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Rutgers University: An Institution of Higher (Re-) Education
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Rutgers University in New Brunswick has a designed to identify instances of bias at Rutgers and to 鈥渁ddress[] persons who perpetrate bias acts.鈥 According to Rutgers, 鈥渂ias prevention鈥 is as
An organized system of monitoring, intervening in, and restoring in the aftermath of bias incidents in an environment, e.g., University or workplace. Monitoring includes the reporting of incidents when they occur. Intervention includes counseling persons victimized by bias acts as well as persons witnessing the same. Intervention also includes addressing persons who perpetrate bias acts either through systems of adjudication or reprimand. Restoration often involves educational programs that help to prevent acts from recurring. Persons in authority and leadership usually comprise bias prevention teams. Prevention must constantly be revised and updated.
Bias prevention teams? Is this sounding creepy yet? Well, it鈥檚 about to get creepier, because at Rutgers, 鈥渂ias incidents鈥 are not merely overt acts such as nasty graffiti or harassment. According to the Committee鈥檚 , bias incidents also include 鈥渃ultural conflicts,鈥 which the university defines as 鈥渄isagreements, arguments, or controversies that developed due to the cultural differences, backgrounds and lifestyles of the disputants in the conflict鈥; and 鈥渋nappropriate language,鈥 which is defined as 鈥渦se of words or phrases鈥n the part of the perpetrator(s) which may be racist, sexist, heterosexist (homophobic), etc. in origin, but have been incorporated into his/her commonly used vocabulary.鈥 Here is the listed example of 鈥渋nappropriate language鈥: 鈥溾楯oking鈥 comments (between friends, roommates, floormates).鈥 So in other words, not only might you receive re-education for engaging in an overt act of bias, you might receive re-education for simply disagreeing or arguing with someone of another culture or background, or for telling your friends a joke that the Bias Prevention politburo deems inappropriate.
Honestly, as much as I hate speech codes, I find thought reform like this to be far more chilling. Rutgers is a public institution; an arm of the government. And simply put, the American government has no right to tell its citizens how they must think.
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