The Rise of Victimhood Culture: January 2018

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The Rise of Victimhood Culture
Book · January 2018

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-70329-9
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Bradley Campbell & Jason Manning
THE RISE OF
VICTIMHOOD CULTURE
Microaggressions, Safe Spaces,
and the New Culture Wars
Preview: Buy the full book on Amazon
Contents
1
3
12
16
21
27
37
38
40
47
58
62
64
66
3 Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, and the Language

71
74
79
84
86
xxv
xxvi Contents
93
95
97
4 False Accusations, Moral Panics, and the Manufacture

105
106
111
114
115
117
121
127
134
143
145
146
150
155
161
171
177
180
186
190
192
203
207
213
216
223
229
243
Contents
xxvii
249
250
253
255
259
264
Index 267
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CHAPTER 1
Microaggression and the Culture
of Victimhood
In March of 2013 Oberlin College canceled classes after a student reported

seeing someone on campus wearing Ku Klux Klan regalia. Our initial
thoughts were that there was unlikely to be a KKK chapter at Oberlin
College, a private liberal arts school with a reputation for progressive
activism. Indeed, the apparent Klansman later turned out to be a woman
wrapped in a blanket (Dicken 2013). The sighting occurred after racist,
anti-Semitic, and otherwise offensive messages had been posted on cam-
pus during the previous few weeks. These were also not what they seemed,
as the culprits were not racists, but two progressive students attempting to
get a reaction from the community (Ross 2013).
Reading about this from a distance, we found it puzzling that the
Oberlin College community was so ready to believe that virulent racists
lurked among them. Then we came across something even more remark-
able: the Oberlin Microaggressions website, which invited submissions
from those who “hear racist, heterosexist/homophobic, anti-Semitic, clas-
sist, ableist, sexist/cissexist speech.” The aim of the site was to “
demonstrate
that these are not simply isolated incidents, but rather part of structural
inequalities” (Oberlin Microaggressions 2017). Again some students
seemed to think Oberlin, of all places, was a hotbed of bigotry and oppres-
sion. But they did not just concern themselves with overt displays of rac-
ism, or even with imagined Klan conspiracies. These students wanted to
© The Author(s) 2018 1

B. Campbell, J. Manning, The Rise of Victimhood Culture,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70329-9_1
16 B. CAMPBELL AND J. MANNING
In rejecting dignity culture’s distinction between violent offenses and

merely verbal ones, victimhood culture resembles honor culture.
Honorable people are sensitive to insult, so they might understand how
microaggressions could be severe offenses demanding a serious response.
But honor cultures value unilateral aggression and disparage appeals for
help. Public complaints that advertise or even exaggerate one’s own vic-
timization and need for sympathy would be anathema to a person of
honor, tantamount to showing that one had no honor at all.6 Complaints
about microaggressions combine the sensitivity to slight that we see in
honor cultures with the willingness to appeal to authorities and other third
parties that we see in dignity cultures. And victimhood culture differs from
both honor and dignity cultures in highlighting rather than downplaying
the complainants’ victimhood.
Beyond Microaggression
The microaggression program has had enormous success. Some of the
microaggression websites are now inactive, but students on Twitter and in
other forums continue making microaggression complaints. And the con-
cept has been taken up and institutionalized by university administrators,
professors, and student governments. The University of Wisconsin-Stevens
Point uses a document for faculty training very similar to the University of
California’s, and Purdue University uses something similar in a business
class (Hookstead 2015). Suffolk University has announced a mandatory
microaggression training program for faculty (Jaschik 2016). Freshmen at
Clark University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison get microag-
gression training (Melchior 2016a; Saul 2016). Even an engineering class
at Iowa State teaches it (Beaman 2016). The student government at Ithaca
College has called for the school to create an electronic microaggression
6
Members of honor cultures might call attention to offenses against themselves, but only
as a way of pressuring the offender to agree to a violent confrontation. In the antebellum
American South, for instance, aggrieved parties might take out advertisements in newspapers
calling attention to insults. One such advertisement read, “Sir—I am informed you applied
to me on the day of the election the epithet ‘puppy.’ If so, I shall expect that satisfaction
which is due from one gentleman to another for such an indignity” (quoted in Williams
1980:22–23). Again, touchiness goes hand in hand with verbal aggression in such settings,
so honorable Southerners might also use newspapers to insult others. In 1809, for instance,
the Savannah Republican printed this: “I hold Francis H. Welman a Liar, Coward,
and Poltroon. John Moorhead” (quoted in Williams 1980:22).
CHAPTER 6
Sociology, Social Justice, and Victimhood
Victimhood culture makes it hard to avoid wrongdoing. If you have any

kind of privilege, the social world is full of peril; you always risk giving
offense. Engage in small talk and you might be guilty of a microaggres-
sion. Cook a new dish or adopt a new hairstyle and you might be guilty of
cultural appropriation. Teach about something unpleasant and you might
be guilty of triggering someone. Express your religious or political beliefs
and you might be guilty of violence. Whatever you do, you must do it in
a way that is supportive of victims and reproachful of their oppressors.
Doing sociology is no exception.
According to sociologist Richard Felson, “avoid blaming the victim”
amounts to “a procedural rule in sociology today” (1991:21, n. 11).
“Today” was 1991, so a concern for victims has played a role in sociologi-
cal explanation for decades now. To blame someone is to hold that person
morally culpable, so holding someone who is raped culpable for the rape,
or someone who is killed culpable for the homicide, is victim blaming.
Even to say a victim is partly at fault might be victim blaming. Felson
explains that this is because blame is often “treated as a fixed quantity.” A
“zero-sum treatment of blame” means that “if we say a crime victim has
made a mistake (e.g., ‘he shouldn’t have jogged in that park that night’),
it implies that we are assigning less blame to the offender.” If you want to
assign maximum blame to the offender, then, “you will prefer to deny any
sort of blame to the victim” (Felson 1991:7).

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70329-9_6
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CHAPTER 8
Conclusion
The Marquis de la Donze, a seventeenth-century French aristocrat, killed

his brother-in-law in a duel. He was arrested, tried, and condemned to
death. A priest visited him prior to the execution and asked if he wanted
to pray for forgiveness for his crime. The condemned man exclaimed, “Do
you call one of the cleverest thrusts in Gascony a crime?” (Baldick 1965:62,
cited in Black 1989:33).
To the end this duelist did not accept the state’s judgment of his con-
duct—he had defended his honor, as any man of good standing would. If
anything, people should admire the swordsmanship that granted him vic-
tory. Many others arrested and condemned for dueling must have been
similarly bewildered to see their actions punished rather than praised.
What was wrong with people? Did honor mean nothing these days?
Contemporary people might feel some sympathy with these baffled duel-
ists, even if they feel none for their code of honor. The clash of different
moral frameworks is often bewildering, and the clashes of our own time are
no different. For some the shock is to see innocuous statements and inno-
cent questions result in such uproar. Protests, public shaming, firings,
investigations, expulsions—all over things that are rude at worst and often
not even that. For others it can be almost inconceivable that anyone would
not share their outrage. Racism, sexism, homophobia—oppression satu-
rates our society, and many people are too blinded by privilege to see the
damage it causes. And there are still those who are unaware that any moral
clash is taking place, tending their own lives in blissful ignorance of the
distant storm—until it heads their way.

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70329-9_8
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See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

The Rise of Victimhood Culture

Book · January 2018

Bradley Campbell Jason Manning

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Suicide: A Study in Pure Sociology View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

3 Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, and the Language

4 False Accusations, Moral Panics, and the Manufacture

Preview: Buy the full book on Amazon

In March of 2013 Oberlin College canceled classes after a student reported

© The Author(s) 2018 1

16 B. CAMPBELL AND J. MANNING

In rejecting dignity culture’s distinction between violent offenses and

Sociology, Social Justice, and Victimhood

Victimhood culture makes it hard to avoid wrongdoing. If you have any

© The Author(s) 2018 177

The Marquis de la Donze, a seventeenth-century French aristocrat, killed

© The Author(s) 2018 249

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