[1493] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: What we may have missed
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Ray Jones)
Wed Oct 8 15:33:24 2003
Date: Wed, 8 Oct 2003 13:15:52 -0400
From: Ray Jones <thouis@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
In-Reply-To: <p05010407bba9d045a31a@[18.53.1.126]>
"Robert M. Randolph" <randolph@MIT.EDU> writes:
> In a perfect world people might respond to these words and gestures
> in a salutary fashion, but it is impossible to always be responding
> to the ignorance and insensitivity of others. That is why we have
> systems in place that deal with issues like harassment,
> intimidation, etc. It is appropriate that those systems work here.
I fail to see how a single message rises to harassment or
intimidation. Personal affront was taken by some, but probably this
was a matter of lack of consideration on the authors' part, rather
than an explicit attempt to hurt others. The message was not from one
in a position of power to a subordinate, it wa not repeatedly sent
despite requests to desist, and it certainly wasn't so offensive to
rise to instance harassment.
Personally, I find the message the administration is sending much more
offensive. "The sacred cows must be respected. Offend a minority
group, and get resensitized. Don't rock the boat. Don't embarass the
institute."
Personally, I think the authors should carefully consider their
motives and reasons for writing the invitation the way they did, and
should probably feel some shame about the offense they caused. That
could result in some true learning and understanding on their part.
An adminsitrative response cheapens and dirties that process, robbing
it of its effectiveness. The only lesson that students can reliably
take away from such a process is that it's okay to think some things,
just don't say them where anyone else can hear.
Ray Jones
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