The declining tolerance for offensive, or just contrary opinions, among college students has gained the nation’s attention. Such students are mocked as “snowflakes” for having sensibilities too delicate to risk rupture by the violence of a repugnant point of view. They are even offered “safe spaces” by college administrators to protect them from discomfiting ideas. Now there’s a new contortion to the increasingly twisted world of higher education being proffered by the Department of Education in an effort to improve the prospects of college applicants with criminal records.
First, it’s necessary to understand that such individuals are no longer to be referred to as people with criminal backgrounds. To destigmatize these applicants, the Department of Education has found a new term for them, included in the title of its just-released report: “Beyond the Box: Increasing Access to Higher Education for Justice Involved Individuals.”
The idea is predicated on the observation that America is the prison capital of the world, with five percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of its inmates. Among those incarcerated, is a large, some would argue disproportionate, number of Black and Hispanic men. So, with the deck apparently stacked against such individuals, the Department of Education is advising colleges and universities to go “beyond the box” and rethink or eliminate altogether, the check off box that asks if the applicant has a criminal record. These young, “justice involved individuals” need a second chance, and society needs them to become something other than career criminals. Fair enough, and a laudable goal. But is linguistic whitewashing that obscures the facts the best path for rescuing young people who got off to a bad start in life?
There is also the somewhat bizarre upshot from this blind adherence to political correctness and the neutering (or ‘agendering?’) of language: Criminals, aka “justice involved individuals,” (are you reading this, George Orwell?) are more welcome on campus, but those with potentially offending views are definitely not.
This topic was discussed on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning with Doug McIntyre and Terri-Rae Elmer.
By Sandy Wells
