have to play that game.
This Scott Alexander joint about niceness is probably what inspired me to say this.
Addendum: This isn’t about toughness vs demanding that the world accommodate you, either. Toughness absolutely has a place in a sane system of etiquette. However, the speaker has a role, too.
“It’s not a popular thing to advocate because most of us in the libertarian world got here by not giving a fuck about what other people think is proper.”
Not sure about this assertion. I think we’re well aware and sympathetic of people with serious mental and physical handicaps. But we respect them enough not to patronize them either. It’s a careful balance indeed.
As for using words like cunt, nigger and whatever else, the point is A) understanding the proper use and context of such words B) freedom to use them and C) Learning to cope with words that can be offensive.
I’d rather they be used than censored.
Oh. And it sooo very easy and tempting to mock these sonsofbitches by using the words for their own sake.
I’m thinking about your choice of the word patronizing, which gets at something disturbing in the leftist Oppression Olympics. They’ve set up a culture where you either get accommodated and even coddled, or you are dismissed as privileged and are expected to take abuse in order to make room for the others. Rational self-interest requires that when possible, you play up your grievances so that you don’t get shafted. Making it is taken as a sign that your grievance isn’t as bad, so you have to lower your defenses and actually take obvious damage in order to survive in that environment.
It reminds me of Starnesville in Atlas Shrugged.
Leftists manage to patronize just about anyone or thing.
But there’s a difference between not letting societal expectations be absolute, and thinking they’re unhelpful.
Outside of Reason, this isn’t a controversial proposition among libertarians. Libertarianism can suit a huge variety of personal lifestyles and approaches without endorsing one over another. There seems to still be a leftover pissing match going on between the Reason editorial staff and the ghost of Rothbard’s “paleolibertarianism”, such that it is taken for granted that in order to establish one’s libertarian bonafides one must necessarily live as a socially uncouth libertine. While that is where all the action is on the political and legal fronts (not to mention making for snazzier headlines), honestly, how many people do you actually know who fit that stereotype?
? G.K. Chesterton
I’m sure most of us have enough discretion not to walk up to a kid with Down’s syndrome and call him a retard just to demonstrate that we can.
You are right, politeness is important. Which is why it is so important to recognize and point out that the censorship crowd isn’t trying to encourage polite and civil discourse. They are trying to marginalize and destroy any discourse that they disapprove of. And they are doing it in a decidedly impolite and uncivil way, to say the least.
Nigger, cunt, raghead, spic, chick, fag, man/woman is the new “shit, fuck, cock, cunt, motherfucker, cocksucker and….tits”.
What’s a raghead? Someone who can’t afford a bandana?
Cunt is the new cunt?
In that very same paper, the transcriber replaced all utterance of the word “crazy” with [ableist slur].
That’s nice.
But, what happens when “c-word” becomes offensive?
The c-w-word?
The word formerly known as c-word?
[Silent Pause]?
Like Prince, we’ll have to turn it into a symbol. Something like this, perhaps {(‘)}
I like that. Now do it with a Brazilian wax!
If they consider “crazy” bad, better not tell them about the maniacs. Probably make their heads explode from the righteous indignation.
Cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt…just checking to see if it loses any meaning….cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt…someone told me if you overuse a word it becomes meaningless…cunt…cunt…cunt…
/grows weary.
“Hurling insults is one thing; addressing a taboo word in an intellectual setting is quite another, she said.”
I’m sure there are plenty of racists who don’t understand the distinction between talking about these words and using them to express racism, too.
That means the worst part of it is that when they overreact to the use of these words in an academic context, it makes reacting to racism at all look ridiculous to a lot of racists, too.
It’s far more important for racists to understand the distinction between uses than it is for non-racists to never use the words, not even in an academic context. These anti-racists are just shooting themselves in the foot.
“never rears its vicious head again.”
Oogah boogah! Save me, somebody!
Looking more around that site, it seems that the people that write for this “independent newspaper” are clinically [ableist slur]. The best (worst?) example I’ve found:
We shouldn’t allow competition/Uber, because reasons, and because it may piss off taxi drivers which would lead to revolution
“Competition, and capitalism more broadly, are inherently destructive. Uber and the cab companies provide an almost identical service and in a free market they both have a right to operate. Many people assert that Uber is simply the way of the future, and that the cab companies should not become complacent. It is in the interest of the capitalist to keep drivers’ wages low. This competition with Uber is just part of an overall process that makes workers desperate and alienated. We should not be content with a system that assumes this is acceptable. However, Marx might argue that this competition is a necessary part of history. Competition with Uber could lead to higher rates of unemployment, which could then lead to desperation, which will ultimately end in revolution.”
I don’t know who to feel more sorry for = her high school economics teacher? or her college Marxist lecturer. She has failed them both in dramatic fashion.
Even worse… contemplate the horror embedded deep in this opening sentence =
“This summer I was fortunate enough to be a part of the Union Scholars Program for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.”
Smith College is on the same tier of lunacy as Oberlin. I’m friends with a few Smith College alumni, and the damage from those years sticks with those ladies in some pretty profound ways.
unafraid to use the words n*gger and c*nt
But you are. Pussy.
addressing a taboo word in an intellectual setting is quite another, she said.
Haven’t you heard? “Intellectual Settings” now revolve around your FEELZ.
accused of committing “an explicit act of racial violence”
You were SO VIOLENT by doing NOTHING VIOLENT!
the word crazy was also deemed offensive.
That’s ok. I prefer the term “fucking retarded”.
instead referring to him as He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named or You-Know-Who
If you say his name 3 times in front of the mirror…
If only college students were half as wise.
Many would, likely, not be in college.
prefaced by the mother of all trigger warnings
I was really hoping that this was going to be some pc fad that would blow over after the people pushing were enlightened as to what fucking retarded pussies they are to not even posses the emotional control of a toddler. To say that they do would be an insult to toddlers. Words are words. So, either counter, with an argument, what was said that you don’t like or shut the fuck up and deal with it. Censorship will only worsen your emotional disposition. Also, there’s that silly little thing about promoting free speech in a free society.
//EndRant
Cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt, cunt…
I hear that in the style of the Monty Python Vikings.
Spammity SPAAAAAAAM! Cuntity CUUUUUUUUUNT!
I live about 10 minutes from Smith Collage.
These things that in habit it, teach at it and come out of it are so far left all they can do is walk circles.
Funny that a few “choice” words are seen as violent.
Looks like the “SLUGS” need to do some growing up. (SLUGS stands for Smith Lesbian Until Graduation)
So, college students don’t learn the distinction between use and mention anymore? Or do they really think that the words have magical powers? If you are talking about use of a word like “nigger” it is absurd not to mention the actual word.
I also happen to think that considering certain words completely bad and off-limits like this just serves to give the words more power. “Nigger” and “cunt” are probably the most unacceptable dirty words in American English today (nobody actually cares about “fuck” or “shit” anymore, do they?). Working hard at keeping them that way just gives assholes a tool they can use to upset people. Why do you want to do that?
I also happen to think that considering certain words completely bad and off-limits like this just serves to give the words more power.
See above.
I’ll have to watch later. I’m sure Bruce won’t disappoint.
“So, college students don’t learn the distinction between use and mention anymore? Or do they really think that the words have magical powers?”
Oh, they understand the distinctions, and they will be the first to start to prioritize ‘intent’ and ‘context’ when it suits them…
…but when you realize that the entire point of their idiotic Witch-Hunt over language has nothing to do with words so much as the DESIRE TO CONTROL IDEAS
The threat to these Smithies was not that Wendy Kaminer ‘used these words’, but that she was *ignoring their arbitrary controls*, and challenging their authority to dictate how these ideas were to be treated.
The problem was in the very title of the discussion itself = “Challenging The Ideological Echo Chamber”
Obviously, the people who benefit from an Echo chamber were *not amused*, and decided to wield the very tools of censorship and moral outrage that Kaminer was suggesting *they use too often*
So, would Smith College’s SJW’s be more or less offended if I called them “batshit insane”?
-jcr
The “Society To End Guano-Slander” has filed a complaint over your remarks….
How about “Barking dog insane”?
I can see the headlines now:
“Smith College student shot by police for being ‘barking dog [ableist slur]’.”
That’s ableist and Chiropterist!
The word may be wielded as a weapon but its ability to be so is wholly dependent on the one that hears it. That’s the part that makes these nitwits crazy. Yawn and move on in the conversation and remove all power from the person using the word.
The pedant in me wants to point out that “crazy” is a neurotypicalist slur, not an ableist slur.
To me it also seemed a little strange for the “ableist” label.
Bring the pedantry. We can handle it.
It’s nice to know what our next generation of journalists is going to be like.
“It’s nice to know what our next generation of journalists is going to be like.”
None of them will be journalists.
That is a job for “other” people.
“but when you realize that the entire point of their idiotic Witch-Hunt over language has nothing to do with words so much as the DESIRE TO CONTROL IDEAS”
Bingo!
And the rabid left “teachers” and future “social workers” coming out of places like Smith want to control Everything they can. Especially opposing viewpoints and “non OK lifestyles”
This post needed a trigger warning. Now that I’ve been triggered, I’m going to have to go lie down for the rest of the day.
The funniest part is, the joke’s on the students.
If they had two brain cells to rub together, they’d realize that, you know, there’s not really much of a future in the perpetually offended industry.
However, I do like it when I can get a mini-lecture on offensive-speech/race/gender issues from my local liberal arts major/barista. Thanks for the mini-education. Now, I’m off to make more money this week than you’ll see in a year. Keep that coffee coming, you cappuccino master.
Seriously: 30 minutes after writing this, I just had my hair cut… by an economist.
Supply and demand are a bitch, ain’t they?
Did he notice any hair distribution disparities?
I’m not sure, but she did give a great scalp massage.
All those years she spend studying definitely paid off for me.
I’m jealous the SJW type. I truly am. Me? I have shit I have to worry about. I’ve got rent, and utilities, and bills, and groceries I have to constantly dump my paychecks on. My car has gremlins that can get expensive fast. I’m job hunting in a shit economy. Gotta get laid too from time to time too…
All of that burns up time, energy, and mental effort for me. To have all of that figured out to the extent that you can afford to waste energy on bitching and griping about the “social ills” of a certain combination of phonetics is a luxury that I’ll never know.
Well judging by past experience, a lot of them make time, by avoiding unnecessary activities. Grooming, bathing and working come to mind.
Look at the bright side: Whereas before, you could crank call asking if “Mike Hunt” was there, now you can use such new ones as “Harry Seaward”.
“Kaminer was unafraid to use the words n*gger and c*nt”
Too bad you are. What a shame.
Pierre
Reality is “ableist”; thus the pathetic attempt of the leftoids to evade it by trying to turn human ability into a vice (and a liability).
We are supposed to pretend that human ability is unreal, since it conflicts with their tribal egalitarian premises (which are actually unreal); that is the level of mindless debauchery to which they have attempted to reduce man (and succeeded among themselves).
my neighbor’s mother-in-law makes $71 /hr on the internet . She has been without work for 6 months but last month her payment was $19842 just working on the internet for a few hours. check this site out…..
?????? http://www.payinsider.com
I’m [ableist slur]
[ableist slur]for feeling so lonely
I’m [ableist slur]
[ableist slur]for feeling so blue…
College students ought to start practicing Moroni-talk, like in Johnny Dangerously. Farging bastiches, corksucking iceholes and the like.
When I was taking my college courses in Biology (more specifically Human Anatomy -Cadaver dissection) I saw my professor with a bunch of college newspapers.
I asked her if the papers where from some sort of reading,
The response?
“Heavens no, I’m using these papers for all they are good for. That is to cover the floor during the dissection.”
Well now that’s just censorship gone [ableist slur]. What a bunch of @[f-word]ing [c-word]s.