In this episode, I continue with an examination of the events at Yale during Halloween 2015. Most everywhere you look, Yale students have been demonized for their behavior, mostly because of a viral video that showed a student yelling and swearing at Dr. Nicholas Christakis. Of course, that's not the whole story. The analysis in The Coddling of the American Mind takes an odd definition of racism for its understanding and then largely misinterprets what happened between students and Dr. Christakis. The students had a good understanding of racism, and they were trying to avoid the worst habits that surface in discussions of race. Rather than calling the Christakises "racist" or "evil," the students were trying to get them to see how Dr. Erika Christakis's email functions as a thing-in-itself in the larger discourse. All the students wanted initially was an apology, but instead they got a link to the 2015 article, The Coddling of the American Mind, in The Atlantic. These students weren't engaging in cognitive distortions, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy likely wouldn't have changed the outcome. This mess could've been avoided, particularly if anyone would've taken the time to listen to students. Even so, I think there are better ways to start talking about anti-black racism and dehumanization in general that might help us talk more openly about these important issues. This is Part 2 in a continuing series.

The music at the end of the episode is from an unidentified group of Yale students who, by all appearances, are music majors or graduate students. This performance was recorded at the March of Resilience at Yale on November 9, 2015.