Microaggression, Meet Ralph Waldo Emerson

" The recent spectacle of foul-mouthed students mobbing startled faculty members at Yale and contrite administrators apologizing for causing undergraduates actual or imagined emotional discomfort reminded me of my first real job. Thirty-three years ago I was appointed an assistant professor of government at Harvard, and, simultaneously, an Allston Burr Senior Tutor. This latter position entailed being the residential dean of a Harvard house.....

From that experience I learned some things applicable to the age of microaggressions, safe spaces, and trigger warnings. One was that there is a certain kind of immature young person who, having discovered that he or she can upset the adults with outlandish statements or behavior and get away with it, will become increasingly absurd or demanding."

[The American Interest]