"As You Know"

                The University of Bath in the United Kingdom proudly sports an “Equality and Diversity Network,” an entity which held a meeting last May to screen a short film titled “Why Is My Curriculum White?” At one point, one of the stalwart young scholars in the film avers that being told “as you know” leads the recipient of the phrase into “self-doubt.”

                I did not know that.

                Bath claims to have an “international reputation for teaching and research excellence,” but it’s failed utterly on both counts here. Teaching—or preaching—that “as you know” is a “white” phrase, is itself racist…not to mention ludicrous. In the total absence of common sense or logic, a little research would’ve revealed that the reason people preface a remark with “as you know” is to avoid insulting the person they are addressing. These words let the person to whom one is speaking know that their intelligence is not in question, and that they may well be aware of what you are about to share with them, but that you are interested in what they think of the matter.

                How can a simple, benign, three-word phrase, designed to flatter the other person be labeled as white racism? Do people of color not use it? If not, do they just assume everyone they’re talking to is an idiot? Of course not, but that is, in essence, what the progressive self-doubting snowflakes are—perhaps accidentally-- implying.

                As you know, some people take perverse pleasure in being offended by everything.