I think this pursuit of open-mindedness can be assisted by an approach you might call definitional openness. Put simply, no university should tolerates courses or professors who practice ‘closed’ definitions of words or terms. No student should be penalized for articulating their understanding of what a term like ‘anti-racism’ means. Neither Kendi nor anyone else is allowed to own that term. Students who contest his definition should be rewarded, not punished. Inquiry is better than activism in the university. Stop activists from freezing the brains of students.
"It’s also certainly the case that redacting 60% of a disciplinary textbook is not the way to fix issues of viewpoint diversity."
WAIT! Silence is propaganda?? Redacting explicitly political, ideological material is a good thing. While it would better to have neutral discussions of these topics, who will write that? And how will you get consensus? Better to say nothing than to inject one's opinions on these divisive issues.
I think this pursuit of open-mindedness can be assisted by an approach you might call definitional openness. Put simply, no university should tolerates courses or professors who practice ‘closed’ definitions of words or terms. No student should be penalized for articulating their understanding of what a term like ‘anti-racism’ means. Neither Kendi nor anyone else is allowed to own that term. Students who contest his definition should be rewarded, not punished. Inquiry is better than activism in the university. Stop activists from freezing the brains of students.
The real issue is do any of these courses have value to our society or those learning them ..maybe cancelation is better than censorship.
"It’s also certainly the case that redacting 60% of a disciplinary textbook is not the way to fix issues of viewpoint diversity."
WAIT! Silence is propaganda?? Redacting explicitly political, ideological material is a good thing. While it would better to have neutral discussions of these topics, who will write that? And how will you get consensus? Better to say nothing than to inject one's opinions on these divisive issues.