We recently discussed the case of Saida Grundy, an incoming assistant professor of sociology and African-American studies at Boston University who released a series of tweets denounced by many as racist and sexist, including calling white males the main problem on college campuses and admitting how she tries not to buy anything from white people. While many called for Grundy to be fired, some of us defended her racist and sexist comments as an exercise of free speech done outside of her teaching responsibilities. However at the time, I noted “a series of tweets denounced by many as racist and sexist. “White masculinity isn’t a problem for america’s colleges, white masculinity is THE problem for america’s colleges.” Now we have such a case and it does appear to confirm some of our concerns that the same standard is not applied to those with opposing views. Duke University professor Jerry Hough has reportedly been placed on leave after posting comments online that were also denounced as racist. While Grundy was allowed to apologize for “indelicate” comments about whites, Hough is facing calls for termination and has reportedly been put on leave. [UPDATE: there are some stories indicating that Hough may have been on academic leave rather than “put on” academic leave. It is not clear from various reports.]
Hough was commenting on a New York Times editorial titled “How Racism Doomed Baltimore” and included an observation that Asian Americans don’t riot because “they didn’t feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard.” He also wrote that “every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration” compared to “every Asian student [who] has a very simple old American first name.” Just as with Grundy’s comments, it is not necessary to debate the merits of such comments. What is at issue is the right to voice such views outside of the classroom and off campus as a matter of free speech. As with Grundy, these views may also be part of Hough’s academic views as political science teacher. His bio states that “his current research centers on the establishment of the state, identity, markets, and democracy in the United States.”
He later defended his comments and said that “Martin Luther King was my hero” and insisting he is “strongly against the toleration of racial discrimination.”
Duke Vice President for Public Affairs and Government Affairs Michael Schoenfeld released a statement quickly that said that “The comments were noxious, offensive, and have no place in civil discourse.” Boston University was right to treat Grundy’s comments as an exercise of free speech. If Hough has been put on leave, Duke has positioned itself on the other side of the free speech divide and has decided that it will now impose disciplinary action for academics who espouse offensive or obnoxious views outside of the class room. The problem is a lack of a standard that explains where this line. It is not simply a question of what speech will be considered permissible outside of the classroom but how the school will limit principles of academic freedom and free expression under such a standard in both academic writings and classrooms. It is a dangerous and slippery slope. The greatest problem is that the uncertain standard creates a chilling effect on academics, particularly untenured academics in what views will be tolerated. In the academic world, such uncertainty can be devastating and strikes at the very heart of the academic mission.
Here are Hough’s full original comments:
“This editorial is what is wrong. The Democrats are an alliance of Westchester and Harlem, of Montgomery County and intercity Baltimore. Westchester and Montgomery get a Citigroup asset stimulus policy that triples the market. The blacks get a decline in wages after inflation.
But the blacks get symbolic recognition in an utterly incompetent mayor who handled this so badly from beginning to end that her resignation would be demanded if she were white. The blacks get awful editorials like this that tell them to feel sorry for themselves.
In 1965 the Asians were discriminated against as least as badly as blacks. That was reflected in the word “colored.” The racism against what even Eleanor Roosevelt called the yellow races was at least as bad.
So where are the editorials that say racism doomed the Asian-Americans. They didn’t feel sorry for themselves, but worked doubly hard.
I am a professor at Duke University. Every Asian student has a very simple old American first name that symbolizes their desire for integration. Virtually every black has a strange new name that symbolizes their lack of desire for integration. The amount of Asian-white dating is enormous and so surely will be the intermarriage. Black-white dating is almost non-existent because of the ostracism by blacks of anyone who dates a white.
It was appropriate that a Chinese design won the competition for the Martin Luther King state. King helped them overcome. The blacks followed Malcolm X.”
Stop the government programs which pay women to have babies and subsidize their lives thereafter. Period. End Section 8 as we know it. End public housing projects as we know it. We need work gangs. Rebuild roads and bridges– men and women– no discrimination in the work force. Bring us your tired, poor and huddled masses and we will give you a shovel and pay you at the end of the week. Putin does a better job on these matters than our Democracy.
BarkinDog2u wrote: “Stop the government programs which pay women to have babies and subsidize their lives thereafter. Period. End Section 8 as we know it. End public housing projects as we know it. We need work gangs. Rebuild roads and bridges– men and women– no discrimination in the work force. Bring us your tired, poor and huddled masses and we will give you a shovel and pay you at the end of the week… ”
Exactly! Maybe we need someone like President Hoover who did these kinds of programs. Look at the marvel of Hoover Dam. Public works projects are what we need. Instead the government hires contractors who overcharge and line their pockets with the wealth they make doing it.
The African American Studies Program continues to support nuanced conversations inside and outside the classroom about the complex issue of race and look forward to Dr. Grundy’s contributions to that dialogue when she begins teaching in the fall.
Here’s what BU has to say on her faculty page. Of course if this were true they never would have hired a racist whose contribution is hate rather then thought.
Look for another bombshell.
Here’s another excerpt, the cyber bullying complaint is priceless.
However, most troubling was that among the numerous that were serious expressions of dismay were many vile messages, explicitly racist and obscene, that consider cyber-bullying a substitute for frank discussion and freedom of speech.
Wadewilliams says:
1, May 18, 2015 at 5:47 pm
Turley was offended because Hough was ‘reportedly placed on leave’.
Turley got his facts wrong.
Turley is a lousy reporter but a damn good agitator.
———————————————————————————-
WadeW
Turley always gets it just wrong enough to rile up the masses. And he never comes back to correct it. The damage is done from the get go.
He once confused Senegal and the Gambia, one a democracy the other a dictatorship, assigning the former the homophobia of the latter…and as usual the crowd yelled for blood. My request for a correction (being from Senegal and all) was met with the usual silence.
Tin ear
Are you saying you are the typical white in higher education and the blacks you went to school with were the typical blacks?
Paul
Are you saying that the experience of Asians in the US is similar to the experience of Blacks? You can compare Asians to other immigrants like me, from other parts of the world, who lived most of our life outside of the system of oppression and dehumanization that blacks endure, or to whites who never once in their life had to wonder what they white skin would subject them to, but you cannot certainly compare them African Americans.
po – first, not all African Americans were slaves. Not all African Americans have/had the same experience base. So yes, you can compare the experience of the Chinese Americans to the African Americans.
Turley was offended because Hough was ‘reportedly placed on leave’.
Turley got his facts wrong.
Turley is a lousy reporter but a damn good agitator.
TinEar – these assumptions show the inherent flaw in Liberal talking points.
My grandfather left his family at the tender age of 16 because there were too many mouths to feed. He went from job to job among various states, overcame very serious obstacles, and achieved a middle class life.
I remember one of our talks many years ago. He said he didn’t understand this angst young people have agonizing over what career would provide them with the ultimate personal gratification. He said in his day, having a job, any job, was something to be proud of because you provided food and a roof for your family.
Isaac:
“Some one overcoming extraordinary obstacles not of his or her making still equates into a greater achievement than someone who achieves the same reward with the same related abilities who has all the advantages of society.”
Actually, I agree with you on this aspect. The little boy who walks past gang members and drug pushers on his way to and from school everyday, says no to both, studies hard, stays in school, and goes on to become a neurosurgeon has overcome adversity. He did not take the easier path. Such success stories have my respect and admiration.
And then we get to . . .
“You attack a problem from all sides.” Effectively. You try different approaches effectively. You do not continue an unproductive method with the justification that at least you’re doing something. Case in point – lowering the bar just to get more minorities into jobs and college. That gives a message of inferiority that can be internalized and have devastating consequences. Rather, you try something, gauge its effect, and make adjustments.
A lot of destructive public policies have continued far past when they were obviously harmful out of the theory that “at least we’re doing something.”
It is interesting that folks like Issac want to hold onto the myth of blacks in higher education “overcoming extraordinary obstacles” and whites “having all the advantages of society.” He is either living in a fairy tale world or has never attended an elite college. I am white, raised by a single mother who never graduated high school and worked as a hospital cleaning lady. I attended college and law school with blacks whose parents were professionals, and whom, on top of privileged backgrounds, had the benefit of AA. Issac reminds me of the recent remarks of Rauel Castro, who, upon meeting Obama, congratulated him on his success despite his “humble beginnings.” Yes, having a mother who is a Ph.D anthropologist and a father who attended Harvard is certainly humble, at least when you’re black, LOL. I only wish my life had been so humble….
*get to say
How do the white privileged deal with an attack on white privilege? They attack blacks!
How do the white privileged deal with an attack on blacks from white privilege? They agree with it wholeheartedly and cry that they don’t get to stay whatever they want!
Then they blame it on the democrats and on the left!
Personal responsibility,eh?
Get over it, people, get over your persecution complex!
Try as you may, you cannot rewrite history, and history tells us that white men are behind all the ills of the world! The fact that it was not all white men is obvious but will be overlooked by some in order to take umbrage.
Blame Black people as much as you wish, but you cannot take away the fact that whatever ills afflicts the black community is the result of systematic oppression and dehumanization that no other ethnic group in the US went through! Unless you can argue against that, all you are doing is just spitting against the wind.
Po – let’s talk about the dehumanization of the Irish. The English have spent 1000 years enslaving them. Can you say the same about the English and blacks?
bam bam
Yeah, it’s all about the dress code. I should have realized to whom I was communicating. So much for that.
Karen
You attack a problem from all sides. And, whether you live in an idealistic world of supposed to be or the real world, makes a big difference. Some one overcoming extraordinary obstacles not of his or her making still equates into a greater achievement than someone who achieves the same reward with the same related abilities who has all the advantages of society. It is a greater achievement. Whether it should be or not is another issue. Regardless of the person’s political or social values.
issac – it is less of an achievement if they get a head start on everybody else. It is not a greater achievement, then it is cheating the others.
Sooo, the story reads, above:
Here, Mr. Schoenfeld, let me translate that for you!
“The comments were true, and to the point, and we can’t have any of that! It destroys our Leftest narrative of victimology!”
Squeeky Fromm
Girl Reporter
http://www.dukechronicle.com/articles/2015/05/18/breaking-jerry-hough-took-academic-leave-long-new-york-times-comment#.VVpDiXA8KrV
Duke confirms he was already on leave long before this incident happened.
So Duke didn’t discipline him at all. The entire story is a misunderstanding. LOL.
In all probability a reporter called Duke for a comment, was told he was on leave, and the reporter understood a causal connection that wasn’t intended.
Freedom of Speech, Thought (natural, before govt. established), Press, Assembly with the right to private property and to freedom and free enterprise as the “blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,” not to government, as the “pursuit of happiness” with government limited to Justice, Tranquility, Common Defence and Promote General Welfare.
The Founders spoke and wrote clearly. Clearly many people don’t understand those speeches and writings with great and stubborn deliberation.
Duke can do whatever it wants, Presumably, it wants to create wealth and otherwise succeed. Duke has the right to commit enterprise suicide.
America lives with the consequences of freedom. Freedom is the absence of dictatorship. Americans are free to succeed, to fail and to adapt to either result.
The right to private property means the owners of the organization direct the organization including, in the case of a university, curricula, hiring and firing. The government has no constitutional control of the organization, its hiring/firing polices and unconstitutional compulsory affirmative action matriculation of private free enterprise. Free enterprise has its success measured in dollars. The university is run to create wealth. The university’s success depends entirely on the university itself. The government does not operate or otherwise assure the success or failure of the university. The function of government is to assure an environment of freedom and free enterprise.
________________________
“W”-WORD?
You used the “W”-word again. Exactly when did Americans become “white.” If insulting Americans is acceptable, is it again acceptable for people to use the n-word? One man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. One man’s insult is another man’s compliment? Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Americans are precisely that, Americans. Those who aren’t Americans may use a hyphen and modifier.
So, who put on the story that he was “put on leave”? Has his leave been extended by Duke?
Inga – he is probably on sabbatical.
It was fun to call up the road to the office of the Duke President and give my spiel, which included that political correctness is a cancer on this counry, and have person on the other end say, “I’m a student assistant and I can’t say much but I agree with you.” So I told him to speak up!
Several news outlets—who did not carefully vet this story—ran with a version of this headline: “Duke Professor on Leave After Posting Racially-Charged Comments.” (That was Time.)
Hough is on academic leave, but this was pre-planned and began before he posted his comment.
“It’s incorrect to say he was placed on leave as a result of this,” Keith Lawrence, a spokesperson for Duke, told Reason. “He was already on leave.”
Apparently the “put on leave” comment is not quite accurate. From Reason.