How to deal with offensive comments in the seminar room

[This is an invited post.--ES]

A few weeks ago, a graduate student said in my class that he “had to restrain [him]self from tearing [a prominent female academic] a new one.” After class ended, I told the student, in private, that he should probably refrain from using colloquial phrases that reference anal rape in professional contexts. He was shocked to hear my interpretation of his comment. Later, I asked my Facebook friends if I had handled the situation appropriately. Of the many who responded, about half said that I had; the others said that I should have corrected the offending student in front of the other students, either to educate the other students (if they saw nothing wrong with the comment), or to reassure them that their response was appropriate (if they did object to the comment). In light of the latter argument, I invited all of those present in the class, including the student who made the comment, to write this post with me. Except for two students who were too busy, they graciously agreed.--Jennifer Rubenstein

How should college instructors respond when a student says something in class that the instructor believes to be offensive but that the student might not realize is offensive? This is the broader question raised by the incident in our class. Cases of this kind raise different issues from cases in which students knowingly cause offense or are culpably ignorant (e.g. they use the “n-word”). In the latter types of cases, the egregiousness of the violation means that it is almost always appropriate for the instructor to confront the student immediately, even if this causes shame or embarrassment; the instructor is also usually reasonably confident of her immediate assessment of the situation.

Incidents of the kind that occurred in our class are trickier: instructors may hesitate to shame the offender and are less likely to be confident of their assessment. Moreover, if the student did not anticipate that her comment would cause offense, and if she believes, upon reflection, that this failure to anticipate was reasonable, then in addition to feeling shame or embarrassment, she will likely also have the second-order belief that these feelings are unjustified. This belief, in turn, might lead her to feel resentful.  Such resentment might lead both the offender and the other students in the class to “shut down,” learning less from, and contributing less to, the class than they otherwise would.

Instructors therefore face a conflict between a) educating without shaming and b) refusing to tolerate disrespectful and offensive conduct in the classroom. The former goal seems to require private correction; the latter a public response.

We have five ideas about how to handle this tension:

    1. Prepare for surprises.

These cases are especially challenging because they involve comments that are borderline to moderately offensive, impossible to predict, and require a rapid response. Because the comments are not extreme, it is helpful to think in advance about which ones are offensive and why. Yet the range of offensive comments that students can make is virtually limitless; students will inevitably say things that surprise their instructors. Nonetheless, thinking through a limited set of cases can help us respond quickly to other cases in ways that track our considered convictions. (This is so even though there is no reason to think that everyone will, or should, agree about how to characterize all cases.)  Instructors of different subjects might find it most helpful to reflect in advance on the types of scenarios most likely to arise in the context of those subjects. For example, classes on racial politics in the US, gender and politics, evolution, and international relations seem likely to generate different sorts of offensive comments.

     2. Lay the groundwork on the first day of class.

It can be easier to intervene in a non-punitive way when students make offensive comments if we set the stage for doing so on the first day of class. For example, instructors might tell students that a goal of the class is to learn how to speak about sensitive or controversial subjects in a respectful way, and that part of the instructor’s job is to let students know— also in a respectful way— if students fail to do this. Instructors can also give students language for telling each other (or the instructor) when they find other students’ (or the instructor’s) comments offensive.

    3. Acknowledge that this is everyone’s problem.

All of us say things, knowingly or not, that offend others. Sometimes this is entirely justified. However, offending others is often morally objectionable, especially in classroom contexts. One sensitive way to introduce public discussion of an offending comment is to explain how it is an instance of a broader phenomenon of which we are all sometimes guilty. For example, the instructor might relate an instance in which she committed a similar offense, or simply depersonalize the discussion by using ‘we’. We can also encourage students to try to adopt others’ perspectives as much as possible (while acknowledging that they can never do so completely). Depersonalization and empathy take the heat off of a single student and make the whole class think together about how particular ways of speaking can offend. 

     4. Demand precision and rigor.

In addition to thinking about what not to say, we should also encourage students to consider what they should say. In particular, rather than compile a list of verboten words and phrases, we can try to make our criticisms more constructive and precise. For example, if the student in our class had focused on stating his substantive objection, he likely would have expressed his negative reaction in a less offensive way.

     5. Help students develop a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between intention and moral responsibility.

It can be difficult for students to understand that they can be morally or even legally culpable for comments that were not intended to harm. Indeed, unintentionally offensive comments raise complicated issues about moral and causal responsibility, intentions, and effects. Discussing these issues can provide a springboard for examining substantive issues in moral philosophy.  In addition, referencing particular laws or school policies, such as the University of Virginia’s sexual harassment policy (which defines harassment in terms of effect, as well as intention), can also concretely illustrate how one can be blameworthy regardless of one’s intentions. 

Evan Farr

Callum Ingram

Colin Kielty

Adam Lees

Jennifer Rubenstein

Lynn Sanders

William Sbach

Emily Sydnor

Politics Department, University of Virginia