Wed 27 Nov 2019
I Wish You a Restful Break
Posted by David Dudley Field '25 under Faculty, Staff at 9:56 am
Indeed. I never wish people a “Happy Birthday,” and for exactly the same reasons. How can I ever know what sort of stressful situations they are going through? How can I ever know what effect my words might have?
More importantly, what if someone has turkeys in their extended family? This holiday is a nightmare for them! Have you no empathy?
Professor Sarah Jacobson gets it:
Exactly right. In fact, I recommend that Professor Jacobson stop referring to herself as a “Professor” at “Williams College.” Professor is, of course, a word with problematic roots. Indeed, any word with roots going back to the Normans, among the worst colonialists in history, merits banishment. And don’t even get me started on the Romans! And Ephraim Williams’ attitude toward Native Americans is well-documented.
Anyone who doesn’t want to say “Thanksgiving” should never say “Williams.”
Stay Woke, my fellow Ephs!
UPDATE: The last time the Williams College twitter account used the word “Thanksgiving” was 2015. How long before the official college calendar removes the word? (It currently refuses to use the words Columbus or Christmas.) Think I am crazy? Consider:
Enjoy the holiday-that-must-not-be named!
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5 Responses to “I Wish You a Restful Break”
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Abl says:
Columbus was legit horrible and should not be celebrated. You know that. I’m sure the College only avoids “Christmas” in service of being inclusive—like by changing “Christmas” break to “winter” break. You know that too. Thanksgiving is more complicated, but the problems at the root of the holiday are not remotely equivalent to whatever nonsense you are trying to dig up related to the etymology of the word “professor.”
November 27th, 2019 at 11:31 amAnon says:
To paraphrase the original tweet:
People might not be happy on this holiday; therefore, we shouldn’t wish that people be happy on this holiday, lest we make them feel alienated.
This is the kind of thinking that gets dissected in “The Coddling of the American Mind”. It’s good to be thoughtful towards others, sure, but constructing an environment where the goal is to make sure everyone is comfortable at all times leads to laughable recommendations results like this.
But, thinking big-picture, it’s just not a service to students to shield them from the very normal and easy-to-handle slights that they will surely encounter in their day-to-day life outside the college. If a student is traumatized by the suggestion that holidays should be happy, they might want to figure out a coping mechanism. I’m curious how someone who is bothered by holiday well-wishing will handle their first performance review at work.
The college already lets many of these fragile students take reduced course loads, bring animals with them wherever they want, use “extra time” on assessments, and consult with the growing bureaucracy of diversity administrators who exist solely to reinforce their worldview.
Moreover, the college increasingly makes these well-meaning recommendations mandatory (for instance, the compulsory microagression trainings or mandates that student leaders ask for pronouns).
Nobody wants to challenge something that, on its own, seems trivial and intended to make others feel more comfortable. But this leads to the orthodoxy developing at Williams that the college’s priority is to make all students feel comfortable, specifically those who complain most loudly.
November 27th, 2019 at 2:34 pmDal says:
Hilarious. As a friend said: “These people are just lucky there’s no compulsory military service in the US.”
November 29th, 2019 at 4:56 pmanon says:
I am old and retired and the last thing i need is more rest. If someone wished me a restful time I’d think they were hoping for my death. Very traumatizing!
November 30th, 2019 at 10:54 amPTC says:
@anon- And hence the primary problem with “today’s youth” (read also adults). They are not speaking for themselves. The 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s was about young adults doing their own thing their own way. Now we have this scripted top down thing, which is fundamentally boring because it is a dishonest manipulation.
People voting for Trump because- one good gaslighting deserves another. Americans just won’t lay down. We figure these things out in complex ways.
Where are the scholars? Where are the people who can step back from being involved, and look at it with discipline?
They have to be somewhere other than fringe partisan webpages. These are understandable “divisions” and odd “regrets.” That is what should be studied. That is what should be understood.
Kind of depressing in an odd way.
November 30th, 2019 at 6:12 pm