Friday, November 21, 2008

North Carolina State University students write threat against President Obama's Life

Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

1 comment:

  1. ChenjeraiNovember 22, 2008 at 3:16 PM

    This issue is complex. Clearly this incident and all incidents like it should be taken very seriously from a safety standpoint and investigated. Of first importance is to find out the extent to which their threats were indicative of a plan or larger movement. The destruction of the " crime scene" was probably not the best move on that note. Personally I don't think its useful to have the students expelled. That would be a predictable response that hasn't worked in the past even though it would make many of us feel better. A more useful response would be to force them to engage in a public dialogue about race. This wouldn't change their views but neither would expelling them. A dialogue could however force them to challenge their ideas somewhat as well as providing insight about the campus atmosphere. Personally I'd like to know how they arrived at their views and who else is thinking like them. In one sense I think it is good to have a place where people can express racist comments. The move toward political correctness in the country has enabled this country to exist in an illusion of racial harmony while crippling the level of authentic and insightful dialogue. Racist ideas can't be challenged if no one is allowed to express them or if we as a country are able to exist in denial of racist attitudes that persist in America. One of the things that the president elect has done is to push past America's simplistic , predictable, and reactionary conversation on race.
    In terms of" free speech zones" I'm not sure how helpful it is to have anonymous spaces were phrases can be written with no context.
    Its more like " free insult zones" masquerading as symbol of the free speech that the Bush administration has worked so hard to erode.
    it is interesting to note how at the presidential debates protests were limited to small police guarded areas outside of the venue. Apparently limiting free speech is okay depending on who's speaking.
    To those incensed by the hypocrisy, we should raise the issue but then we should get over it and focus on more pro-active issues. If you are too surprised that Obama threats are not taken as seriously as threats on other presidents then you don't really understand the country you live in.
    While most folks are still shouting yes we can and buying inauguration tickets,
    I'm more interested in understanding how "change" is going to translate in the real world as the transition team starts planning our next 4 - 8years.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)