Ran across this article and the more I think about it the more I am beginning to worry that we as a society are going too far with this type of behaviour
Student union bans clapping to make events 'inclusive'
The University of Manchester's student union wants praise communicated using jazz hands instead - and cheering is also banned.
Clapping has been banned by a student union in an move to be more inclusive towards those with anxiety or sensory issues.
Jazz hands - British Sign Language (BSL) clapping - will replace clapping, cheering and whooping at the University of Manchester's student union events.
According to student newspaper Mancunion, the ban was agreed at the first union meeting of the year.
"It resolved to swap out audible clapping for BSL clapping at SU events, and to encourage student groups and societies to do the same, and to include BSL clapping as a part of inclusion training," the student paper reads.
The motion was authored by liberation and access officer Sara Khan, and received little opposition.
Now while it is all well and good that the aim or goal is to make things more inclusive are initiatives like this really accomplishing that goal?
Have they not just excluded the blind or those with poor eyesight from their "inclusive" initative? At least the deaf individuals would have been able to see when clapping occurred and participate and stop at appropriate times. Would they not have also had a sign language interpreter present which would have allowed them to know when to clap or stop? After all that would have been when the jazz hands would have been used. I think the bigger issue here for the deaf is that they couldn't hear the presentation at all, not the worry that were feeling left out by not knowing when to clap or cheer.
Seems like we are throwing the baby out with the bath water here folks.
The blind are now left out of this "inclusive" club. At least previously they were able to tell when to start and stop clapping by the sound. Now this has been removed and they are left literally in the dark. Doesn't seem to inclusive to me. What have the deaf gained vs what the blind have lost? Are we really ahead?
What about those poor individuals who don't have hands? Are they now going to feel even more excluded? An initiative after all was created for the sole purpose of including those with disabilities and yet once again they were excluded even from that. Talk about feeling left out. Not even like they could raise their hands and object.
Obviously we as a society need to find ways to include as many people as we can in everything, but it just seems like things are getting out of hand and not accomplishing anything real or lasting at all.
Should all of us with sight, wear dark glasses at all times to make the blind feel inclusive?
Should we all plug our ears so the deaf don't feel different?
I fear that soon we might be asked to do just that in order to make others feel included.
It seems that the more we try to include every nook and cranny of humanity, the more obvious it becomes about the ones that are now being excluded.
In my opinion, while the goal of these initiatives is admirable, they are not accomplishing that goal and only serving to further emphasize the exclusive nature of our society. This push for political correctness and making everyone happy at all times is simply fool's gold.
In a sense this is just another move at stifling individuality and freedom of expression. I mean really, clapping is now offensive? Cheering? When will this be implemented at sporting events? Somehow I just can't see this being adopted the next time Manchester United plays Liverpool or Arsenal. Does that mean all those fans are being inconsiderate to the deaf?
Where do we draw the line? How much is too much? There is a lot of time, money and manpower being put into initiatives such as this, but again, are they really having the desired impact? Or we are just shifting the exclusivity problem from one group to another?
Obviously building wheelchair ramps or the like is a good initiative as that does not newly inconvenience a different group of individuals. Having a sign language interpreter also does not cause anyone else a detriment, only benefits. But changing the way society claps or shows appreciation? These are much more wide ranging changes that can promote problems that it appears are not even being considered by the champions of initiatives such as these.
Now while I have presented some entirely far-fetched and perhaps humorous examples I wonder how many of them are in the works right now?
So I ask one final time.
Are we going to far?
Good question my friend, and to be honest with you, I think it's just going to get worse until it implodes.
these ideas are so paradoxical and unnatural that they are literally rotting themselves.
This reminds me of this story I heard, pretty hilarious in my opinion of this all girl college, traditional all girl school and what not.
They were running elections, for the students that is, and one of the titles to win, was something along the lines of "Representative of Diversity" or something of the sort.
Everything was going well, I suppose, but before the elections were up, the runner up, the girl that was poised to win the position made the choice to become a boy. Nothing against that, I'm all for freedoms, but it's relevant to the story.
Because she all of the sudden was a man, and her piers were forced to recognize her as one, they were also forced to see her as a threat. Because now she was a he, and he was a white male, and there is/was nothing more toxic than a white male, and a white male could never be president of diversity or anything of the sort.
Needless to say it became a cacophony of stupidity.
It's very much like piranhas, we all know the fishes that live in the amazonian river, right? Well, we think of them as a pack, they swim in deadly packs and attack big animals. They are quite impressive to take down birds and other critters many times their size.
Well, if one of the piranhas starts to swim a little sideways; guess what happens? That piranha get's served for lunch right there and then.
I will say the unpopular thing here, and say that we have forgotten what real problems are. We have a planet with people who can't drink water that doesn't have insane amounts of contaminants on it, and we are focusing on the sensitivities of those who feel uncomfortable when someone claps.
Where are our priorities?
EXACTLY
We are becoming more and more focused on issues such as the one on the article and yet people are starving every day, don't have clean drinking water, are being murdered or going homeless.
And yet this is where society decides to prioritize its time and efforts?
Jazz hands?
I WEEP FOR HUMANITY
Much, much too far. I was planning on doing a post about the futility and utter wastefulness that arises from "polictical correctness" (boy, doesn't that sound Newspeak?) It is beyond silly, to the point of downright offensive for censorship to be bandied about in the name of inclusion. Because that's what this really is. It's censorship, of a sort, dressed up in a suit and tie. And it does have detrimental effects...
Upvoted.
Any idea if this is serious or if it was meant by them to be satirical? The latter seems more likely to me, but then again, who knows I guess...
No its for real.
There are multiple articles on the same initiative. I just linked the one.
I was hoping against hope it was satirical in nature but I fear not.
My post is semi-satirical but also very much Orwellian I fear.
✋🏼🤚🏼
The last time I was at Manchester University (which was a very long ago, and I was visit because I studied at Keele) the biggest problem the students had was standing up after propping the bar up all day.
It all seems a bit silly to me, and even more confusing - clapping as appreciation has sound (so the visually impaired would hear to know they should also clap) - so this Jazz hands idea will stop them knowing when to clap.
I am certainly all for equal opportunities and ensuring everyone has a fair chance to join in - but this does seem to be taking away an age old tradition of appreciation just for the sake of being seen to be "doing something"
#thealliance #witness
That is what is boggling to me as well.
I applaud the initiative to do good and improve the lot of those less fortunate
However it seems like we are becoming hyper focused on a certain group and neglect to consider the impact on other groups.
In this case, we have turned a blind eye to blind as a group I would say.
How could this not be seen ahead of time?
The fact that this faced little opposition as reported in the article leads me to believe that we as a society are now afraid to speak out or up against anything that might be deemed politically correct. We are sacrificing our voices so that others may run rampant with their half thought out, blindsided ideas.
I do not see this as a positive path we are going down.
I wonder if they heard from any deaf people? Or if they just presumed that it would be better for them.
If I was deaf I would be seriously pissed if someone did something like this. I wouldn't want to live in a world that lowered the experience for others just to mollify me.
Ugggghhh. Too much, too often.
I agree @bigtom13
I'm sure there are some deaf people that supported and possibly championed this initiative, but I don't think anyone believes they speak for all the deaf students/teachers/workers there.
I'm sure this placed some unwanted/unneeded stress or attention on some people who were perfectly fine with status quo
I will stand and applaud loudly when common sense is reinstated.
I beleive in make things accessible to as many people as possible. But once we start making people change we get a back lash. Which can create a whole other set of problems. As you pointed out be inclusive excludes others. So do we stop having pep rallies and award ceremonies so no one feels left out.
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We've been going too far for a long time now. We're so far beyond "too far" that if we turned back now, we couldn't see where we've been. This whole thing about inclusiveness doesn't achieve the desired end. Forced inclusiveness always leads to someone being excluded. Thanks for bringing some attention to it, however.
Glad to see I am not alone in this thinking
I was worried how many downvotes would hit as things like this are always touchy to bring forward.
As I said, we as a society are becoming more fearful to speak up, speak our mind, speak the truth and say hey not everyone can be included at all times.
if done respectfully I see no problem disagreeing or raising concerns in a PC environment
Yeah, some people are really touchy. Especially about touchiness.
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