"Dear Persecuted College Conservative"

This morning I read an article titled “Dear ‘Persecuted’ College Conservative: You Are Not Oppressed.” The article is in response to another article titled “Check Your Liberal Privilege.” The article I read attempts to express why it is so incendiary for conservatives, or perhaps just non-liberals, to draw connections between their discomfort in openly expressing their views vs. “being a member of a historically oppressed group.” While some viewpoints are definitely promoted in college environments while others are more often discouraged, particularly in a liberal arts environment, it is ridiculous to undermine the experiences of “legacies of violence, intimidation, and hatred,” especially when this legacy is very much alive.

The article points out much of what we’ve discussed in our class—we’ve been learning history from the white perspective and mostly about the white experience. This is not to say only white people are conservatives, but it is important to recognize that our society is based around the people of privilege, and it is those same people of privilege that are offended when their opinion isn’t continuously celebrated.

The article continues to eventually express sympathy for any kind of perceived silencing of the conservative voice, but still, the author goes on to try to explain why liberals are speaking out so loudly. The author explains that conservative (also calling out whites, men, and heterosexuals) views and issues have been repeatedly at the forefront of our society. Liberals or their views/issues, the author says, “have not only been ignored, but actively and violently silenced for just as many centuries.”

All in all the article sums up to agree that there needs to be healthier dialogues taking place. People of privilege on both sides of the equation need to use said privilege to dismantle the misunderstandings of both viewpoints. I feel like many of us would agree with this and have been arguing for this throughout the semester. I think most of us agree that in order to move forward we must all be able to discuss openly and honestly with one another. But this is more difficult than we want it to be. It means listening to viewpoints that are contrary to what we believe in and trying to understand another perspective. Our views become so innate to who we are that we have a tendency to give up or shut out anything that departs from this. And while this article is aimed at conservatives, its important for everyone to remember to take the time to understand why certain viewpoints exist, what the limits of these are, and what brought them about in the first place. There is a backstory and history to everything and that shouldn’t be ignored when trying to move forward.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dear-persecuted-college-conservative_us_584a4179e4b0151082221a02