University of Minnesota pays for students to discuss how 'heterosexism...has damaged us'

[Teh One Who Knocks]

Adam Sabes, Mississippi Senior Campus Correspondent - Campus Reform


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The University of Minnesota Housing and Residential Life Department is hosting a “Social Justice Leadership Retreat" during which students can spend a weekend of “immersion” in social justice.

Students going on the Jan. 18-20 retreat will spend the weekend participating in various activities surrounding social justice topics, such as “race and racism, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic, and campus climate,” according to the department website. They will also attend “training sessions” on “privilege” and explore their “identities,” as they share their stories in a small group setting.

“The Social Justice Leadership Retreat is designed to help educate students about the concepts of social justice and community leadership through exploration of their own stories, the stories of others, and issues of oppression and privilege, as well as developing contacts and support networks across campus and skills to be an ally to many different groups,” states the website.

Students who have previously gone on the retreat have said that they spent the weekend learning how “racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. has damaged us."

"The theories are everything I’ve covered in classes, but the honesty was amazing,” one anonymous student wrote in a review on the website. “It is so rare that we really let down our guard and tearfully tell people how racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. has damaged us.”

The retreat costs students $25, a fee that goes toward materials used over the weekend, however, the website says that food, and lodging, and transportation are paid for by UMN. The university reports that 80 students will be going on the trip, accompanied by 25 full-time and graduate staff coordinators.

“Scholarships are available upon request,” the school notes. “No one will be turned away for financial reasons.”

UMN College Republicans Vice Chair Megan Olson, who is also a Campus Reform Campus Correspondent, told Campus Reform that while she respects the concept of the retreat, the university already does too much “social justice” programming.

“While I can respect the purpose of the Social Justice Leadership Retreat, there are already plenty of resources and student groups on campus that achieve the same mission this retreat has,” Olson said. “The university has integrated ‘social justice’ [into] just about every aspect of its functions, including but not limited to housing and residential life training.”

Olson criticizes the retreat by saying that the weekend appears only to be a time to “express personal stories” revolving around oppression or racism, rather than actually empowering people.

“Rather than empowering people, this appears to just be a time to dwell in victimhood, which isn’t constructive to the future of these students post-graduation,” she told Campus Reform. “No one is there to hold your hand in the real world. When colleges host retreats such as these, they are actually doing a disservice to students by not truthfully representing life after college.”

UMN started the Social Justice Leadership Retreat in 2005 and has since hosted 14 trips. Other colleges, such as Colorado State University, have started similar initiatives.

Campus Reform reached out to the UMN Housing and Residential Life Department but received no response in time for publication.

[deebakes]

minnesota :woot:

[Hal-9000]

If I walked past a college like that nowadays I would probably get punched out of principle

they can sense us :lol:

[DemonGeminiX]

Heterosexism brought you into this world. If you think of being brought into the world that badly, then you could get a passport and travel to a forest in Japan and do what the natives do there.

[RBP]

Like feminism, the social justice movement has become so distorted that the originators must wake up every morning saying "What? No!"

I have several books in me, I hope I follow through. But there's an overriding principle in all of this. People in the US hate death, they don't know how to deal with death. And in the same way that medicare is overburdened with the end of life costs because people can't let go, the same is true of most social movements. You achieved your goal, you've reached the end of your issue's life, let it die. But because that never happens, it reinvents itself in more fantastical iterations, over and over, until it becomes a cartoon.

[Hal-9000]

Like feminism, the social justice movement has become so distorted that the originators must wake up every morning saying "What? No!"

I have several books in me, I hope I follow through. But there's an overriding principle in all of this. People in the US hate death, they don't know how to deal with death. And in the same way that medicare is overburdened with the end of life costs because people can't let go, the same is true of most social movements. You achieved your goal, you've reached the end of your issue's life, let it die. But because that never happens, it reinvents itself in more fantastical iterations, over and over, until it becomes a cartoon.

You need a drink. You sound far too intelligent when it comes to these issues.

Small example is my current online battle. We're talking about the show Survivor ffs and how a female contestant is being perceived based on her actions while playing the game. All of a sudden this shadowy cabal of militant feminist commenters arrive and start labeling every other poster as a sexist, because they feel this woman was done dirty by the show's production and by social media outside of the game. I made the mistake of saying any sexism real or imagined on the show doesn't equate with 'real' sexism outside of the show.

Maybe not the best choice of words on my part because I was dismissive of part of the topic at hand :lol:, but man they gathered the wood, tossed me on the pyre and started throwing matches instantly when I decided to address some the created drama within the environment of a game show, where there's no real risk if a sexism offense was actually committed. No one lost a job, got passed over for a promotion, no one was belittled or ignored in any sense of the word. In fact the girl in question was awarded 85k for coming in third.

[Hal-9000]

“It is so rare that we really let down our guard and tearfully tell people how racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. has damaged us.”

*edited so I can sleep at night


Did I cover the bases :lol:

[Hal-9000]

Let me try to make a more salient point. When groups cry bloody murder over every perceived slight real or imagined, I feel it dilutes the actual problem that exists.

Of course racism and sexism are serious problems and have been for decades. We need to expose and remove contributors. But we can't revert back to the wild west and allow posses to form who feel it's their right to judge who is offending. Or what is offensive.

I can't speak to the bizarre claim that heterosexism is harmful.

I liked what Olsen said about "dwelling in victimhood" and how no one will hold your hand in the real world after college.

[RBP]

There are no longer any societal standards. It's individual. And in the absence of societal standards, there is no society. Because that's what a society is, a set of rules in the context of commonalities.

[Hal-9000]

There are no longer any societal standards. It's individual. And in the absence of societal standards, there is no society. Because that's what a society is, a set of rules in the context of commonalities.

Agreed.

Ve haff vays of making you walk! :x


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[Godfather]

Had a really interesting barber last week, guy was about 45 and still going to college just finishing up his undergrad degree slowly as he could afford to, studying Islamic psychology and politics (even did a term in Turkey and was in the middle east during the Arab Spring which sounded wild). "Cultures which are actually oppressive" as he put it :lol:

He was talking about 'toxic masculinity' and 'rape culture' buzz words and asked: 'you graduated 10 years ago, I bet you never heard those words on campus.' I told him not even once, and so I wondered if perhaps the media blows this shit a bit out of proportion because it couldn't have changed this much in a decade... He was telling me it absolutely has, especially in the humanities/social sciences it's rampant up here now too. He goes to these talks by far left feminists and prepares in advance for question period because like us he doesn't believe in any of it, says it's pretty stressful to be the odd white man out in the crowd. Told him he was doing god's work and gave him a tip :lol: