Thread by @DavidLat

1/ Here’s the statement about the Yale Law School email controversy that Marina Edwards, president of the Yale Black Law Students Association, posted to The Wall (the YLS listserv) earlier today.

I’m posting in two parts. This is Part I (four images).

2/ And here is Part II of the statement of Yale BLSA president Marina Edwards about the Yale Law email controversy (three images).

3/ I don’t agree with everything in Marina Edwards’s message, but I think it is a measured, thoughtful, and generally positive statement about this controversy.

4/ Edwards’s tone contrasts strongly with the angry GroupMe messages that I read (which Edwards alludes to, with her reference to “justifiable outrage”).

5/ I also think that regardless of whether Trent Colbert “owed” an apology (and we can argue over that), in hindsight it’s possible that maybe an apology would have been a prudential, temperature-lowering step.

6/ I say “possible” because it’s also possible that his apology—especially if it was an apology for unintentionally causing offense, as opposed to an apology agreeing that what he said was objectively offensive—would have been deemed inadequate.

7/ As folks who know me in real life (or even on Twitter) know, I’m a big believer in apologies.

We should be quick to apologize and slow to accuse.

8/ Going back to this situation, I think Trent Colbert got defensive (and understandably so) after all the furious GroupMe messages. And then he dug in his heels.

9/ In an ideal world, Trent would apologize (even if just for unintentionally causing offense), and his harshest critics would apologize for their intemperate accusations (even if their anger was understandable at the time).

10/ In any event, thanks to Marina Edwards & Yale BLSA for what I think is a productive statement.

Maybe Trent Colbert is right in expressing optimism (in this interview) about the future for the climate at Yale Law School. bit.ly/3B1BkNj

11/ To be clear, and especially upon retreading, I strongly disagree with most of Edwards’s characterization of what actually happened here.

My two posts on Original Jurisdiction set forth my views on the situation, and I stand by them.

12/ But I read the end of Edwards’s message as saying that that the offended students are moving past this and open to dialogue in the future. And I take it that the push to get Colbert booted as student rep will end.

Time will tell.

13/ Sigh. Please consider tweets 3-10 and tweet 12 in this thread retracted. I was far too positive in my assessment.

(I would delete those tweets, but I'm not a fan of deleting tweets, which is often self-serving, and which messes up the record.)

14/ I read too much into the end of Marina Edwards's message. I hoped it meant the offended students were turning the page and entering into a new, more constructive phase.

Alas, @aaronsibarium's latest suggests that they're not.

bit.ly/3C6T5M8