The Good Enough Professor: Not Too Refined to Say This, Anyway.

“Incivility” is necessary for some voices to be heard, for the stakes of any particular debate to be apparent, for conversations to result in meaningful change. A colleague supportive of Salaita, who has served in administrative positions for several years now, posted this morning on Facebook, “People in upper admin with whom I’ve worked closely for years are now unwilling even to make eye contact with me. Inclusive Illinois.” That right there is the problem with making “civility” the boundary of conversation.  “Civility” only works if both parties are already operating from a position of equality and already in mutual agreement on the need for the conversation.  It doesn’t work if a powerful participant refuses to acknowledge that…the less powerful participant has an issue that needs to be discussed.  It also doesn’t work when only the powerful participant gets to define where the outer bounds of civility lie.  Civility commits us to a university where existing injustices remain entrenched and silenced voices stay that way.

Image from Mondoweiss.net