Social Justice Warriors are waging an increasingly nasty culture war and it’s making America mad

[Lacoste]

THERE’S something in the water and it’s turning America mad.

Social Justice Warriors (SJWs), groups of mostly young, mostly university students, are waging a bitter war with the cultural establishment of the nation and it’s turning increasingly nasty.
Those who proudly adopt the title express a mix of sensitivity to social issues coupled with an aggressive and almost militant outrage at any perceived injustice. But their incendiary tactics have sparked a huge backlash from professors, journalists and commentators around the country as a culture war that has been bubbling under the surface for some time is on the verge of exploding.
Those on the other side accuse SJWs of using fear mongering and bullying to police language, enforce censorship and unfairly discredit those who deviate from their position.
“If there is any silver lining in this dark cloud, it’s that the social-justice faith is so grim, so angry, and so arrogant that it can prosper only through intimidation and coercion,” conservative columnist David French wrote in the National Review this week.
The American political landscape is sharply divided with those on the fringes commanding a vast portion of commentary. While Australians may have viewed the extreme right wing as holding a monopoly over membership to the mad hatters, the SJWs, considered to be on the extreme left, seem intent on balancing the scale.
‘IT IS NOT ABOUT CREATING AN INTELLECTUAL SPACE’
The latest headline-grabbing incident that’s been played out in this war is the cancellation of free yoga classes at Ottaw Because of concerns of cultural appropiation.
The weekly class had been running since 2008 and was enjoyed by both disabled and able-bodied students.

The backlash  to the decision was biting with an online torrent of criticism levelled at the student union’s victory.
 

 
Even though it took place in Canada, it’s just one of many bitter disputes dividing university campuses across North America.
This month, protests erupted on the campus of Yale University after the school’s Intercultural Affairs Committee sent an email to the student body asking them to avoid wearing “culturally unaware and insensitive” Halloween costumes that could offend minority students.
In response, Erika Christakis, a faculty member and administrator at a student residence wrote an email to her resident students on behalf of those who felt “frustrated” by the official advice.
“Increasingly, it seems, they (universities) have become places of censure and prohibition,” she wrote.
Her email sparked a firestorm of anger and spurred protests that became a massive news story in the US.




Yale University students and supporters participate in a march across campus to demonstrate against what they see as racial insensitivity. (Ryan Flynn/New Haven Register via AP)Source:AP



A video posted to YouTube on November 6 showed a student screaming in the face of Nicholas Christakis during, husband to Ms Christakis and a faculty member who works in the same residential college.
“Other people have rights as well as you,” he can be heard telling an angry crowd in the video.
“Who the f*** hired you?” a female student screamed in retaliation. “This is not about creating an intellectual space, it is not, do you understand that? It’s about creating a home here.”
An open letter penned by upset students which accused Ms Christakis’ email of supporting stereotypes that “further degrade marginalised people” attracted a number of perplexed and ridiculing comments.
“Stupidity beyond words. So much for free speech, eh?,” wrote one commenter.
“As a father I am seriously reconsidering the wisdom of investing in my children’s higher education,” wrote another.

Also this month, ongoing protests at Missouri University by students irate over what they saw as insufficient action on stopping racism led to the resignation of both the university president and the school’s chancellor, in what the New York Timesdescribed as a “coup”.
Bitter protests lasting months were a product of a number of issues, and at the core of these was a grievance from a group of students that the university didn’t take racial slurs directed at a black student president seriously enough because of institutional racism.
A video emerged of students and a faculty member ejecting a student journalist from covering the protests, claiming the photographer was impeding on their “safe space”. The footage sparked heated debate with many accusing the protesters of censorship and bullying.