Dear Colleges: Males Are People, Too

Dear Colleges: Males Are People, Too May 26, 2017

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Glenn Reynolds has an illuminating article in USA Today where he talks about the summer “diversity workshops” that create an even more toxic atmosphere of college life for male students.  He explains:

These workshops are advertised as teaching faculty and staff how to treat members of all racial and sexual groups with respect so as to maintain an inclusive and civil environment. They tell people what kinds of language to avoid because members of some groups might find it offensive, and they teach the importance of avoiding implicit biases and stereotyping in dealing with members of all groups.

Glen hilariously goes on to express some of the oft-overlooked terms that shuold be avoided, such as:

“Toxic masculinity.” As Toni Airaksinen has noted, this is a common and destructive concept on campus: “On college campuses across the globe, young men are treated to lectures, workshops and extracurricular activities that teach them their masculinity — an element at the very core of their identity — is dangerous, poisonous and even toxic.”

and

“Frat boy.” As historians of discrimination know, the term “boy” was used to diminish African-American males during the Jim Crow era. Applying it to members of fraternities — who may, after all, be of any race — is a similar effort to diminish. It is offensive and deeply insensitive to the Greek campus community and should be avoided.

and

Rape-gendering. It’s racist to pretend that African Americans commit the majority of rapes in America. In the Jim Crow era, exaggerated fears of rape were pinned on black men as a way of perpetuating white privilege.

Sigh…

At this point, it might appropriately considered abusive, or at least a dereliction of parental duty, to send your teenage male off to most colleges.  These colleges largely consider him to be a perpetrator of “toxic masculinity” before they even arrive.  And if he does survive without being expelled for “micro-aggressions,” he is likely to return a neutered male, and a proponent of self-hating, social justice philosophy. 

Better to send him to a trade school, where he will actually learn something of value and be employable when he graduates.

Image Credit Wikimedia


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