Talk in the Classroom & on Campus

How have class discussions gone this week?  Do you think it's important to
talk about what's going on?

When you encourage students to say what they think, sometimes they say what
they think--and that can be difficult to handle at times.

In a class discussion, two or three American students began stereotyping
international students and people of a certain ethnicity.  I stepped in,
engaged these students in a dialogue, challenging their assumptions, but
some remarks made were quite upsetting.  Even though many American students
in my class disagreed with the stereotyping and voiced their outrage too,
there are several international students in my class, and some remarks were
hurtful in the process.

My hope was to try to help stop the harassment many international students
on my campus are experiencing, and the potential violence that could erupt
on campus.  However, I feel like I've failed.  Can people really listen to
one another when emotions are so high?

In some ways, this problem seems tame to the suffering and death in New York
City and D.C.  However, this is what is happening in my community, and I
feel like I should try to do something where I live--to try to stop further
hate and violence here.  It saddens me to see young people harassed and
hated because they look different from others in some way.

But what should a teacher do to respond to this?  And also, what can a
campus do about the backlash against certain ethnic groups after this
tragedy? Should faculty be planning certain programs for our students?
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Glenn Hutchinson
UNC Charlotte