A law professor received a written complaint from “Concerned Students” about her Black Lives Matter shirt, and she responded by brilliantly turning the letter into a teachable moment, taking apart their arguments and the assumptions behind them, literally and figuratively schooling the authors of the complaint with wit, clarity, and moral authority.
The students wrote, “The ‘Black Lives Matter’ statement is racist and anti-law enforcement and has been known to incite violence in this country. As someone who is paid to teach the law, you should be ashamed of yourself,” among other arguments against the professor’s choice of wardrobe.
The professor responded with “Here is a short list of some of the premises in your memo, and my critique of them.” She then structured her response by separating the “Premise” of the student’s arguments with her “Critique” of said arguments.
Premise: There is an invisible ‘only’ in front of the words ‘Black Lives Matter.’
Critique: There is a difference between focus and exclusion. If something matters, this does not imply that nothing else does. If I say ‘Law Students Matter’ it does not imply that my colleagues, friends, and family do not. Here is something that matters: context. The Black Lives Matter movement arose in a context of evidence that they don’t. When people are receiving messages from a culture in which they live that their lives are less important than other lives, it is a cruel distortion of reality to scold them for not being inclusive enough[…]
As a general matter, seeing the world and the people in it in mutually exclusive, either/or terms impedes your own thought processes. If you wish to bear that intellectual consequence of a constricting ideology, that’s your decision. But this does not entitle you to project your either/or ideology onto people who do not share it.
Premise: Saying “Black Lives Matter” is an expression of hatred against white people.
Critique: “Black Lives Matter” is not a statement about white people. It does not exclude white people. It does not accuse white people, unless you are a specific white person who perpetrates, endorses, or ignores violence against black people.
The professor goes on in a “Part II” to “make some points relevant to formal and persuasive writing,” correcting the student’s uses of dependent clauses, unclear over-generalizations, and all-caps writing.
“In conclusion,” she wrote. “I believe that every moment in life (and certainly in the life of law school) can be an occasion for teaching and learning. Thank you for creating an opportunity for me to put this deeply held belief into practice.”
Link: Students complain about professor's Black Lives Matter shirt. The professor's response is priceless.
The students wrote, “The ‘Black Lives Matter’ statement is racist and anti-law enforcement and has been known to incite violence in this country. As someone who is paid to teach the law, you should be ashamed of yourself,” among other arguments against the professor’s choice of wardrobe.
The professor responded with “Here is a short list of some of the premises in your memo, and my critique of them.” She then structured her response by separating the “Premise” of the student’s arguments with her “Critique” of said arguments.
Premise: There is an invisible ‘only’ in front of the words ‘Black Lives Matter.’
Critique: There is a difference between focus and exclusion. If something matters, this does not imply that nothing else does. If I say ‘Law Students Matter’ it does not imply that my colleagues, friends, and family do not. Here is something that matters: context. The Black Lives Matter movement arose in a context of evidence that they don’t. When people are receiving messages from a culture in which they live that their lives are less important than other lives, it is a cruel distortion of reality to scold them for not being inclusive enough[…]
As a general matter, seeing the world and the people in it in mutually exclusive, either/or terms impedes your own thought processes. If you wish to bear that intellectual consequence of a constricting ideology, that’s your decision. But this does not entitle you to project your either/or ideology onto people who do not share it.
Premise: Saying “Black Lives Matter” is an expression of hatred against white people.
Critique: “Black Lives Matter” is not a statement about white people. It does not exclude white people. It does not accuse white people, unless you are a specific white person who perpetrates, endorses, or ignores violence against black people.
The professor goes on in a “Part II” to “make some points relevant to formal and persuasive writing,” correcting the student’s uses of dependent clauses, unclear over-generalizations, and all-caps writing.
“In conclusion,” she wrote. “I believe that every moment in life (and certainly in the life of law school) can be an occasion for teaching and learning. Thank you for creating an opportunity for me to put this deeply held belief into practice.”
Link: Students complain about professor's Black Lives Matter shirt. The professor's response is priceless.
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