"Our commitment to academic freedom means we do not support so-called 'trigger warnings', we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial, and we do not condone the creation of intellectual 'safe-spaces' where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own."
This is a part of the letter that the University of Chicago recently sent out to incoming freshmen. Some believe that there is no use for trigger warnings because we have to face perspectives different than ours. But no one wants to shut out different ideas than what we tend to believe, we need the safe spaces to have our open dialogues, to understand one another. Of course each person has the right to discuss whatever they want, but we have to be mindful of each other and how our words and actions are perceived. We need not to create unsafe environments.
This letter brought me back to a discussion we had in English class. One of the articles we had to read for class was about trigger warnings and we talked about whether they were necessary or not. The majority of the class agreed with the article, I kind of saw why they said some of what they said but I still kept to the belief that we do need trigger warnings.
It bothered me because I thought about the person out there suffering from some traumatic event. What if something triggered them to relive that event in their head? Don't they deserve a safe space? What if they can't just simply face what happened to them? They cannot just get over it or deal with it. They need safe spaces, they need communities that care and help them to get through it. Not spaces where they are forced to deal with it.
Students tend to view their schools as safe spaces, until their school tells them that they cannot have safe spaces. The main argument about safe spaces and trigger warnings was that we have to face these things in the real world. Why can't we foster environments where it becomes safe to talk about these sensitive issues so it makes it bearable to face them in the 'real world'?
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, Colleen Crane, a lecturer in social work at the University of Michigan says, "A trigger warning gives a pause and reflection for the student in that classroom. I think it's kind of important to remind people that the content can be triggering and to almost prepare yourself mentally, emotionally and physically to be discussing this in the context of the classroom." No one is saying that we have to immediately dismiss content that may cause us harm, but we should have the proper environments to learn and discuss them. A safe space.
