Will on Campus Censorship

After reading Will’s insightful article on censorship on college campuses I find myself in complete agreement with his point that the prevailing mood on campuses has given rise to rules on sensitivity that are in fact censorship on speech.

Will did not go far enough in his description of censorship because as a college student I have noticed something even more insidious and intellectually stifling than the open and overt censorship that he describes. Both in class discussions and discussions with professors there seems to be an underlying fear to clearly state one’s opinion regarding anything pertaining to racial and interracial relationships. Instead every speaker, including the professor, tends to perform a dance of words so as not to offend this minority or that one realizing that one misstep could bring on a mob of self-anointed protectors of one group or another. Discussions of this kind are more often than not pitiful exercises in self-affirmations of how wonderfully consensual everyone is. Nothing was said--discussion is over--great class.

The atmosphere of discussion is so stifled that often when a speaker is about to make a point about race relations that could in some way be misconstrued as a racist remark he will often scan the room to ascertain if a minority person is present and if there is, the point that was about to be made is wrapped in such obfuscating language that one wonders if there was a point at all. I think if this continues discussions on the weather will be more stimulating than discussions of anything socially relevant.

CHRISTIAN EICHELSDOERFER, Huntington Beach