Should the beliefs of historically oppressed persons get special consideration when deciding between true and false?
On April 16th, we traveled to Purdue University and presented a complex claim: “When deciding between what’s true or false, the belief of persons in historically oppressed groups should get special consideration.”
The conversation delved into how people interpret what is true or false, and if there are different types of truth (scientific facts vs. historical experience). After you watch the video, let us know your thoughts about how truth and falsity should be determined. This question rests at the heart of many current political and social disputes.
I haven't watched the video but I can give you an example of why "historical experience" is nonsense. I'm a Jewish woman of mature years who's always been skeptical of the medical profession, because I know how easily physicians dismiss the reported experiences of, you know, women. Example: "Pap smears don't hurt!"
And when I was in labor in a very good NY hospital, on a day when it seemed the entire universe was birthing at the same time and the healthcare staff was extremely harried, I was a little disconcerted by the absolute lack of tender solicitousness of the nurses; i.e. telling the woman screaming in the next room that she was just fine.
Or my experiences having my viewpoints dismissed by my employers while board members stating the same were listened to, shall we say, worshipfully. I was a subordinate, so I did not matter.
A black woman with identical experiences who attributed them to ethnicity rather than hierarchy or the way physicians treat all women would, of course, be incorrect. Her "lived experiences" are real but the conclusions she draws from them are erroneous.
This is the big boulder everyone keeps tripping over.
I don't think that this question was necessarily bad, but you probably shouldn't use it again. Student's didn't seem to take the position that you would have expected. Seems like they believe that groups that have been oppressed should be given special consideration to not be censored because they have been censored in the past. It would have been interesting to see someone give the Critical Social Justice position that there may not be objective truth and that truth is a socially constructed idea by the dominant political and social forces in society, and that elevating historically oppressed groups voices gives them power because power and knowledge are inextricably intertwined.