Mukherjee

This article was a hot topic in our group this week.

Because of the diversity in our group we bring a variety of perspectives to the readings. I don't think we got this one the way the prof wanted us to.

While I understand the way she feels having worked hard to get where she is, I don't know if maybe, as one of the group members suggested, she has a chip on her shoulder. Maybe she does, maybe rightfully so.

I just don't think it's unreasonable to think that a person on a campus is a student. The majority of the campus population is student, the minority is faculty, probably in the middle somewhere is admin, maintenance, support staff. I'm sure there are stats for this somewhere. Did the man really deserve her anger? Did he make that bad a mistake?

I've spent a lot of time thinking about this one. No one has ever mistook me for a professor. Why is that? I'd like to know the experiences of other female or male professors on campus. At what point did people start presuming they were profs not students - or does it still happen?

I continue to struggle with the question of intent, here and in other instances. The man did not mean to offend her, surely. He was making conversation. The children in the classroom, with their suggestions of how to solve the problems in India did not mean to offend. But yet in both cases this is what happened. Is ignorance an excuse? Who is responsible?

I'm sure Mukherjee would get tired of explaining that yes, she is a professor - but what choice is there? Wearing a 'Prof' button/label? Offering the information immediately upon meeting someone? Not talking? None of these seems a very good solution.

I really don't think it's fair to blame the kids for their simple explanations. Kids are known to make suggestions that seem clear to them but as adults we know they're just not plausible in the real world. Want to stop war? Then stop fighting. Seems clear and simple, but it's not. Children often are not taugt about sustainable agriculture - most parents aren't either - and how many teachers are? Where did the kids get the idea that if only Indians ate the cows they wouldn't be hungry? Sounds like a dreadful lack of information, not a desire to offend. I see this as a teachable moment - a good time to introduce another culture, the concept of agriculture - even the hazards of eating beef - but instead Mukherjee rants about arrogance.

I wonder if had it been a woman would Mukherjee have gotten as upset? Had the children been solving the problems of world peace would she have gotten so upset?

I won't even go into the caste issue that one member brought up.

Oh, and I see Mukherjee is a prof at York. Maybe I'll get a chance to hear her lecture someday.