Claire Middlekamp

Dr. Billie Dziech

Intermediate English Comp Section 044

10/5/2017

Response 12

“The Comfortable Kid” by Eric Hoover argues that universities coddle today’s college

students. To pose his argument, he focuses on microaggressions and trigger warnings. A

microaggression is a “subtle conveyance of bias or stereotype” that is starting to be highlighted

by today’s generation. The difference between then and now isn’t the existence of these slights,

but the sensitivity to them and action taken against them. At Emory University, microaggressions

are discussed during orientation and today, so many groups on campuses focus on diversity in

one way or another. Diversity is dealt with on a much larger scale and talking about

microaggressions is a good way to start the conversation about it. The debate from there is how

far is too far? Is it worth addressing every incident or does that encourage students be soft and

take offense at everything?

Another topic discussed is trigger warnings. A trigger warning is warning students of

possible emotionally hazardous material in things assigned. These topics could be abuse, suicide,

violence, etc. If a teacher were to give a trigger warning with an assigned reading for example,

the student could opt out of reading it and request an alternate plan. There’s a debate between

whether this action is being a good teacher or coddling to an extreme. The potential

consequences of allowing students to choose material that makes them comfortable are that

students will not think uncomfortably, which may be the purpose of higher education after all.

There are always two sides and the other argues that trigger warnings allow for “empathetic
correctness”—a continuation of political correctness. Empathy could involve coddling but could

also promote security and understanding. Hoover argues the Millennials want the world to be

tailored to them, and it’s not intellectually healthy. The large discussion about trigger warnings

and microaggressions comes from the desire for an offense-free world, which gets in the way of

free speech.

I think Hoover’s description of Millennials as a whole is accurate. The college culture

does deal a lot with marginalized groups sticking up for themselves and the rest of the

unmarginalized not taking blame. Trigger warnings fly through the public safety email at UC.

Whenever there is a protest or some sort of possibly offensive display, someone feels the need to

remind campus that potentially offensive or harmful material will be on display and how to avoid

it. I’m sure this is true for other universities as well since they are a hot spot of protest and

display of opinions. Everyone has something unique about themselves and there is a group to

join the tailors to it. To me, it seems like most groups of similar people anywhere are very

focused on sticking up for themselves and getting others to join them. This means the LGBTQ,

racial and ethnic groups, religious groups, etc. It’s not a bad thing, but it does go with the

argument that we prefer to feel comfortable, especially within our groups.

Millennials are bad at taking criticism which feeds the offense fire. It goes along with the

idea that microaggressions are discussed and those accused feel like guilt is being shoved down

their throats. Millennials want problems to be someone else’s fault. That’s why everyone is

trying to accommodate every single difference they want preserved—because any unfair

treatment will call out the victim mindset. On one hand, I agree with encouraging understanding

different traits groups of people possess and not being cruel to them. On the other hand, I think

encouraging groups to believe their differences make them not able to fit in with the population
around them is an unfair lie. It encourages a one-way street of empathy and doesn’t move toward

understanding. For example, in the reading it says college freshman said they “work well with

other and tolerate those with different beliefs”, but their “openness to having their own views

challenged” is low. This doesn’t add up and is so characteristic of the Millennial generation. As a

whole, they wish to have their point of view understood, but won’t change it to accommodate

someone else’s.