My brother, an eighth grader in a school where I am a junior, gave a speech about the genocide in Darfur to his English class. His teacher and classmates chose him to present it to the entire grade. School administrators would not let him speak unless he removed a sentence containing the word "rape," finding it inappropriate for 13-year-olds. Is this censorship, or does the school have a valid point?
Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, responds that it is right for schools to think about what content is appropriate for students to hear but argues that "A discussion of the ghastly events in Darfur must mention rape, lest the audience be significantly misinformed." I agree. Kids younger than eighth grade are exposed to misogyny and violence on television.
As my father says, we cannot sanitize the human experience. The tragedy of Darfur is that thousands of women and girls, many even younger than eighth grade, have been raped. To eliminate the word "rape" from a speech about Darfur does not deny that rape has been and is occurring there, but is does distort the truth. To distort what is happening in Darfur insults the memory and dignity of the victims of Darfur. As activists, my fellow board member Elizabeth Milligan wrote in an earlier post, we have the responsibility to educate others about Darfur in order to combat misinformation. Telling the truth about Darfur is our moral obligation.
2 comments:
While I agree that an 8th grade audience should definitely be mature enough to be exposed to the word and idea of "rape", using that word is not absoutely necessary to conveying the idea. At Jewish World Watch, an anti-genocide organization which speaks to thousands of kids (3rd graders and up) about the genocide in Darfur, sometimes we need to refrain from saying "rape" and instead speak about the attacks, assaults and violence against the women of Darfur. In the case of Darfur where there is a genocidal rape occurring, it seems pretty silly to allow for discussion of the genocide but not of one of the methods being used to commit the genocide. But, we have actually activated 3rd and 4th graders without talking about murder or rape. The kids are able to understand very clearly what is happening. All that being said, 8th graders should definitely be exposed to the truth--they are definitely ready to be informed and responsible and should not be infantalized in the way that the teacher was doing in the 8th grade English class. Janice Kamenir-Reznik, President, Jewish World Watch
I agree that it is possible to talk about Darfur without specifically talking about rape and murder but I think it does a disservice to women everywhere who have been raped. However, a speaker has to judge what her or his audience is able to handle given their age and experience, so I think for school children it is appropriate to discuss it in different terms.
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