You may have heard that the Sacramento Bee recently uncovered the fact that UC Davis, under the aegis of Chancellor Linda Katehi, paid consultants at least $175,000 to bury accounts of the November 18, 2011 incident in which UC Davis cops pepper-sprayed student demonstrators in the face under more positive search-engine results about the university.
Historiann (appropriately for a historian), doesn't think the record of those events should be buried. She asked for help from her readers in re-boosting the story to prominence in search results. I'm not sure that's strictly necessary (Katehi seems to have managed it pretty well on her own, proving that the coverup is, indeed, often more damaging to a perpetrator's reputation than the original offense), but it's a worthy cause, so I figured I'd join in. #UCDavisPepperSpray
We could also discuss how the UC Davis pepper-spray incident compares with Ohio State administrators' recent tactic of turning students' "safe space" rhetoric back on them. One is more obviously violent than the other, but I suppose one could also lead to the other, especially when "you looked scary to them" rhetoric is in play.
The Streisand Effect is clearly alive and well in the UC Davis matter.
ReplyDeleteThe OSU is a matter of "be careful what you ask for." However, it occurs to me that the students who staged the sit-in may not have been the very same ones asking for safe spaces.