Overview

Full Product Details

9780275954383

Table of Contents

Reviews

Fighting Words presents an important challenge to America's higher education leadership. Either develop constructive, non-pejorative means to discuss and explore issues of race and racism on college campuses and in American society, or expect students to act upon their socially conditioned racial antagonisms in a way that will shatter the presumed serenity of academic environments. Kudos to Marcus for bringing this unpleasant little secret into the light of day. -William B. Harvey, Dean School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

An ultimately creepy look at intolerance on campus and how it should be countered. Like many of the good-hearted, Marcus, a professor in the Educational Administration Department of Rowan College, is captivated by the fallacy that if you can somehow cure the smallest symptoms, you have rooted out the disease. While there is little doubt that hate speech - and the racism from which it stems - is a serious societal problem, hate speech on American campuses always seems to boil down anecdotally to a few dozen frequently told and retold incidents (which Marcus makes sure we go over one more time). Yet he seems to believe that quieting the misled few among the educated, enlightened mass of college students is an important issue. And he gives it both barrels. An extended history of racism is followed by an analysis of the affirmative action debate; other chapters deal at length with such issues as college speech codes. The analysis is rarely original, but it is certainly extensive: Marcus strings together endless pages of quotes and statistics, occasionally pausing for interpolations. Using as his model the disruption caused at Kean College in 1993 by a speech by Nation of Islam's Khalid Abdul Muhamad, Marcus then looks at what colleges should and should not do to reduce hate speech. His solution is a legalistic reinterpretation of the First Amendment that - no matter how Marcus glosses over it - would allow censorship. He also champions classes in intergroup relations and a series of kindly coercive measures to make certain that everyone gets along. Regular human relations audits will then ensure that everything is working as planned. Occasionally, universities have acted in loco parentis. With these measures in place, they would add another member to the family - Big Brother. (Kirkus Reviews)

Author Information

LAURENCE R. MARCUS is a professor in the Educational Administration Department of Rowan College. He has previously held positions at the New Jersey Department of Higher Education, Stockton State College in New Jersey, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he received his doctorate. His book, The Great Educational Debate: Washington and the Schools (coauthored by Benjamin D. Stickney), was honored by Choice as a 1985-86 Outstanding Academic Book.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available