Dealing with Conservatives who feel persecuted

[womzilla]

Long, detail-laden article by Michael Bérubé from The Chronicle of Higher Education about dealing with students with different standards of what is reasonable discourse.

But the dynamic of the class had been changed. From that day forward, John spoke up often, sometimes loudly, sometimes out of turn. He had begun to conceive of himself as the only countervailing conservative voice in a classroom full of liberal-left think-alikes, and he occasionally spoke as if he were entitled to reply to every other student's comment -- in a class of 17. He was forceful, intelligent, and articulate. Sometimes he was witty, and he was always knowledgeable about cyberpunk and postmodern science fiction. Often, however, he was obstreperous and out of bounds.

Comments

[wouldyoueva.livejournal.com]

I was particularly struck by this:
"For all I know, John might be able to craft a life in which he can deride African-American ambivalence about integration and defend Japanese-American internment camps without ever confronting anyone who disagrees with him."

Sure he can. He can work at pretty much any place I've worked at. My coworkers have no problem explaining to me that slavery wasn't so bad, it was comparable to the indentured servitude white people accepted to emigrate. (I was gob-smacked.)

The problem with the Johns of the world is they perceive anything not reinforcing their world view as totalarian liberalism. I think Michael Bérubé over-accommodated him and I think John went off grumping over those damn liberals. You can't win.

A historical note: at Penn State in the mid-70s there was no black student building but the lounges at each of the dining halls were designated as black student unions. Doubtless John would have gotten worked up about that, too.