Let the triggering begin.
The Minnesota State university system plans to host a “Processing Election Emotions with acknowledgement, acceptance, and presence” webinar for minority faculty members on Tuesday, just one week before the 2020 presidential election.
According to the Academic & Student Affairs at Minnesota State website, the webinar will be solely for minority faculty members, claiming that the “BIPOC-focused space is in recognition that the way we negotiate the world — both in and outside the classroom — is fundamentally different from the ways our white counterparts do.”
Topics covered in the webinar will include policing, the COVID-19 pandemic and government’s response to it, barriers to voting, and “others [that] are highly racialized and politicized.”
The webinar will be facilitated by Shannon Gibney, a self-proclaimed activist and professor at Minneapolis College. Gibney has been an outspoken proponent of the Marxist Black Lives Matter organization and is in favor of abolishing the police.
The Minnesota State system did not respond to YAF’s inquiries about this webinar, including if they would be paying Gibney a speaker honorarium fee.
These professors are essentially hosting a safe space for themselves, even though they already control the higher education bubble. Leaders in higher education should not be using taxpayer-funded university resources and time to discuss how to process their emotions regarding politics. These professors should be setting an example for their students – making sure to leave politics outside of the classroom at the door, and respecting all no matter what ideological beliefs they may hold.
