White prof
harassed for questioning diversity event, by Justin
Caruso and Anthony Gockowski Campus
Reform Reporter, 5/25/17
Hundreds of students marched through
campus at Evergreen State College to protest what they consider rampant racism
at the school.
The protesters demanded that Professor
Bret Weinstein resign over an email he sent questioning the decision to ask
white people to leave campus for diversity programming, which he distinguished
from a group voluntarily absenting itself.
They were also upset over a social media post in which a
self-described liberal student pointed out the absurdity of a demand for
classes specifically for "black/brown people" by inserting
"white people" into the original post.
Students are calling for the
resignation of an Evergreen State College professor who questioned the school’s
request that white people vacate campus during a day-long event for people of
color.
The school has long hosted an annual
two-part event known as the “Day of Absence and Day of Presence,” which traditionally begins with a day of off-campus
programming for students of color (the “day of absence”) that coincides with
on-campus workshops for the white population, followed by a “day of presence”
during which students compare notes from the experience. "The left is now
mobilizing against itself to push its overused rhetoric on every free
thinker." Tweet This
This year, however, The Cooper Point Journal reports that the format was flipped in response to complaints
from non-white students that they feel unwelcome on campus in the wake of
Donald Trump’s election, with white students and faculty members being asked to
vacate the campus for the day.
The decision did not sit well with
Professor Bret Weinstein, who sent an all-staff email arguing that the new
approach radically changes the nature of the event from aspirational to
condemnatory.
“There is a huge difference between
a group or coalition deciding to voluntarily absent themselves from a shared
space in order to highlight their vital and under-appreciated roles and a group
or coalition encouraging another group to go away,” Weinstein
wrote, calling the latter a “show of
force, and an act of oppression in and of itself.”
The missive became public, resulting
in an on-campus confrontation Wednesday between Weinstein and student
protesters, in which Weinstein attempts to engage in dialogue with the
students, who in turn call him a “piece of shit” and ask for his resignation,
as seen in video footage of the altercation.
“Stop telling people of color
they’re fucking useless,” a female student demands of Weinstein at one point. You’re useless, get the fuck out of
here,” she adds, saying “fuck you, you piece of shit” as her peers ask
Weinstein for an explanation of his email.
Weinstein attempts to answer--asking
“may I answer that question?”--but the student protesters suddenly decide that
they no longer want his explanation, and respond with a resounding “no!”
“You said some racist shit, can you
apologize,” one protester shouts, to which Weinstein responds by saying “I did
not, I did not,” even noting that he had been in favor of the Day of Absence
event until organizers encouraged white faculty and students to leave campus.
Weinstein’s brother, Eric
Weinstein, took to Twitter to
denounce the “lying mob,” even asserting that “you SJWs targeted the wrong
guy,” noting that “the Left eats its own.”
Weinstein’s continued efforts at
conversing with the protesters proved futile, and the students eventually began
marching through campus and shouting “Hey hey/ho ho/Bret Weinstein has got to
go.”
One protester can even be heard
recruiting fellow students to join the protest by asking them if they “support
black students” and telling them that the protest is “more important” than
their class work.
The protest apparently got so out of
hand that Professor Weinstein reported on Twitter that
the police had warned him that he would not be “safe on campus” because they
could not protect him. “To be clear: the police told me I am not safe on
campus. They cannot protect me. Students in jeopardy. No contact from admin,”
Weinstein wrote.
In another tweet, he alleged that
students defending him have been “singled out” and threatened, posting a screenshot of
an individual who claimed to have the “names and faces of students in Bret’s
class” so that other can “see these faces for your own safety.”
Meanwhile, The Olympian reports that hundreds of students participated in the protest,
which was also partly inspired by “anti-black comments on social media.”
According to a blog post on Liberty Hangout, student Kai-Avé Douvia became “public enemy number one” on
campus after he responded to a post from a peer advocating for the creation of
a class specifically for “black/brown people” to study multiculturalism.
In his response, Douvia had
experimentally reworded the post to replace “black/brown” with “white” in an
effort to demonstrate the post’s racist nature, sparking a backlash on social
media that eventually escalated to public shaming and threats from classmates.
“Rather than respectfully responding
and having civil discourse, I was then threatened and/or insulted by many so
called ‘inclusive activists,’ leading to me to contact the police for
protection,” Douvia writes in his blog on the matter. “This highlights a
massive issue--the left is now mobilizing against itself to push its overused
rhetoric on every free thinker, and if you disagree well, welcome to being
every ‘-ist’ in the book.”
Evergreen State has since
acknowledged the unrest on campus, but gave no indication as to how, or
whether, the administration intends to respond. “It’s been an intense and
useful conversation with a group of students,” spokesperson Zach Powers told
The Olympian.
“The college is working with the
group to address their issues. This type of conversation is being replicated
across the country right now. We remain committed to providing a great
education to all students.”
Comments
The
Evergreen State College is in Olympia Washington with 4100 students including
30% minorities.
Norb
Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader
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