We have been following how universities across the country have seen an increase in claims of “micro aggressions” and impermissible “cultural appropriation” (here and here). Now that tension has become physical at San Francisco State University after student Bonita Tindle reportedly attacked a white student named Cory Goldstein for wearing dreadlocks. The claim seems to capture the race to bottom on campuses where an ever widening array of words or symbols are declared racially or culturally insensitive. However, this was so bizarre, I checked to confirm that it was not an early April Fool’s joke. Yet, various news organizations are reporting it and a YouTube video shows the attack.
The incident occurred at SFSU’s Cesar Chavez Student Center and on the clip below Goldstein asks
“You’re saying I can’t have a hairstyle because of your culture? Why?”
Tindle responds “Because it’s my culture.”
After arguing further, Goldstein is heard to say: “You know what, girl, you have no right to tell me what I can and cannot wear.” When he then tries to walk away, Tindle grabs Goldstein’s arm and a minor scuffle ensues. This would be far more compelling a case of battery than the recent flap over the Trump campaign manager video. In this case, Tindle is shown grabbing the camera or cellphone of the witness.
Here is the videotape:
Goldstein posted an Facebook statement that he was not going to file criminal charges but “I did file a formal campus police report and I decided to let the education system deal with her”.
Here is his later statement:
Now this would seem to be an easy case. A student is attacked for his appearance and then a second student is attacked for filming the attack. Yet, here is the university statement:
“We are aware of the video made of an incident which occurred on campus yesterday afternoon. University police were called to the scene of the incident when it occurred. The two individuals involved in the incident are not San Francisco State University employees. Further, no criminal charges have been pressed at this time to the University’s knowledge.
San Francisco State University promotes the rights of the campus community to engage in free speech, but does not condone behavior that impedes the safety or well-being of others. We are taking the matter seriously and will promptly and thoroughly investigate this incident through applicable University channels, including our campus student conduct procedures.”
Whether either of these individuals are employees or whether criminal charges were filed is irrelevant. If they are students or use school facilities, the university has an obligation to act. Some have already objected that the response would have been different if a black student was harassed over wearing dreadlocks and then assaulted. I have searched to find a more direct response of the university, such as suspending Tindle pending the completion of the investigation. I could find nothing.
By the way, I am not sure such culture is being appropriated here in Tindle’s mind. Kouros sculptures from Ancient Greece show men with dreadlocks as did ancient Christian Ascetics and pre-Columbian Aztec priests. They also appear in ancient Hindu pictures as well as the Sufi followers of Islam.
I do not want to see criminal charges against Tindle for such an incident even though it would meet the definition of battery. I have long been critical of the criminalization of such incidents which can be addressed at the university level. However, this does not mean that I do not view this as extremely serious. Universities are supposed to be forums for free speech as well as places for experimentation and exposure for students to a broader array of ideas and groups. This type of intolerance and physical harassment denies a basic and essential element of the educational environment.
Heavy.com reports that ” Tindle has deleted her LinkedIn page. She described herself on that site as a “Cinematographer, Photographer, Editor, Journalist, Media Specialist.” The Golden Gate Xpress, an independent news site for the school, reports that Tindle is a photography student at SFSU and is a “media intern for Associated Students, Inc.” It is a bit unnerving to see an aspiring journalist in such a physical confrontation. Notably, her roommate said that she was not surprised at all by the video given Tindle’s “passion, and social justice, and black power, and everything.”
Goldstein is described as an aspiring DJ who goes by the moniker Soulr and works at a tea shop and as a counselor at a Jewish Community Center.
The university will only say that it is continuing to investigate the matter. That is certainly appropriate and I do not expect a resolution. I am surprised that we have not seen a more direct condemnation of the actions shown on the video and the suspension of the attacker (and possible barring from campus) pending a final outcome of the investigation.
Anyone else amused that the incident occurred in the “Cesar Chavez Student Center?”
I’m wondering if the victim feels safe. Isn’t that what students can depend upon from the University while at school?
bam bam strop tryong to be so white correcting your grammar. I never would have noticed An massive. Your speech is too perfect. Why you trying to be so white? My point is, the pressure from blacks comes from all directions. They condemn you for not being “black enough” and appropriate the dread hairstyles that have been around since before Rasta. I personally think his hair looks like a rat’s nest but heh some days it looks like a cow licked my hair.
#onlyblackracismisok
This is what happens when you allow Afro-American Studies on campus. Since there is little to be taught they just make stuff up. Who here can forget our Ph.D. in Black Studies “Brown Sugar” African-American women in porn. I am interested to see which of her professors looked up the material to check her sources.
The girl is guilty of assault and battery.
I think that the comment by Tin above, is probably the best summary of the situation. In viewing the video without the sound he seems to be so demonstrative with his hands and up and down motions as to be mimicking a dork on steroids. Dorks on steroids are fairly common in CA.
Jonathan Haidt:
I am sympathetic to some of these, even though the main thing I’m concerned about these days is political correctness, the whole culture of microaggressions, the hypersensitivity, I’m very concerned about that. But there is really something legitimate here to having your group be mocked. That I think might be the principle. The worst idea — God, there’s so many bad ideas on campus — one of the worst and most ridiculous ideas is the idea of cultural appropriation.
The idea if you go to West Africa, and you buy a necklace or you buy a shirt, and you come back and you wear it, someone would say, “You can’t do that, you’re appropriating their culture.” That is absurd, cultural evolution requires us to exchange ideas.
COWEN: What about the actual mocks, or semi‑mocks — should private colleges prohibit them?
HAIDT: The private — ?
COWEN: Let’s say you’re Brown or Yale, and students set up a lacrosse team, and they call it the Brown Redskins, and they do some rituals which offend some people. No matter what the intent would be, should Brown or Yale step in and say, “You can’t do that”?
HAIDT: There’s a big, big line between saying, “Brown or Yale should step in and tell people what they can’t — .” In general I think no, in general the idea — .
COWEN: No, they shouldn’t step in?
HAIDT: They should not step in. We should be extremely limited when we say that authorities can step in and change things. The very fact of doing that encourages microaggression culture, encourages students to orient themselves toward appealing to these authorities. The point of the microaggression article is young people these days have become moral dependents.
If somebody insults them they can’t straighten it out themselves, they have to go right to the authorities, and this embroils everybody in eternal battles. College used to be a lot of fun when I went, and now it’s constant conflicts, and that’s going to happen as far as the eye can see.
**********
You can read the entire interview here:
https://medium.com/conversations-with-tyler/a-conversation-with-jonathan-haidt-35f76604464a#.jxvw6041a
You might also be interested in Haidt’s summary of a recent article– referred to as the “micro aggression article” above — called “Microaggression and Moral Cultures.”
http://righteousmind.com/where-microaggressions-really-come-from/
There was a time when someone named Corey Goldstein would be studying to be a dentist or a CPA. Now he’s a “wigger” – a white boy mimicking ghetto street lingo and style. The kid is probably a confused product of divorce. His Jewish father is on to his second family and never thinks of him except to put a check in the mail once a month. His white blonde mother was pretty once but now she’s struggling financially and he was raised as a latch-key kid in a low-income neighborhood where he was picked on, so he tried to survive by hanging out with blacks and apeing their style. Sad.
Tribalism begets tribalism begets tribalism…so it goes. In my darkest moments I wish we could put the Trump supporters and these regressive Left types into a coliseum and let them maul each other. Just get out of the way and let these authoritarian punks get the bloodshed over with. Then I get over it and hope the bulk of these people will get over themselves (It really is about them, not their “culture”) and start to look for what connects us rather than what divides us.
Correction:
“… appropriated by people who are ‘outside’ of that ‘culture’ is ridiculous on its face.”
#OnlyBlackDreadlocksMatter
The notion that some aspects of a “culture” shouldn’t be appropriated by people are “outside” of that “culture” is ridiculous on its face.
Rather than understanding that in any event imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, thinking of some aspect of a culture as property that can be “appropriated” is to blatantly flaunt one’s intellectual immaturity, if not stupidity, regarding the question.
Stealing another race’s hair??? How about all them “hair hatted hooligans” that Tommy Sotomayor talks about???
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxAKxFEl5_k
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
From a massive, not from an massive.
Yo, yo, yo, yo yo–another fine example, of some lost, dazed, presumably high and mostly confused, imbecilic, white cracker, trying to ape what he considers to be cool, black culture, only to be on the receiving end of a beat down from an massive afro-headed Angela Davis, herself. Note, if you will, the white boy’s poor attempt at gangsta cool–the ubiquitous, low-slung pants, hanging off his rear, the greasy and stringy dreads and the desperate attempt to poorly mimic the speech pattern of someone in hip hop. Yeah, of course he’s the victim. No doubt about it. She should be prosecuted for assaulting him; however, this is one of those rare instances, where the victim is such a dumb clown, foolishly attempting portray himself as something that he’s clearly not, that there’s a small part of me rooting for the abuser, Angela Davis, as she attempts to knock some sense into that stupid white boy. He should be careful–those b@tches will cut ya.
Did anyone beat on Michael Jackson or Beyonce for bleaching their skin white? How about for straightening their kinky hair?
I didn’t think so…
Tindle’s effort to suppress evidence indicates that she knew what she was doing was wrong. Where is Black Lives Matter when they are needed to denounce the abuse of their movement? Several other incidents of assault by people claiming the BLM mission suggest that dangerous people are attracted to social justice activities. This seems true for Trump supporters too, with their peculiar definition of freedom and justice.
I think his hair looks horrible but it’s his choice and the other student had no right to assault him, nor the person who was taping the incident. She should be suspended for one semester. A repeat offense should result in expulsion. The university should draw a clear distinction between civilized expression of opinion and physical assault. In my day (1980s) she would have written an article for the student newspaper expressing her objection to what she considers ‘cultural appropriation.’ And a vigorous debate would have followed. Now we have students (and professors) who think it is okay to physically assault or interfere with someone with whom they disagree. I’m not sure why our culture has become so debased.
Hmmm, going to college to become a DJ and a journalist major who wants to suppress freedom of expression. Wonder why college grads can’t get a job, because, because……….???
Stop being cruel to him. There is a good heart in that man.