The Christakises did not respond to email and telephone requests for comment. (after unintended accidents), and occurs at a higher rate for them than others in the 15-24y/o age bracket. It is highly disturbing in its intensity, the raw emotions of the students, the commitment of Christakis to persist with hearing them out. But what you need to understand is that right now, you’re committing an act of bullying. Please note that the Second Balcony is CLOSED for the 19-20 Season due to Construction. So, living in this social world, it seems very reasonable to question the potential restrictions to students’ freedoms implicit in an email suggesting what Halloween costumes to wear or not to wear. Their anger, obviously, is fulled by a long history as well as present existences outside and inside the university; in other words, what we see in the video is not exclusively confined to the one email sent by Erika. I would suggest that the students of Silliman College involved in the video were living in a different social world to the one inhabited by Nicholas and Erika Christakis – their ideologies, behaviours and ways of communicating differed so dramatically that they could barely find their common humanity at all. They’re educators, academics, probably middle class, who have made their way in the world via their liberal beliefs in the transformation and betterment of society through discourse. Watching these predominantly minority students trying to express, and in many ways embody, the pain of hundreds of years of discrimination, oppression and disadvantage, in a space where they have really only very recently even been accepted, at a time when racial minorities are often still heavily disadvantaged on almost every social index, and at their place of residence, where they were perhaps daring to feel safe in spite of all of this… it’s heartbreaking. If it was the African American community, this was not hyperbole – for example, in 2015, when this all blew up, black men lived, on average, five years less than white men. Why did Ms. Christakis feel the need to take the energy to write this email. It seems almost as if they’re having different conversations entirely – like they’re hitting their shots out of different courts. This is what made me think of social worlds theory. Any and every time any effort is made for those seeking social equality, there is a reaction “but what about the feelings of those who have always been dominant.” That is how Ms. Cristakis email reads. Now, let’s imagine the social world of the students in the video. What is clear, though, is that while Christakis was making what seemed, to someone living in his social world, like a rational appeal, the students’ responses show that they are responding from a different place entirely. Minorities voices will continue to be oppressed, as it is now, in USA or any other part of the world, this isn’t science, it’s common knowledge. A book isn’t going to make you feel better Christopher. "The culturally unaware or insensitive choices made by some … I encourage you to. Hi Jodie, thanks for the post. Indeed, the students state this explicitly, telling Christakis that he can never understand their perspective because they have nothing at all in common except their most basic biology. “Erika Christakis is a well-regarded instructor, and the university’s leadership is disappointed that she has chosen not to continue teaching in the spring semester,” the statement said. What is clear, though, is that while Christakis was making what seemed, to someone living in his social world, like a rational appeal, the students’ responses show that they are responding from a different place entirely. As well it as a metaphor for how upsetting the situation was was! 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