A blog about an email about a comment

Discrimination at the University of Alabama? No never. I hope this will stir up some discussion and interest about what has happened on our campus and the way it was handled. In the event that you aren't aware. Here's a bit of context for you.

Check it here

Here is the editorial I wrote for the newspaper regarding the email response President Witt sent out about the "racial slur" that occurred Friday night. Enjoy.


"Witt Squanders Opportunity to Promote Pluralism":

On Saturday afternoon, as most students are now aware, Dr. Witt emailed the student body in an attempt to address “a racial slur” that was “offensive to our community, and especially upsetting to African Americans”.

President Witt goes on to issue a 63 word response that could only be summed up as short sighted and reactionary. At surface level this response looks “very, very nice” and “Noble”, but for students who actually look deeper into what is being said, it is actually quite offensive and exclusionary.

To explain this further I’ll use the ever so famous “Tip of my hat, Wag of my finger approach” made famous by the always brilliant Stephen Colbert.

A tip of my hat to you, President Witt, for attempting to act nobly by whisking in to take up the cause of a student facing discrimination. You even went as far as underlining the words “In strongest Possible terms” to show that you meant it in the strongest possible terms. And I agree, racism, discrimination and hate speech in any form should not be tolerated at this University or in any setting.

But a wag of my finger to President Witt and his press secretary who allowed him to send such an email without thinking of the larger issue to which this incident speaks. As I said before, any speech or action of this sort is deplorable and should not be tolerated. But by singling out one instance and addressing it alone, Dr. Witt further disenfranchised so many students who feel discrimination every day on this campus. Discrimination occurs every moment against {racially, socially, religious, gender, sexual preference}, etc. diverse groups and yet this is the only isolated instance that gets addressed.


Unlike most Barn Burning editorials, I would actually like to offer a solution for President Whitt and his public relations staff. Instead of isolating one fragment of the student body, address the larger issue as a whole. Address the fact that as colleagues at the University of Alabama we should be promoting a spirit of pluralism. The key to stopping discrimination is by embracing the characteristics that make us different, not running from them.

I’ll leave you with this request: THINK! As simplistic and cliché as it sounds, if students as well as faculty and administrators would stop and think about the issues they are presented with instead of acting out of impulse, we would receive a lot less half-“Witt”ed apologies.

Fear and Loathing in Rammer Jammer: An Autobiography

I realize that this is most likely an effort in futility, and odds are that no one really gives this blog the glance anymore. Which makes this all the more perfect for me to post this on here.

Let me preface this by saying that in no way do I intend this to be a self-consumed or self-gratifying post. I put this up here with the hopes that if someone stumbles across it they will glean something of value. (If nothing else read the epilogue... no one does those anymore.)

Moving along, my thesis professor told us that we had to write our academic autobiography and in doing so I realized a lot about myself. Whether I convey that well here or not is debatable. Nonetheless, I think there is some beneficial information in here when thinking about educational careers. So without further a-du:




Fear and Loathing In Rammer Jammer: The Academic Autobiography of Michael A. Wynn

Eclectic. By definition most people understand this as “deriving ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.” However, for the purpose of this piece, as well as for the justification of my academic career, let us instead view eclectic as meaning “of, denoting, or belonging to a class of ancient philosophers who did not belong to or found any recognized school of thought but selected such doctrines as they wished from various schools.” While I obviously do not consider myself an ancient philosopher, over the course of my academic career I began affiliating myself with and engaging in a wide array of activities that I felt would make me into a person well versed in not just one concentration but in numerous fields spanning disciplines, talents, and groups. As an aspiring attorney, I knew from the outset that success lay somewhere in the grey area of blended careers and ambitions. I only wish someone had told me that excessive sleep deprivation, caffeine binges, and library live-ins were also thrown in that mix; but I digress. The important component to understanding the synthesis of the existence I am currently residing in, requires tracing back through the rabbit hole that winds all the way to a wide eyed, shaggy haired, eighteen year old Floridian surfer dropped in the middle of crimson covered Alabama.

As an incoming Honors freshman from a small town and an equally small-minded high school, the life of diversified scholasticism seemed daunting. Or in more plain terms, it scared the ever-living hell out of me. At the very outset, I was pitted with a difficult decision because my parents had laid out a twelve-step Scholastics Anonymous plan for me to follow in order to achieve some pseudo-Maslowian construct of Self-Actualization. Apparently they missed the “self” prefix in “Self-Actualization”. It seemed as though it was Business School or bust. So as any good freshman that was indebted to their parents would do, I blindly complied; Step 1: Admit you have a problem – “Hello. My name is Michael, and I’m a freshman Business major.” I knew that in order for me to retain sanity, it was integral that I expose myself to experiences different from those found within my day-to-day business-centric class regiment. Thus I decided to pursue a minor in Communication(NO “S”) Studies. Little did I know that this decision and one Com 101 seminar taught by the brilliant and engaging Dr. Carol Bishop Mills would change my academic career forever.

Allow me if you will to elaborate for a moment on the importance of this class. While all of my prior classes had been incredibly linear, this class experience challenged me to be educationally amorphous. That is, realize it was perfectly acceptable to think nonlinearly about issues. One theory that I applied this new scope of learning to was that of Goffman and his idea of the Preservation of Self. As I read about this concept of “the actor” and his “stage”, I saw myself. I was an actor on a stage, except I was following someone else’s life script. A change had to be made. I had to be intellectually pushed and fulfilled. This brings me to my sophomore year.

It did not take a full semester in my second year of the business school for me to realize how unfulfilled I was. A change had to be made. Thus, I took the foundation that was laid during my inaugural year, and in one swift act trashed the life script that had been written for me; closed the curtain to that “stage”; flipped the bird to Scholastics Anonymous and transferred to the College of Communication and Information Sciences; and after some deliberation and trial and error arrived at Communication Studies as major. No other discipline equipped me with the ability to perform an in-depth analysis on the words and actions of others as well as myself; and then pair this analysis with the skills to unpack, contextualize, and then synthesize them into useful, persuasive discourse.

In keeping with the spirit of eclecticism, I could not merely study one discipline within Communication Studies over the next two years. I thrived on the idea of immersing myself in varied facets within the discipline to diversify myself in hopes of being a well-rounded student of the art. Interpersonal, Small Group, Rhetoric, Argumentation, Research and Analysis, and so on and so forth; no com rock was left unturned. Coupling this with a slew of classes covering the educational gamut, I now am looking toward the graduation podium knowing that I have much more than the degree listed on my diploma. I have a diversified wealth of knowledge that will make me competitive across the board.

Which brings us to the all-important question, “Why Communication?” How am I to convey the gravity and worth of the skills that have been imparted to me? I know that I am supposed to discuss a theory or an author or something tangible of the sort that has really held me faithful to the study of communication. However, I believe it is the intangible that has held me here. That is, it is the application of gleanings from my Communication Studies classes in courses and scenarios outside the department that continually reaffirm my decision to pursue this in my undergraduate career. I suppose the closest theoretical likening to and justification for my self proclaimed academic eclecticism is entwined with Humanistic Scholarship. Just as the humanist aims for subjectivity and the search and discovery of creative individualism as a means of knowing; as have I made it a point to creatively assemble my academic career in a manner that allows me to retain subjectivity as I view and interpret the world. Unfortunately, telling that to a potential employer would end in one of two likely results: 1) puzzled looks or 2) riotous laughter. Which brings us to the crux upon which every other questions rest, how does one convey adequacy in the work place when pitted against people from more traditional disciplines? Are we as communication studies majors adequately prepared to compete in the rigorous dog eat dog business market? To which I respond vehemently, emphatically, unequivocally, beyond a shadow of any rising doubt, maybe.

I apologize for the anticlimacticism of the previous statement, however it was entirely necessary. Allow me to explain. Communication studies is, in my humble opinion, a unique discipline in that it does not demand conformity and thus in turn does not produce predictable results. For example, when one completes a degree in accounting, it is reasonably assumed that said student is thereby capable of accomplishing a list of quantifiable, concrete, succinct objectives. No matter what university you examine, an accounting major will be able to perform the tangible tasks of accounting. Conversely, when looking at a student of communication studies what across the board quantifiable skill or service rendered is produced? Most would say there is none. This is not to say that as communication studies majors we are not endowed with usable skills or marketable traits, quite the opposite in fact. It is to say that for a student of communication studies it takes more than class attendance and graduation to make one’s self marketable. A claim of this sort is not without justification I assure you. Being that this is my autobiography, it is only fitting to use myself as an example. Consider this my unpacking of 4 years worth of covert ethnographic research on myself.

As mentioned previously, I always knew that my end goal was attending law school and in turn practicing law. I did not, however, know the best specific path to achieve said goal. I chose communication studies because it, more so than any other discipline would give the basis of skills necessary to be an effective and competitive law student. However, the major in and of itself was not the end. It was the catalyst. Communication studies equipped me with the lens through which to view all of my activities, whether academic or extra curricular. That is, my discipline gave me the theoretical basis, but my work outside of it would give me the marketable, tangible application. Thus, I began involving myself in organizations, activities, and non-discipline related curriculum that would allow me to have varied applications of my primary studies. It was within these involvements and undertakings that I was truly able to show my academic prowess and value. Had I not taken the initiative to diversify and apply myself, I would have nothing tangible to show potential employers or graduate programs leaving my undergraduate career. There in lies the beauty and the horror of being a communication studies major. At the end of the day, your schooling means nothing without the students drive to cultivate and apply it.

Epilogue:

What piece of self-elaborating, borderline narcissistic pseudo-expose writing would be complete without an epilogue? Most people simply have a concluding paragraph, but in the spirit of completing an arduous and somewhat pretentious piece of prose, an epilogue seems far more fitting. That being said, I leave you with these final thoughts. An undergraduate education is a precious, fragile, terrifying, mind opening, death defying, bank account squandering, hell of a thing. I say “thing” because to call it anything more definitive would be a disservice to the amorphousness with which everyone should view his or her undergraduate endeavor. The years that each student is allotted should be viewed with openness and eager expectation to grow. Do not for one fraction of a moment ever allow someone to dictate the path for you. Instead do as Thoreau urged and “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.” I leave you with this: live an applied life. All of the education in the world is useless if you do not take the initiative to own it, synthesize it, and live it.