Thank you, Joe, for your informative post, which responded to Gregg's plea
for an intellectual response. Gregg, my reaction to your email is a plea
for emotions to be linked to intellect in responding to racial injustice in
this country. I thought the analogy to sharks was particularly
disheartening. You wrote:

The availability of the story created more and more media drive and the
experience was that the year was marked by a massive increase in shark
attacks. However, that was just because of the way it was covered and the
actual aggregate instances were exactly in the normal range.

I know that it is not your intent, but the analogy suggests that brutal
police killing of innocent black people would have a "normal range."  I
also  immediately thought of the famous quotation:
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do
nothing.  I believe we need messages that appeal to emotions to activate
empathy and outrage and move us to a position of "we're not taking this
anymore." If using an analogy to the pandemic has a powerful emotional
impact, then I see nothing wrong with it. Here are some more emotionally
charged messages that do not have empirical scholarship to support them:

Nelson Mandela:  "To deny people their human rights is to challenge their
very humanity"
 Martin Luther King, Jr.: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice
everywhere.”


Barbara Ingram, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology
Pepperdine University Graduate School of Education and Psychology



On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 7:43 AM Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Hi Corinne,
>
>
>
> Thanks for sharing this. I thought the President’s message was
> appropriately framed.
>
>
>
> I have been wondering about this. Here is a question I have been
> struggling with and I would love to get your take:
>
>
>
> How do we honor the particular incidents that have become flashpoints over
> the last month and recognize the injustice and pain, and at the same time,
> how do we keep things in proper perspective?
>
>
>
> What I mean is, from a policy perspective, I would argue that we should be
> making decisions based on aggregate analyses of structural injustices. Now,
> because of the way humans work, specific incidents become symbols of the
> aggregate. However, as intellectuals, we should know this is a dangerous
> process. As an example of what I mean, consider what I thought was an
> ill-framed message that came from American Psychological Association's
> President. She announced there was a “Racism Pandemic
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.apa.org_news_press_releases_2020_05_racism-2Dpandemic&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=R1vcTDslOF5kEMpp_uiMDs6ncY-RrWIMYsLCFbKymHU&s=QsQO_fPPRB8yoX3HxHhZoDpC_foDffGM_Ux0ir2Nk_c&e= >”,
> writing:
>
>
> “The deaths of innocent black people targeted specifically because of
> their race — often by police officers — are both deeply shocking and
> shockingly routine.
>
> “If you’re black in America — and especially if you are a black male –
> it’s not safe to go birding in Central Park, to meet friends at a
> Philadelphia Starbucks, to pick up trash in front of your own home in
> Colorado or to go shopping almost anywhere.
>
> “We are living in a racism pandemic, which is taking a heavy psychological
> toll on our African American citizens. The health consequences are dire.
>
>
>
> IMO, this is exactly the wrong message that intellectuals should be
> sharing as it blatantly conflates individual episodes with aggregate levels
> of analysis and then does so by associating it with our current stressors
> and fears (i.e., the pandemic). As painful as these examples are, they
> offer no genuine evidence of spreading of racist attitudes, behaviors, etc
> in the US over the past year (or whenever the pandemic of racism supposedly
> was sparked). For a conceptual parallel, consider “the summer of the shark
> <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__en.wikipedia.org_wiki_Summer-5Fof-5Fthe-5FShark&d=DwIFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=HPo1IXYDhKClogP-UOpybo6Cfxxz-jIYBgjO2gOz4-A&m=R1vcTDslOF5kEMpp_uiMDs6ncY-RrWIMYsLCFbKymHU&s=b3WgZ4BmYdm1rqfGk0oiZkeDYMs73LzvsPX0N2HKwio&e= >” phenomena, whereby
> an early sensational and tragic shark attack primed the media so that every
> story with shark was covered. The availability of the story created more
> and more media drive and the experience was that the year was marked by a
> massive increase in shark attacks. However, that was just because of the
> way it was covered and the actual aggregate instances were exactly in the
> normal range.
>
>
>
> Now, as a white man from a upper middle class background, I fully
> acknowledge this might be experienced by some as me trying to minimize and
> brush off the deep and heartfelt concerns that emerge in the wake of these
> tragic incidents. That is not my intent. My intent is to simply offer the
> more intellectual point that our reactions and movements for a just society
> need to be anchored to the appropriate level of analysis. This is something
> the APA President failed at and the consequence is a dramatic and alarming
> rhetoric that feels to me to be more damaging than either empathetic or
> realistic.
>
>
>
> I welcome your reactions to this reaction. I am very interested in how
> communities of individuals can come together and create common ground
> regarding these painful and polarizing issues.
>
>
> Best,
> Gregg
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]>
> On Behalf Of Diop, Corinne Joan Martin - diopcj
> Sent: Monday, June 1, 2020 9:01 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: ppt on the Mission of Universities
>
>
>
> On this topic, I found the JMU college president's statement to students
> titled "Building a better tomorrow together " (with similar versions sent
> to faculty and staff) to be an appropriate university response to the
> current upheaval in the US.
> https://www.jmu.edu/news/2020/05/31-buiding-a-better-tomorrow.shtml
>
>
>
> He makes the statement that "...as an educational institution, it is our
> responsibility to call out these issues, critically examine the underlying
> causes, and identify ways to use our knowledge and skills to make positive
> change." Additionally, JMU leaders are planning a series of virtual town
> hall and other events as "an opportunity for our community to learn from
> experts and discuss the role each of us has to play in creating a more
> inclusive society."
>
>
>
> He assumed universities are responsible for connecting to and improving
> current issues and also reaffirmed the importance of "experts", which has
> been in question. I also thought he did a good job of avoiding the "culture
> wars" while claiming inclusion and diversity as a normal part of education.
>
>
>
> Was I too easily impressed? (I have a black husband and son, so was
> grateful for the hopeful tone.)
>
>
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