Word: mansfields
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...seems that the comments Mansfield makes are simply not understood by those who attack him. He is quoted as saying, "White professors were unwilling to give black students C's to avoid giving them a rough welcome [in the early 1970s]. At the same time they didn't give C's to white students to be fair...
...Rather, Mansfield's comment says that the grades that some of the black students received were inflated, as were the grades of many white students, since grades were inflated generally. The source of this problem is conceived of as white professors' unwillingness to give some students the grades that they deserved. It seems clear that Mansfield's statement, then, is a censure of white professors in the 1970s, as he claims...
What bothers and confuses me is that this statement is being met with such a negative reaction. If what Mansfield had actually intended is offensive, then it would make sense to be upset about that...
However, it seems that the negative student reaction is aimed at something that is not quite what Mansfield said--some sort of mental construction that contorts Mansfield's words and attributes to him a position that he does not and did not take...
...then, do the students involved attribute this view to Mansfield? Is it because they have just not taken the time to understand his statement, or do they have some sort of reason to particularly dislike him? Are they simply looking to be offended? Or is there something entirely different at work here that I have missed...