Leonard Pitts An Elephant Analysis

At what point does intelligent insight become biased opinion? Pitts treads on this line many times throughout this essay. While I do agree with him on his overarching points, it is of my experience that a healthy dose of skepticism works wonders in pointing out biases. That healthy dose of skepticism can easily reveal that Pitts in this essay is very biased. First things first, there’s an elephant in the room that needs to be addressed. That elephant is the writer’s overuse of quotations used in a “sarcastic” form. Many times throughout this essay he uses words such as “uncomfortable” in a seemingly sarcastic tone. This first and foremost is a dead giveaway that Pitts does not take censorship in an academic environment in any high regard or is willing to look at the case from the other side’s point of view seriously in any stretch of the term. His first point expresses his distaste for the more “sensitive” academic environment that has come to be in recent years. “Because, with pure hearts and noble intentions, these educators are doing nothing less than presiding over what I will call the stupidification and
He also directly expresses his distaste for censorship by saying that he has “no sympathy for the delicate folks at in Biloxi.” (Pitts.”When Making People Uncomfortable Is the Point”). This makes it obvious of his bias, however as I say that, I still agree with him almost wholeheartedly. American youth and culture has overtime been more and more sheltered. It’s gotten to a point where we are suffering from a cultural and intellectual degradation. What’s next after we start adhering to the people who are “uncomfortable” over controversial language? Do we burn books next? No, we must expose ourselves to every controversial and differing opinion out there in order to strengthen our mind and wisdom. Iron sharpens iron as they