Harvard receives backlash for distributing social justice placemats for the holidays
This week, Harvard apologized after it received severe backlash when the College’s Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion distributed social justice placemats for the holidays.
This week, Harvard apologized after it received severe backlash when the College’s Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion distributed social justice placemats for the holidays.
The placemat gave directions for how to have discussions about social justice issues such as the black students’ activism at the university, Islamophobia in the face of the Syrian refugee crisis, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Many people felt that the placemats did not portray people who held opposing views to those espoused by the placemats in a good light, instead showing them as racist or ignorant. Others felt that the whole idea was liberal propaganda. Still others said that the issues were presented in too much of a “shallow and simplistic manner.”
The reaction to the placemats was so severe, in fact, that the university offered an apology:
We write to acknowledge that the placemat distributed in some of your dining halls this week failed to account for the many viewpoints that exist on our campus on some of the most complex issues we confront as a community and society today. Our goal was to provide a framework for you to engage in conversations with peers and family members as you return home for the winter break, however, it was not effectively presented and it ultimately caused confusion in our community… Academic freedom is central to all that Harvard College stands for. To suggest that there is only one point of view on each of these issues runs counter to our educational goals.
Check out the placemat below.
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